Our instructions for Week 5 were to describe a place. In particular, we were told to show two different characters’ perspectives of the same place.

I chose to write about a couple arriving at their new house. They’ve got different perspectives which are shaped by their contrasting mental states.

The New House

The car veered around the corner and he pointed them towards the top of the hill. Now they were on the part of the new estate where the roads hadn’t yet been completed. High, rough kerbs bordered their way like fresh dentures as they bounded along, skimming pebbles gutterwards. He felt like a pioneer. This was to be a place of opportunity, a place for a fresh start.

“Home” he said with a smile, placing the car at a jaunty angle across the driveway. He stepped out onto the newly laid tarmac, admiring how Mick and Paul had added some spots of white on the surface to break up the monotony of the black pitch. Continue reading →

“Magical realism” was how our tutor described this assignment.

“What happens in that spare hour when the clocks go back? Delve into the world of fantasy and imagination.” We were given our usual word limit of 700, which I found particularly difficult with this piece of work.

It is still unfinished, although I think you can probably see where it was heading.

The Backshift

Most people slept through that first Backshift, and many of those who didn’t were unreliable witnesses, consisting as they did of so many stumbling drunks and drug-spangled clubbers.

But when the world awoke on that Sunday morning it was to an apparent mass hysteria. Online, crazy tales were being swapped: claims of teleportation and of events undone or seemingly never occuring. Instead of the usual Autumnal setting back of the clocks, here were people saying they had undergone a resetting of time itself, with the hour between 1am and 2am lived twice. Continue reading →