Pick Up Your Pen!
T
his month, I’m inviting you
to have fun creating a
different twist for a traditional
fairy-tale. You could re-write
‘Hansel and Gretel’ from the
witch’s viewpoint or the
wicked stepmother. What
happens if the ogre catches
Jack before he gets back down
the beanstalk? Begin by
thinking about the fairy-tales
you remember from when you
were a child. Take a large sheet
of paper and play the ‘what if?’
game. For instance, what if
Cinderella’s magic coach
hadn’t turned back into a
pumpkin?
action take place? What is it like?
Keep the story simple. If it’s a
long time since you’ve written
anything, you’ll be relieved to
know that you only need to
send me 250 words!
Don’t worry about getting it in
the right order to start with. Just
get the ideas onto the paper
and tidy it up later. Reward
yourself for trying – and do send
me the story. I love reading the
stories I receive and wish we
could publish them all. Send
your entries to me at
[email protected] by
Thursday 2nd January. I will
award a small prize to the
winning entry.
It was very difficult to choose a
winner this month – there were
so many good entries. Here is
the winning entry from Lindsay
Tether.
Congratulations also to Angela
Boarer and Pam Wray on being
short-listed.
Sue Johnson
www.writers-toolkit.co.uk
Sue Johnson
Poet & Novelist
Who is your story about? Focus
on the emotions. How do you
want your reader to feel when
they think about your main
character? Where does the
Creative Writing Workshops
Critique Service & Talks
Tel: 01386 446477 • www.writers-toolkit.co.uk
Tomorrow by Lindsay Tether
S
carlett was a daydreamer.
Her grandmother had
always told her that she was
like her namesake, Scarlett
O’Hara, the heroine of ‘Gone
With The Wind’, who would say
“I’ll think about that tomorrow.
Tomorrow is another day.”
Walking through the woods that
autumn she was procrastinating
again, crushing the crisp dry
leaves with a satisfying crunch at
every step. She breathed deeply,
noticing the distinctive smell of a
bonfire, the thick grey smoke
curling lazily upwards, taking its
time, ‘going with the flow’ as
52
Scarlett liked to do.
But increasingly she longed for
change. She had always loved art,
ever since she was a child, but
had drifted into a job she could
have done with her eyes closed.
Now, wandering through this
enchanting wood with its
beautiful colours, she saw an
escape route at last. As the leaves
fluttered from the trees, mustard
yellow, conker brown, sunshine
orange and scarlet like her name,
they seemed to be whispering a
new mantra, “If not now, when?”
telling her that her time too was
finite.
She sat down in a clearing and
started to draw the landscape,
easily capturing the shapes and
tones of her surroundings. There
were so many open exhibitions
she could enter, start now and
success could be just around the
corner.
Later that month she checked her
phone and found a message from
the gallery that would start her
new journey, and from then on
Scarlett would always say,
‘Tomorrow is too far away, I’ll
think about that today.’ Her
grandmother would have been
proud of her.
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