The Equinox

 

A magical time? Are we affected by the way the earth rotates?  Are there customs and rituals associated with this? Could you invent a few? How does the change in light affect you? Is the season changing as well?

Write an article, poem, script or story about this time.

Article ideas

Discuss the pros and cons of changing the clocks.  

Look at people’s need for sunlight.

Research some of the rituals to do with this time of year. What about the autumnal equinox as well? And the longest day and the shortest day?

What else?

Poem ideas

Take a walk and then make notes about what you’ve seen, heard, felt, tasted and smelt.  Build a poem on this.

Can you write an ode to the spring?

What about the sunrise or sunset on this day?

Script ideas

Go back in time and show a story about something changing on the day for an ancient civilisation. .

The garden needs some attention but no one is willing to do it. Write about how one household solves this dilemma.

Set your story at Stonehenge. What causes conflict this time?

Story ideas

How does the equinox bring hope in your story?

Write something from an animal’s point of view.

Create a dramatic monologue form the point of view of an experienced gardener.        

The Strike

 

Write an article, poem, script or story about a strike. You may like to look at an historic one.  Remember the Welsh slate miners or the coal miners. What about the emergency services? Or teachers?  Have you ever been on strike? Or what about a strike in an unusual place? You might even write about being affected by someone else being on strike.

 

Articles

This is plenty of scope for articles here. And within articles plenty of angles. Who is striking, and why.  Is it justified?  What will be the repercussions for the people on strike? How will it affect others?      

 

Poetry

What’s it like being on a picket line?  Is there an opportunity here to write with the senses? What about making up a marching song for the people who are protesting?

 

Script

If you’ve researched some of the historic ones, could you write a screen play or stage play? Remember for scripts you’re not in the head of the characters.  That’s more the job of the actor, novelist or short story writer. Can you bring some comedy into it? Do you remember The Rag Trade? And the cry of “Everybody out”?

 

Ficiton

Could you write the story form an unusual viewpoint.  Maybe that of a child? Or of one of the bosses who is secretly sympathetic? Or the partner of one of the strikers? If there is an unruly situation maybe you could write the story of a police officer involved in sorting out the chaos.