Freewriting with Write or Die
I am stuck for inspiration for my TMA2. I have a couple of story ideas but I don’t think they’ll fit in a short story. I have a character though. She’s called Emily and she rides a pink Vespa. That’s as far as I’ve got. I thought a freewrite might help. It didn’t. But at least I wrote ‘something’. Here it is.
So, there’s this girl with a pink Vespa and she has a matching helmet but what does she do? Does she trawl the internet dating sites looking for men to write about on her blog? Can that be a short story? I don’t think so. My chewing gum story won’t work either. I need something to write about for TMA2 which is going to creep up on me really really soon and there’s moving house and going away for my birthday beforehand too and I don’t think I’ll be doing much writing on my birthday in Naples. Ok, then, I won’t be doing any writing on my birthday in Naples. Just drinking. And eating pizza. I’ll probably see lots of Vespas in Italy too. When I was in Bologna there were LOADS of scooter drivers or are they riders? Anyway, there were loads of them and they all drove like complete wankers. I’m lucky to be alive I think. They don’t seem to have a highway code. Just drive and ride all over the place. Street lights? What are they? Traffic lights, I mean. They don’t care about them. I paused typing but this write or die thing didn’t do anything. Shouldn’t it have shouted at me or something? I need some inspiration. Not easy after drinking too much wine last night. Sunday drinking must stop.
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I think that the girl on the pink vespa lives a double life of being totally the coolest person her cool but hard friends know, whilst running trips for the elderly. She started helping her gran and now has an army for OAPs she helps, but she can’t let her cool mates find out, and has to explain why she’s not always around and sometimes has strange things in her back, like Potters Cough sweets or Eucryl tooth powder.
How strange. I’m reading timjnx’s reply apparently posted at 3:23 and yet it is only 3:20…
Hi.
I read something the other day that helped me get my TMA of the ground. It said something along the lines of ‘You don’t just need a situation for a story, you need a complication as well.’ Perhaps you could have something happen to your girl on the Vespa. Just think about her riding along and imagine what might happen to her. Does she see something that makes her crash? Does she blow a tyre? Does she spot an ex-boyfriend? Does she come across and accident and save someone’s life? Or have her come out of her apartment in the morning to find her Vespa gone. Who might have taken it? Why? Where are they going? Maybe she comes out of work and finds a note from a secret admirer stuck to the bike? Or a note from an angry motorist? Or a parking ticket? Maybe the Vespa gets vandalised and she has to take the bus to work. Or maybe her mother tells her she’s too old to ride a bike and should grow up and drive a car. Try throwing a spanner in the works and see where that takes you. I often find that I find out more about my characters by putting them in a scene and writing about them than I do if I just try to come up with them in isolation. Alternatively you could come up with a character checklist such as the one outlined at the top of p74 of the BRB. Hope some of this helps. 