It’s been another time of consecutive busynesses, some challenging, some enjoyable, and one a sad occasion of saying goodbye to my oldest friend. By oldest friend, I mean I’ve known him since I was six months old and he was probably six days. I will save those stories for another time, and instead share a tale of the challenge I faced last Saturday, a writing challenge like no other I’ve experienced, and when I say challenging, I mean CHALLENGING!
I came across an announcement for The 3 Peaks Writing Challenge from https://www.new2thescene.co.uk/
On Saturday 26th October, at 9 a.m., participants will receive an email with an opening line for a short story. They will have until midnight to write three original stories, from three opening lines, one at a time, to complete the 3 Peak Writing Challenge.
- Each story must be 3000 words (minimum)
- Each story must start with the opening line provided
- Each story must be original and the participant’s own work
- Each story must be submitted via email before the next opening line is released
- The total permitted length of time is 15 hours for all 3 stories
That equals 600 words an hour, for 15 hours, without a break…!
You may have heard of another 3 Peaks Challenge to climb the three highest mountains in three nations of the, UK- Scafell Pike in England, Snowden in Wales and Ben Nevis in Scotland in a specified time, usually three days. This writing challenge as you can see from the details above, does not involve any physical activity but is certainly mentally challenging.
I sat at my computer and waited for the first challenge to be emailed to me, my eye on the time to make sure once I received it and started, I finished in the three hours. #1 arrived – the opening line of a story: “The surf lapped my face, licking me into consciousness. I raised my head and brought a layer of beach with it. How had I ended here?” I read it through, and felt fairly positive, and after a few moments, got writing. I imagined the beach being somewhere in Norfolk, partly because I am very familiar with Norfolk beaches, but also it could be an empty and deserted place where someone might end up, or be washed up, without anyone raising the alarm that they were lying there semiconscious.
The first five hundred or so words were taken up with the person becoming fully conscious, but still muddle- headed, getting up and eventually staggering towards some sheltering sand dunes. The next chunk was the person remembering who she was and gradually beginning to recall some previous events which had preceded her being in the sea. Although it still isn’t clear what had happened to her, the back story begins to be filled in although she still doesn’t know where she is. She leaves the dunes and goes back to the beach to see if anything else has been washed ashore, but finds nothing. She realises she must try and find help, and heads back through the dunes to set off looking for someone who can assist her.
Phew! I did that one! My kind husband brought me regular coffee, and when I’d submitted the first part of the challenge, I had a break. Back to work, and the second one arrived, and boy – was that challenging indeed!
‘When does the future begin? Is it personal, a crossing of boundaries from one state to another, from youth to adulthood, like a butterfly emerging from a pupa? Is it tomorrow, and can never be entered, a horizon on a curved world? Or was it the invention of the hydrogen engine, now cheaper than a car and enabling the populous to fly, that made this the future?’
Good heavens!!! How the heck can I write about that??? I might be able to offer some personal thoughts on the first parts of the question – but I know nothing about hydrogen engines, cars and what developments might be made in the future! But a challenge is a challenge, and after rereading and reading again I worked out a strategy. I broke the challenge into separate questions, starting with a ‘debate’ about what was meant by the word future, then I worked though, answering them, mostly with concrete examples:
- Crossing boundaries:
- From one state to another:
- From youth to adulthood:
- A butterfly emerging from a pupa
- Tomorrow (i)
- Tomorrow (ii)
- The invention of the hydrogen engine
- When does the future begin? Is it personal?
Gosh, I did slog with that one! In the end I was very pleased with what I had managed to do, because it’s not my usual way or content of writing.
The third challenge, thankfully, seemed more straightforward to my weary brain and flagging inspiration: ‘Do the dead know they are dead? And if so, what did that make her?’ Fiction again, hurrah! But not the sort of stories I would write! I had a real think, and then started tentatively, imagining a group of women, friends from childhood, who had an annual holiday together. One of them was ill, and became delirious. She was thinking of an incident in her childhood, and uttered the line about the dead.
I slogged my way through this creepy story, trying to develop the characters of the different women, and trying to give their backstory. I wanted to suggest what might have happened when they were very young, which most of them only vaguely remembered. To be honest, I wasn’t very happy with it, and despite padding it out, in the end, once it was submitted I discovered it was half a dozen words short of the target 3,000. When I have recovered from this marathon, I will go back to it, and tidy it up and make it something I’m more pleased with!
It was an interesting exercise, and if it happens again I will seriously think about entering. Now I have to think whether I can face teh annual writing challenge of the National Novel Writing Month – 50,000 words in November!
Lois Elsden 