Once again, I have to apologise for the weird layout of this post, WordPress has changed the way you can organise and present your page!
I had a very pleasant afternoon discussing writing, annoying pigeons, books, writing competitions, and so on while drinking coffee with the writer Fenja Hill. We were talking about how annoying it is when we have brilliant writing ideas and they evaporate before we can jot them down. I try to record them on my phone – as written notes, but maybe i should record them as voice notes, although like many people I never like the sound of my own voice. Looking at that last sentence, the end comment might be debated – ‘liking the sound of your own voice‘ can be a negative!
My most recent list included overheard fragments of conversation, two notes about my friend Andrew Simpson’s blog, a comment on social media and random phrases which came into my head.
So here’s a list of my most recent notes:
- ~ Andrew’s blog: On Edge Street in 1969, waiting for something to happen: https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/03/on-edge-street-in-1969-waiting-for.html
- ~ There’s always an ulterior motive if you look for it
- ~ It’s certainly the place for sunsets!
- ~ There are many ways to do it
- ~ Killing done one
- ~ Why would I lie to you?
- ~ Lost in the way
- ~ “And I thought, fuck it! Let’s go!!!”
- ~ Andrew’s blog again: Night Soil Men https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2020/03/mr-gratrixs-clay-pipe-lost-in-our.html
As you can see, it’s a strange list, and what might I write from it? Well, you can have a look at Andrew’s blogs which intrigued me, I could write about something happening on Edge Street, and I could do some research and write about night soil men, or ‘the midnight mechanics’ as they were also called. The other eight notes could be the title of a story, or maybe the inspiration for one.
“There’s always an ulterior motive if you look for it” strikes me as the sort of thing someone might say when they are about to tell a story – maybe it’s in a bar, or a pub, and drinks have been drunk and it’s late, and a conversation starts from a random thought (as so often happens) and a story is going to be told. What sort of story? Is it going to be a confession of something which seemed inexplicable at the time, a crime, an affair, a fight? – Might that lead to “Killing done one” or maybe “KIlling? Done one!”
“It’s certainly a place for sunsets!” could be people on holiday, sitting on a terrace with a drink and looking west as the sun sinks as if into the sea. Or maybe they have met up with a stranger, who uses this to start a conversation and then tells of some terrible happening which took place in this seemingly lovely place, murder maybe – “There are many ways to do it!” Maybe the holiday people expressed surprise, to which the stranger replies “Would I lie to you?” Or maybe there’s no chatty stranger but one of the couple challenges the other about something they suspect – an affair? Dishonesty? Cheating at golf?
And “... Let’s go!” – friends are sitting in the pub one afternoon and see an advert for a holiday in Greece and full of unexpected excitement decide to buy tickets, grab their passports, grab their toothbrushes, grab a passing taxi and go to the airport. Actually that did happen to me, three of us spontaneously caught a flight to Crete!
Of course, a real challenge would to be include all these notes in one story!
A link to Fenja’s work:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Fenja-Hill/author/B07DJQCC8D
Lois Elsden 