Leap!

At our next writing group meeting we will be sharing our pieces written with the word ‘leap’ as a title or as inspiration. Leap is quite an ordinary word meaning jump and i guess it was suggested because we are in a leap year. Leap years are so called, according to Wikipedia because it ‘possibly relates to the phenomenon that any fixed date of a 365-day calendar advances one weekday each year but every date of a 366-day year after February 29th’. Leap came into common use about 1200, and derives from the Old English word hleapan  which not unexpectedly means to jump. I think it was a particular type of jumping, a springing sort of a jump, which you would do suddenly and energetically, especially if you were getting on or off something, or dancing. fit originated from maybe Old Saxon, Old Norse , Old Frisian , Old High German, or from a source of all of these, or maybe no-one actually knows for certain!

I have an idea for what I am going to write – and have got as far as writing the first line. The inspiration came from a trip I went on with my other writing group, where we visited Deer Leap in Somerset, which has stunning views across the county, 800 feet up in the Mendip Hills. From there you can see as far as Exmoor, and also Glastonbury – on a clear day. The day my friends and I decided to go it was so foggy we could barely see each other. We had an enjoyable time standing in the mist, imagining what we might have seen, and then decamped in search of tea and a bun.

The leap I am going to write about is an imaginary place, nothing to do with where we went, and a far more rocky and dramatic lookout, but it will be about three people who climb up to have a look at a great view. One is Geoff, another is Len or maybe Glen and there is an at present unnamed narrator. I no longer share my stories here as I am trying to enter more writing competitions, and many stipulate that entries should be unpublished. Sharing here counts as publishing! However, I will report back and share a summary of what I wrote, and maybe a few notes on what the clever writers in the group imagined.

PS obviously our next meeting is on February 29th!