All prompts based on the short story "Wants" by Grace Paley. An unusual week given that it focused on prose rather than poetry. The speed writes were based on gathering ideas rather than on producing anything creative per-se.
Speed writes
1. Bad advice my dad/mum gave me about aging
My parents were convinced that the right thing to do was getting on the housing ladder ASAP.
In early 2007 they were pushing me to buy saying that the price was only going one way.
I held off, not believing that the growth was sustainable, then the credit crunch happened.
I bought my house in 2010. It's the only time I've made a genuinely good financial decision.
2. 5 things you want
Me and my wife to live forever
An ADHD diagnosis / medication or just for it to go away
A chinese takeaway
To get some points in the writing competition I did over the weekend
To be paid a good wage to do something I'm passionate about.
3. Wrong reasons only – why did the relationship end
The cat didn't like them
They had opinions which were TRASH
They were part of the royal family and they got ordered to get rid of me before I spoiled everything
They hated my knees
They broke my camera
4. Awkward places to encounter an ex
At their wedding
At your wedding
At the GUM clinic
In a police station (where one of you is the police and one is very much not)
In your wardrobe
Main Writing Exercise
20 mins to write a short story / scene about someone bumping into their ex somewhere awkward and having a conversation
-------------------------------------------------------
"Well! Of all the gin joints in all the world!"
The voice came from behind me. I was standing by the desk. Well, I was standing behind the line in front of the desk, while the heavy set woman with the stern face listed my possessions on a form and dropped them into a bag. One wallet, brown. One bunch of keys on a carabiner. One small folding knife, one cigar in a tube, one lighter. I turned my head to look towards the words and there she stood with a smirk on her face, her uniform as ruffled as it always had been after a long day at the station, the handcuffs glinting on her belt in the sickly green artificial light.
"Hello Joanna", I said. "It's been a while."
"It has hasn't it. I did not expect to come across you in here. Well, I suppose I did given all the stuff you were into back in the day, but given how much time has passed I figured maybe you'd given up all that stuff. Is that what they've got you in for? Possession?"
She walked around behind the desk and squinted at the monitor screen.
"Ooh drink driving. That's classy."
I looked down then met her gaze. "I only had two. I'm sure the blood test will clear me. I'll be out of here before you know it."
"Well good luck. We don't enjoy having guests in here. To me, an empty nick is a happy nick. I assume you're not a happy Nick right now though."
I managed a wan smile. "You would be right on that."
The desk sergeant finished checking me in and Joanna said something to her that I couldn't hear but she nodded and told her that "five is free". Joanna came round to my side and put a hand on my arm. "OK let me show you to your suite" she said, still smirking. I'd always hated that smirk, almost as much as she hated my knees. They used to gross her out and I never quite understood why. They were just normal knees. I suddenly wished I was wearing shorts so I could watch her shudder as I did that twisting thing with my legs that she used to dislike so much.
"How have you been anyway? How's the cat? Is she still a dickhead?" she asked.
"Yeah she told me to pass on a message, what was it now..." I gave her the finger. "Obviously she did it a little differently."
She laughed. "Yeah that little shit always hated me. That's probably why we didn't work out."
I shook my head. "No, we didn't work out because my beliefs didn't align with your hatred of everything and everyone. That and the knees thing. Plus I'm secretly heir to the throne and got ordered to get rid of you."
"Excuse me! I dumped YOU!" she retorted.
"Indeed, but I engineered it."
"Anyway someone will be here shortly to take you for your test. I hope you find the pillow selection to your satisfaction, and please help yourself to the minibar." She stepped out of the cell and closed the door.
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