Character creation.

For this short story we were given a selection of words to do a heads and tails game on to make up some characteristics for our character and then with this new character that we have in our heads to pick a given scenario and write them into this situation. I chose through the game the characteristics; cold, dominant and sensitivity. I then picked my situation and this is what I came up with:

Susan swiftly hit the power button on her laptop, she had a meeting that she had to make and knew that work was not going to stop her from getting there. After all, what was money? She knew that if need be there was 5 other jobs in the pipe line and then she knew that she could even just start up her own business if she so wished. She hadn't got her degree in business management for nothing. At the moment, she knew she was just sitting in the wings, taking on the ideas of the business that had given her a job just to steal the ideas and little by little build up the blocks she needed to really get her ideas off the ground like a sky scraper.

Susan picked up her briefcase and Channel bag. She needed the best, how dare she be allowed to not look good in the business world, it wasn't just about what was in your head but what was also going on in the forefront of the person too. A good impression physically could get you a deal or let it go to the next contender. Susan's bleached blonde hair was admired by all of the women, it was just the perfect length for her to wear it any way. It was also highlighted to every inch of perfection!

As she stepped into the elevator so did one of the fellow women colleagues, Jean. Susan knew that Jean was one of those women that 'secretly' worshipped her. We say secretly because it was far more obvious to Susan and the entire office, but Susan was not the type of person in which cared much for other people let alone another women that is trying to at the very least get a kiss of her shoes. As usual Jean tried making ideal chit chat, trying to worm her way into Susan's inner circle. But for our women she would just let it all go into her closest ear and go whizzing out the other. Of course, nodding in the appropriate places for the 10 levels in which she finally exited with a final flourish of a smile towards her annoying little colleague. Susan knew she was cold but that didn't bother her. Life was a bitch, and to get by sometimes you just had to not care. Something she had learned from a young age.

Stepping into her Audi TT she glanced at Michael Korrs and knew that she had now got half hour to get across town to make her meeting in time. Easy. Driving was easy for Susan, she had picked it up easily. In the minimal amount of driving lessons she had managed to pass her test and had saved up all the money for her first car (a small red Ford Fiesta) in which she drove for only a few years before buying a newer model. Nobody ever saw her not following the rules and not having the best through her own work. She never let anyone stop her from being her and getting what she thought she deserved in and out of life. This was all she could think about as she pulled into her spot in the next car park of the day. Leaning over to the passenger seat she took out her parking permit and placed it on the dashboard. She quickly looked at both her iPhone and Blackberry just to check on her personal and work life. All day she had only one message from her sister, something about a BBQ this weekend at her house. Susan was already trying to think of a way to get out of such a social gathering. That would come later though, she knew she had to concentrate on the next few hours first. She only had 2 hours after all.

Stepping into the building she (in passing) gave a nod and a smile to the receptionist, in a white dress this evening instead of her usual blue. Susan continued up the cynical white corridor, a few children's drawings hung here and there, trying to brighten the place up but nothing could really bring joy to what went on in these four walls. After walking for only a few moments she reached room 52 and knew she was here. 

Straightened her blazer, flicked her hair behind her shoulders. She needed to make sure her winning smile was seen by the man behind the door. Placing a hand on the door handle, took a breath and gave her single three knocks followed by a half. The male voice on the other side answered with a simple "Come in". Susan pushed down the handle gave a small push and walked into the room that was concealed behind the door.

"Evening Papa" Susan greeted the gentleman laying in the hospital bed. It was as if this woman was two different people. The outer shell had been torn down with the entrance through the number fifty-second door in the cancer corridor in the Leicester hospital. Susan's attention was normally always on herself but now it was instilled on this elderly and torn apart gentleman that was hooked up to 3 different machines with fluid coming in one way and a heart monitor coming out the other. Susan was trying not to see that but just see her father but it was not easy and normally it was only as she stepped out of the room a tear would slip out of her left eye but not this time. The flowed from both, she no longer could hold it back behind her business self. Her senses came out and she fell to the floor next to what she knew was going to be her father's death bed. 

Flash Fiction.

