Day 30 - The day my dad drowned the school!

Day 30 now. Woo hoo!

So there is some truth to this story. When I was about six my mother came to my primary school and made sugar mice with us. It's one of my most enduring memories from my childhood. Mostly I think because I was so proud that my mum was doing something at school. It felt like she was really important, not just to me but to others as well. It felt like she was a rock star. Though unlike my story the sugar mice we made never came alive. Mores the pity. So that is where the idea of the story came from I just injected a bit of fantasy to make it more exciting. Plus I liked the idea of it being Florence's hapless, but well meaning father being responsible for trying to make sugar mice.

Anyway this is a short post as its 11.15, my hair is wet and I need to get up at 6am tomorrow. The next four days are going to be a real test of my endurance, speed, creativity, stamina and sanity. Can I get through it? Come back on Monday and find out.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 29 - The Tuesday effect

I had to dig deep to get into this one. I've never had an imaginary friend so can't speak from experience but I do know what it's like to move from place to place as a child and have to connect with new kids, who have already formed friendships and cliques, and get to know a new place, new country and new accents. It was that and my own sense of hard-nosed independence that allowed me to get into the heads of both Bobby and her mother. I guess there's a part of me in both of them.

Originally my idea was to have the mother and daughter reminisce over memorabilia from the daughter's life and that moving home wouldn't change who she was or that she wouldn't loose a part of her life, her identity but as I started to write it a much darker element crept in that I hadn't anticipated and the story took a completely different route. Sometimes I like that but when it's unexpected and when another story has already been fleshed out a story it makes the writing process that much more challenging. But then if writing wasn't challenging why would we bother to do it.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 28 - The 49ers

So this one was a little evolutionary. The premise didn't come immediately but it did come strongly and I've come to realise that when they do that is when I have a solid story to tell.

I thought about a story where a girl catches a thief and when I started to research juvenile crime I found an interesting statistic that 'shoplifters get caught about once every 49 times they steal'. The story and the two characters Catherine and Lloyd evolved from there.

I knew I wanted to base the story on denial of identity as it's a subject I can in some way relate to so decided to have a character who struggles with the idea of being different whilst the other is desperate to be different. Really its all about acceptance of who you are but when you're a kid you don't accept yourself. You always want to be the other girl in the class, the prettier one, the more popular one, the more intelligent one, the sportier one. We're never truly happy with ourselves until we accept who we are.

Anyway its up and ready to read. Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 27 - The Clockmaker's apprentice

This story popped into my head as I was staring into space wondering what to write. It wasn't fully fleshed out, but I had the idea of a boy that turns back time by making a watch tick backwards.

I kept seeing the story set in Victorian times but I didn't want it to become a cliche Dickensian style fantasy so I opted to let the reader decide where and what time period they want to set it in. I thinks it enhances the readers own experience if they can inject a little imagination of their own into the story.

I did find the structure of this story a little challenging particularly as I had to try and map the reversal of Mr Chivers's life whilst the rest of the world continued to turn with time. And also I had to reverse Mr Chivers's speech as well. At first I hoped there would be a program on the web that would do that for me, as there always seems to be, but in the end had to type the speech out the right way round and then retype it backwards.

Another tip I have, which I have used for stories before, is soap crayons. Every writer should have a packet of soap crayons. I couldn't function without them as I'm aways coming up with ideas or ways to resolve issues when I'm in the shower, and being able to write on my tiles is ideal, especially as my memory is short.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 26 - Dodgers

The idea for this story came to me on my way to Starbucks this morning. I had no idea what I was going to write and as I drove from my parents house to St Andrews I passed a familiar sight (which will come as no surprise to any country-dweller): a dead rabbit on the road side. All I could see what its fluffy, white behind stick up off the road. That's when I got to thinking about a daredevil bunny, an adrenalin junkie (or bunkie perhaps). I thought though that the idea of a brash character getting its comeuppance was a little trite so the idea of a sibling coming to its rescue and realising it had something within him that could bring him out of the stalemate of his life was really appealing. It's funny though as whilst I'm writing this post I've realised that that is exactly what this whole project is doing for me. It's bringing me out of the stalemate of my life. A case of art imitating life, me thinks!

Anyway the writing of this one was a little harder as I had to keep reminding myself that I was writing it from the perspective of an animal that doesn't know what he's observing, like the 'beasts with eyes'. So as a consequence I did more editing to this one than with the others. But I'm happy with it now. I hope you are too!

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 25 - A slice of Sky

Interestingly the plot for this story came from the title. It doesn't usually work that way round as normally you come up with your title after you've written, or at least that is how it is with me. However, on this ocassion, whilst I was walking the dog yesterday through a fine mist of rain, I noticed a faint rainbow in the sky. As I walked through the trees the line 'a slice of sky' jumped into my head. I liked it but instantly saw the word 'sky' not as a noun but as a name, a person. That got me then thinking about a slice of a person and what that would be. Skin perhaps? Yes, and from there I thought about skin grafts and the whole idea of a gothic horror about a skin graft gone wrong crystalised. I think that premise took me approx sixty seconds to come up with. Maybe my fastest yet, or maybe not actually. I think Rebel with a cause took all of ten seconds. Anyway I liked getting into the nitty gritty of this story and was particularly keen to tell it from the point of view of his friend rather than him. I thought it was a more uncommon angle for story telling and I'm all for doing things outside of the box.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook

Day 24 - The peril of pop

I had this idea a while ago. I honestly don't know where the premise came from, it just appeared in my head 'a girl who drinks so much pop she explodes'. Of course as its a kids book I couldn't have her completely explode as she'd died, but pop like a balloon I figured would be doable. I don't always intend these to come out in a moralistic way but sometimes short stories lend themselves to morals/fables.

Anyway this was just a quicky as two stories were produced today. I'm at a graduation ceremony for a family member today so to keep me on schedule I've up the production for today to two stories. My bum has never been so sore from sitting in one place for so long. It's just as well I have an attention seeking dog to get me off my butt every now and again.

Enjoy

The Imaginary Scrapbook