My mum is one of life’s grafters. She grew up in a different era when people did the best they could with what they had, as rationing formed a dominant part of her formative years. My mum cares for each and every member of her family by ‘doing.’However, I grew up in a large family, in a time of plenty.
And I don’t think I’m the same as her. I've little desire to do ‘tasks or chores’ that don’t directly benefit my welfare.
I would much rather sit down and write, capture the essence of a day, explore the feelings that drive one specific emotion and its resulting actions.
When I observe people I pick up on nuances and comments.
When I overhear a comment, “you mean I've got to make sandwiches every day for your lunch” did trigger a direct response for a short story. I knew immediately who these characters were, ‘new retirees’ and as yet it remains unpublished.
To me a short story should capture a moment in time and not necessarily have a beginning, a middle and an end. Perhaps this view is contentious.
I find newspapers often provide a rich seam for ideas that inspire me to write. A few years ago a man stood accused of poisoning his wife. This article made me think. Why did he want to poison her? I could understand how a woman might poison her partner but this article showed life from a different point of view.
I wanted to get inside ‘his’ head and work out what had pushed him to take such drastic action. It led to a short story called: Poisonous Thoughts. I wrote this story as the reason behind his actions. To this day I still wonder about his wife and daughter because I presume I could taste mercury in my tea… couldn’t I?
Of course there’s two more stories still waiting to be written, one from the wife’s perspective and then the other from their daughter.
Where does you draw inspiration from for your writing?
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