Write something new!
Looking to write about something a little different for 2016? Then why not try a different genre, or a different type of writing altogether? If you’re a poet, why not try writing a flash fiction story? Or perhaps you already write short stories but have often thought about writing a screen-play. Let 2016 be the year you go for it!
As many of you will know, I’m more of a fiction/non-fiction writer than I am a poet. So I thought I’d take my own advice and have a bash at some poetry:
Leave Them Be
Why can’t they see me anymore?
I’m standing here right by the door,
Mum and Dad sip their Earl Grey tea,
They smile, hold hands, no thought of me,
Then tears gather and down they spill,
Down, down, lovingly until,
They turn to me with faces pale,
And unleash an unearthly wail,
But not from them, it comes from me,
Now a ghost, I must leave them be.
***
Last week, I wrote a story about a boy who liked to smell and lick books. If you missed it, you can read it here. After reading it, Helen Gaen was inspired to write the following powerful piece of writing:
A Reckoning
At the library I eat a book. Next, I go to the bank, where I swallow pounds and pounds of pride, paying my final account. At the butchers, I sell the dog that I can no longer feed. I have left my starving children with my sister: please give them the money I got for the dog, hidden in my purple shoes. My stomach feels heavy. Perhaps I should not have eaten the book? I wanted to destroy it, prevent it from harming others, as it has helped to kill me. Finally, I tie myself to a tree – and drop.
***
Esther Chilton 
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