WriTING my Way Through Lockdown.
‘Cause the Writing’s on the Wall.
pop quiz: the lyric above is from what song and artist? clue: my brother by other parents, spies a ghost.
WriTING Task Four: As a beginning use the sentence structure “You said…” Write a small piece of flash fiction, no more than 250 words with 4/5 paragraphs.
As those of you who have read more than one of my blog articles will suspect: I quite like writing. So, with lockdown rules putting paid any plans for a ski trip this side of ‘sometime never’, I signed up to an online writing course.
It may surprise you to know that I haven’t written anything before where I’ve made it up. All my writing comes from facts and research and my opinions of it; to write something completely made-up, that’s a first for me.
The course was online and twice a week, for eight weeks, we were set a writing task. Sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes odd. None were compulsory, but being someone who tends towards ‘completer/finisher’, I generally went for quantity over quality and tackled them all.
Here’s one…
The first writing task set that could be completely fiction. I struggled for awhile as the opening “You said…” suggested conflict between two people to me. I was determined not to go down this route!
My WriTING Effort:
Switzerland is not Just for Skiing.
You said yes. I said yes. We both said yes to every question the man in the white coat asked, and we were both ready to go.
Five years earlier, sat opposite each other, eating pizza and drinking a particularly good bottle of red wine we’d agreed: When we were 80, we’d do it.
Five years to spend all our money. 5 years to make sure everything on the bucket list was ticked off. Five more years to keep our health, so that: When we were 80, we’d do it.
We’d had a fabulous life together, but weren’t quite done yet. Equity release was secured on the house, all our assets were liquidated and our affairs in order. We were ready for our penultimate adventure, and then: When we were 80, we’d do it.
We were 100% sure we didn’t want to end up in an old folks’ home, sat in a Parker Knoll, watching Countdown and peeing ourselves, so: When we were 80, we’d do it.
No kids to leave anything to. No kids to look after us when we couldn’t. It made perfect sense: When we were 80, we’d do it.
Sat opposite each other, eating pizza and drinking a particularly good bottle of red wine we agree: We are 80, let’s do it.
Give the man in the white coat the nod, we’re ready to go.
(229 words)
pop trivia: ‘Sam Smith’ co-wrote and performed ‘Cause the Writings on the Wall‘ as the Bond theme for 2015’s outing, ‘Spectre’. The single made it to number 1. Who knows when we are going to see Bond’s next outing.
The writing course was called Zoom with a Brew, if you’d like to read more of my efforts, they can be found here. East Midlands Arts funded the course and created a website containing the submitted work of all the writers.
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