Still pondering

So… thinking about a monologue… yes, still pondering on our writing challenge, and I guess I’m thinking about it because it’s an interesting challenge. Many of the topics chosen for our writing group are – without boasting, things I could write with my eyes shut. Well, obviously I couldn’t actually write it with my eyes shut, my hand writing is pretty shocking at the best of times, and my keyboard skills are erratic. I write a lot of short stories, so I’m continually practising doing it, whereas some of the group write once a month for the meeting. I should have started writing here today by explaining that the next topic for our writing group is to write a monologue.

I’ve been doing some research as well as a lot of thinking about what and how I might write it. The first and very obvious thing I pondered on, was that a monologue has an audience – so who will be my audience, who am I addressing? My self – and who am I? Is it another silent character? An audience or group of people – and if so who are they?

Back to basics: a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character. And what is the point? – to reveal internal thoughts, advance the plot, or provide backstory.

I will have to include a context and maybe background or history within what my monologue, so the audience i.e the writing group, has a clue about what I mean as a character, and what my content means.

Maybe because I’ve been thinking a lot about writing about my past, not necessarily an autobiography, but writing more stories from my life, I should use a real event or memory. I feel as if I’ve seen far fewer birthdays than I really have, in actual fact I am getting on a bit, there have been quite a lot – no a great many Christmases and I have seen in an awful lot of New Years.

So… monologue. I imagine myself with my cousin who is one year and a few days younger than me. Her mum was my mum’s sister, and they were so close they were almost like twins. I imagine reminiscing with my cousin, and thinking back to when we were very young children. Our grandparents lived in the little village of Harston, several miles outside Cambridge, and my cousin lived with her parents and baby brother almost opposite their house. We lived on the other side of town and had no car, the only way to visit was if we went on the bus, or we were put on mum and dad’s bike seats and they peddled us over! Luckily they did just that so we were able to see grandma, grandpa, and my cousins. Maybe my monologue will be reminiscing about our time together…

Or maybe childhood reminiscences won’t be of great interest to my fellow writers. Maybe I should think of something a little less cosy!!

My featured image is of my grandparents and my mum with the cat, and my two aunties, at their home in Harston