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 Ten: Select two objects, one you’ve used more during lockdown and one you’ve used less. Starting a piece of writing with “‘He/she put the suitcase on the bed and finally opened it. Inside there were two objects …”.

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…
I chose knitting needles as the thing I’d used most and our Porsche keys as the thing I’d used less.

My WriTING Effort:

Someone Saved My Life Tonight.

He put the suitcase on the bed and finally opened it. Inside there were two objects; the two objects he needed right now.

“Hey Google, play Elton John playlist”

As he pulled out the knitting needles, he could just manage to hold the wool between his fingers; knit two, purl two, knit two, purl two, knit two…

…Oh no, no, no, I'm a rocket man.
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone…

Jayden never knew his Dad and his Mum was always at work; never noticing the bruises on his arms or the fact that his trousers were always ripped. Every day he’d run home from school, taking a different route, trying to outsmart them. Today he’d mis-judged it.

His wrist was already starting to bruise. But, just like his hero, knitting was his solace. The world is a much brighter place when you can wear a stripy tank top!

Lying back on his bed, Jayden closed his eyes as he toyed with Elton John’s very own Porsche 911 key; the genuine article that he’d bought on e-Bay.

If Reginald Dwight could become Elton John, Jayden Kelly could become Zach Dee. He wasn’t ‘Smelly Kelly’, he was Zach Dee; his name in lights on the Vegas strip.

…You know, I'm still standing, better than I ever did.
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid.
I'm still standing after all this time,
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind.

I'm still standing. Yeah, yeah, yeah…

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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