A few weeks ago, the Phoenix Writers in Horwich Bolton, enjoyed a very helpful session about the ’emotional arc’ of the story. We were encouraged by Anna Turner, our excellent visiting speaker, to create our own story boards, each outlining different scenes in our narratives, inspired by a simple picture of a young woman reading a well thumbed book at a railway station, whilst someone in the background bought a coffee.
Pictures are an excellent way of generating ideas. if you combine pictures/images with the liberation of ‘free writing’ where you write without editing or censoring for short bursts of time, you can allow your minds to wander and to wonder without inhibition!
Letting our minds wander and wonder about the travelling scene and the differing emotions suggested, brought in lots of possible tales, and for some reason this scene came onto the paper like this for me:
Count Mephisto had just one hour left to live unless he found a way to defeat Queen Tamara before dawn. Luckily the Crewe train was delayed, and that creepy mature student Paul needed a long latte, so Jessica turned another page and reentered Rhiannon, where Mephisto was down to his last three cards.
