Ideas for a Story

There was a small delay before I could get to this activity. Mostly because the starter was meant to be turning on a radio and basing either a short story or beginning of a story off of the first thing we heard. Well I have just opened the BBC sounds app to a story about the difficulties people are facing managing to keep work forces running when they are pinged by the NHS Test & Trace app. I've immediately changed this to a lateral flow test. I don't know if that was cheating, but I was immediately struck by a joke I've made a few times about the line system being like pregnancy tests. And it was this image and missing out on work that I wanted to base this exercise on. 


Donna grunted and then sighed in disbelief. Two lines. Two red lines. Not too long ago a similar set of lines had been the cause of wondrous news and celebration. How was she going to tell Stacey? Checking her watch Donna knew Stacey was at home, feet up watching Countdown. Since going on maternity leave Stacey had become an avid watcher of the show and Donna had loved watching her puzzle out an anagram with a cup of tea balanced on her bump. When Donna wasn't away on shift that is. It was about to happen a lot more. 

Wiping the dampness from the corner eye as she sniffed, idly wondering if it was from emotion or rubbing a stick on her tonsils, Donna started adding up imagined bills in her mind. There was still so much to get before their child arrived. She was planning on getting the cot this weekend. But that wasn't feeling possible now. Feeling her heart beat in panic, Donna dragged her auburn fringe up her head under the heel of her palm as she stared at the lateral flow test in her hand, the white plastic starkly contrasted next to her black nail polish. 

She considered dropping the test into her bag and forgetting about it. Just get into the truck cab and set about her deliveries for the day. Only briefly, but she did consider it before dismissing it and feeling her cheeks flush with guilt. Not that her colleagues at the depot would notice against her dark skin. No she would have to take this now. If this was found out she’d lose her job and while a few missed trips over to Ireland would hurt, it wouldn’t damage the bank balance as losing the income altogether. 

She closed her eyes briefly as she reached for her phone and steeled herself for the conversation. Donna hated being the bearer of bad news. During the couple of months she’d been signed off last year her counsellor had pointed out that she felt pressure to not feel like a burden and kept a mask of positivity, trying to buy her acceptance by others, that she had kept up long since her refugee status and eventual citizenship had been made official.

There was a click of a nail on glass as Donna tapped the name at the top of her recent calls. It wasn’t that long since she’d hung up from Stacey when she’d arrive at the depot for work. she began speaking before walking out the room.

“Babe…”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Character Sketch

 I found even the title of this activity an interesting prospect. While I have obviously read a lot of book in my time, and had had a bash at writing something in the not too distant pass, I hadn't come across these character introductions and descriptions being called sketches. While I was writing the second of my book I already have I had taken the decision to try and avoid having anything that was a large character description or introduction. Instead I was planning on slipping in small character notes through the story as they felt relevant as this felt more organic.  In the character sketch I did for the course I did use one of the character's (the main character for the book) to build the sketch. I was aware I still wanted to try and stick to my choice to avoid anything that felt like it was too 'exposition-y' and so have tries to make all the details that are mentioned tied to some piece of activity or action in the scene. I do quite like the outcome, so I din...
Read more

Imagining Writing Spaces

 The course is talking about writing rituals and building those up. I find it so bizarre that they're called rituals, for me the word has a strange spiritual tone. Like you're putting together the pieces of a spell or ceremony with the idea of the things you put into place then summon the writing into being. That the story is already out there waiting for you to call it forth into the world from some other dimension. Perhaps that is how it feels for some. I suppose when I was getting into the flow state of writing it does feel  somewhat akin to that. But I don't know if thinking of it as a ritual adds a superstitious element for me rather than thinking of writing as a skill and craft that you practice. I am aware I am saying this as someone with a grand total of zero published works. But, hey, I wrote like a fifth of a first draft. That's got to count for something? No you say? You're probably right. However for this activity we were to write about what we felt woul...
Read more

Fact and Fiction

 For this exercise we were challenged to write two paragraphs. One should contain 3 factual and 1 fictitious elements and a second with the ratio inverted. I found that by just thinking of something from my own personal experience for both and then twisting a different number of things was the easiest approach but here's what I have come up with. I'm not going to say which is which paragraph; I'll leave it to you to guess. I am vainly saying that like anyone will ever read this, or indeed be bothered to have a guess.  She stood at the top of the stairs, peering down at the front door. It would be about an hour till it opened again when he came home. As she watched, the conversation they’d had replayed over in her head yet again. She teetered on the top step, wondering what he’d feel, if he’d feel, if she were at the foot instead when he got home. ~| |~ The sky flashed angrily over head, followed shortly afterward by growing growl that bashed at the ears. But even the storm ...
Read more