Thursday 11 August 2011

Writing to cure the Boredom


So I have been writing this story, out of pure boredom at work because business is very slow at the moment now that the schools are off. I came across a creative writing website that had a free e-book called “30 days of inspiration”. I have written day 1, which says “Your character moves into a new apartment. On the surface, the place seemed ideal, but his/her first night there, your character discovers a terrible problem with the place that he/she didn't take into account”.
So it is not a terrible problem, but it is a problem all the same!

Just an empty shell. The walls are bare, as is the floor, the doors, the windows and the kitchen cupboards. It’s hard to imagine that this shell once was home to a family. It was once alive with laughter, joy, love and happiness. This place must hold a thousand memories; the first Christmas, the first word, the first day at school. So many important life milestones that I too will hopefully reach.
This place needs some life injecting into it again, after being abandoned for months and that is exactly what I plan to do. I want to make this place come alive, and give it more happy memories and good times.  I stand there, taking in the living room/come diner and picture myself with my friends on the sofa, a bottle of wine, a stupid movie and cheesy music. We aren’t really paying attention to it, as we are joking about the night before. I look over to the dining room, where I see my fiancé and myself talking over a romantic meal, smiling, giggling. Yes, I can see this place becoming the home I have always wanted.
     A loud bang disturbs my thoughts. I turn around to see my fiancé red faced and sweating, with a very large box labelled “books” at his feet.
“That is the only box with books in it isn’t it?”
“Erm, no. There is about 5 more” I say with a worried smirk.
Ethan rolls his eyes, shrugs his shoulders and walks back outside sighing and shaking his head. I can sort of understand, I mean, these things must be heavy. Very heavy. But he did know about my love of books when he saw my very large bookshelf full of them on our 4th date. So he should have been prepared for this really.
    I walk around the ground floor, and go into the kitchen and the second lounge (or dining room). I venture upstairs, to the top floor and go into the master bedroom. It’s huge. When I saw this house at the initial viewing, it was this bedroom that grabbed me. Love at first sight. It’s a cliché, but in this case, it is true. It has a sort of bigger than it looks air about it. It is in the loft and it is split into 3 sections, without actually having a wall between them.
    The part of the room where the bed goes is the main section, where the ceiling goes to a point, and has a gorgeous chandelier hanging from it. On either side of the main part is a smaller nook with a slanted ceiling. On the left section, is a small corridor leading to this little room. Perfect for a wardrobe I thought. On the right, in the corner of the room near the entrance, is an arch way that leads to the other section. This seemed to have been used as another wardrobe by the previous owners, with rails hanging down from the ceiling and small hooks that probably held a mirror. To me though, this will be my study. My little piece of me. It’s perfect for a desk, a small bookshelf and a small armchair.
 I walk in, and notice something that wasn’t in the room before; a small square crack on the far wall. I crouch down and do a silly little clown walk over to it, squinting my eyes at this monstrosity that I can’t believe I didn’t see at the viewing. Kneeling opposite it now, it is not a crack. It’s an opening in the shape of a square. It looks like it might have been a window, now bricked up. It will just have to be filled in, I think.
    The sunset is beautiful here; it was a lucky dip choosing a place that has a perfect view of the sun setting from the spare second room. A box sits in the middle of the room for a table, and we sit either side, eating spaghetti on toast, watching the spectacular light show in the sky. After it’s gone and the light fades to a deep blue, Ethan picks up our empty plates, kisses me on the head and heads to the kitchen. I look around the room. It looks different at night. It looks like a prison cell it’s so plain and bare. The possibilities that it contained have been washed away with the sun, leaving a dull, lifeless room. I start to get up, when, something stops me dead. The corner of the ceiling is wet. There is water dripping down the walls. I’m sure it wasn’t there earlier.
“Abbey, it’s raining. So much for our night walk around the town”.
Rain. The rain is coming into our house through that corner.
“Ethan, we have a problem. It’s raining in our house.”

I have to write day 2 as well which says “Write a story that includes: a tombstone, a first kiss, and a butterfly collection…”

I’ll get on that today.




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