We were told to pick a word in class and write a piece of flash fiction on it, however I was not fully intrigued and inspired by any of the words so went looking for something else that was a little different that I could write a short piece of fiction on. I managed to find a new story on the Daily Mail website and a new proposed site for the historical Camelot and based my piece on this news story:

"Camelot? Here? In Brookfield Road..." Tony almost chocked out when his next door neighbour  told him as he was trimming the bushes in front of the house that had grown just a little too tall for his wife's particular garden. His wife could become a fire breather when she was not in a good mood. He half chuckled to himself even at this, imagining if this was the site of the historical kingdom it would only be hilarious if his better half was a dragon reincarnated to keep the site guarded from anything unwanted. In the whole 40 years that he had lived in the col-de-sac had he ever believed such a imagination would be so powerful to come up with such an idea.

He looked away from the rose bush that he was so carefully pruning to face his neighbour, tilting his cap up a little to still block the sun but also see his neighbour so that he could hear all the oddness of the story that was about to be told.

"Yeah, some author has been doing some really in depth research about the area. Turns out this sits on some inter-crossing or road links that they would have used at the time to move in and out of the castle. And then he goes on to explain  that the wood just down the track that leads to the pond would have come into the legend of the king also with the idea of the 'Lady of the lake'. Who knows eh Ton?" my neighbour explained.

I stood still, letting it all soak into my mind for a moment. I couldn't not think of how interesting the whole idea was. After all there was that theme park with the namesake built a few years back and had only just been shut down. Perhaps the guys that had built it had known something that maybe we didn't. But then again, although maybe the geography fit into the idea well surely the pond at the end of the track wasn't big enough to have fitted in with the idea of a lake after all. And wouldn't historians have already searched the entirety of it for the 'magical' Excalibur? There was too many variable for both sides of the argument I thought, the believers I guessed would think it was true and perhaps they would even come and start looking around trying to find evidence. That's all we needed in our nice quite col-de-sac was bloody tourists and fans of the so called King Arthur. I took off my cap and rubbed my slightly balding head, replaced the gap and let out a sigh. Maybe it was all just an early April fools in March.

"What do you think of it all then Myriddin?" I asked my neighbour,

He took in a deep breath and thought of his answer for a few moments, looking up at the new clear blue spring sky, "I believe that myths and legends all have a way of living on and coming around again..."

Hills like white elephents by Ernest Hemingway

A great idea to tell the story in just mainly conversation, it gives a new twist on things and therefore this way it allows the reader to not get too bored of the passage. Although we are not completely told what they topic of the conversation is on we get the feeling that it might be on a controversial topic and therefore this is a positive for the piece as it gives the readers something to think about instead of just glossing over the entire piece. Because the piece is mainly the conversation we don't really get the idea of the landscape so this (I feel) is something for the piece to build on to make it the strongest that it could be.

Mrs Fortescue by Doris Lessing

The imagery and the language used to describe the lady in question is used well to build up a well endowed character in the readers mind, although only the 'see' sense is used with a partial nod to that of the smell so maybe a little more of the other senses to build up this character would make this an excellent piece for characterisation. The feeling of imagery is run through this short piece with the ideas of brothers/sisters and also the sister to Mrs. Fortescue. The shocking and surprising ending is a great way to finish this piece and really made me feel like all the suspense had a good resolve.

The demon lover by Elizabeth Bowen

This was an excellent example of a short story in which it was ample enough to read, plenty of action and everything they a reader loves about a novel. Suspense was created so well with the reader constantly trying to find out who Mrs Drover is talking about and trying to get away from, the language is beautiful with such examples as; "beneath the remains of lipstick". This imagery really does allow you to picture everything that the narrator is describing. Also the cliffhanger at the end is just perfect to relate to the going ons...

The women at the store by Katherine Mansfield

The colloquial language used by some of the characters can make this a story that is hard to follow as a reader may therefore be concentrating on this too much. A sense of the old days and the harshness of the western USA states (as a I believe this is where this story is based) is brought across and we get a real feeling of the landscape and humans place within it. The ending was a odd way of wrapping it up, it almost felt like Katherine was just trying to get it over and done with, so for this reason I would say that there could be some more work done to this short piece.

Five-Twenty by Patrick White

This is a story that concentrates on a couple and their lives. They memories that they have of their life together which is the driving force of the story as well as being toughing to the reader (inviting you to think about your own experiences) it then has a second element, of the timing being around a usual driver in the rush hour traffic. This is a story about two normal lives and how they work alongside each other which is interesting and done well here.