Our lives are incredibly rich even if we think they are boring and even if we feel relatively locked down still. Charles Dickens examined the minutiae of daily life. Vivienne Dockerty mines family history to bring us highly dramatic historical fiction. Soaps like EastEnders, Coronation Street and The Archers delight because they feature the everyday – even though they are enriched with melodrama.
Look back over the last week and record an incident from each day as an article, poem, story or script. They can be really short. Or you might want to pick just one and work it up into a longer piece.
Here are my examples:
Day 1 – fell asleep after lunch. Short article about the luxury of a siesta
Day 2 – cleaner talked football with OH. Article about how football rules us.
Day 3 – last of the special gin samples I was given for my birthday. Poem about this one or all of them.
Day 4 – fascinated by a TV programme about family histories. Short story about someone finding their natural parents.
Day 5 – Valentine’s Day. Short story about how a couple break their Valentine’s ritual of some fifty years.
Day 6 – failed Zoom meeting – only two out of five of us showed up. Script about a main character that doesn’t turn up to his own party. Everybody talks about him. He walks in right at the end. A bit like Waiting for Godot only Godot turns up.
Day 7 OH is back from his curry club meeting by 8.30. I hear the front door open and I’m expecting a burglar. There is another explanation. This is already a short story.
How does anyone ever run out of ideas? It’s good to go off at a tangent sometimes as well. This is one way of doing that.
Have fun.
