Seriously – there has to be a Story Starter fairy.
How else can you explain my luck in finding something like this in the road outside the car park where I park every day? Lying in the gutter, all forlorn and discarded. And smashed. How come? Where did it come from? Who was carrying it – and why? – and then dropped it? How long had they had it? Was it a much treasured item of a collection? Were they distraught? Part of a house move?
Now, having put all those thoughts in your head, I can tell you that near where it was is a patch of waste ground. And on the other side of that waste ground is the back door of a second-hand record exchange type shop. So I can guess the scenario, and that might also spark your story idea.
But look what it is. Literally a broken record. That has its own connotations, doesn’t it?
Mood Music for Listening And Relaxation… Record 11. 11! Of how many? Quite a collection…
Is your story about the record player? Is it about a Readers’ Digest collection? Pub quiz? I don’t know why the Readers’ Digest makes me think of that.
Maybe your story is about the odd look I got from the guy behind me who had to jink round me when I suddenly stopped to whip out my phone and take the picture. Why would I take a picture of that? He was on his phone, too, watching some live streaming video.
I know because I see him every day, walking along, headphones in, staring at the screen. All weathers, the same routine, the same route. Like me. Smartly dressed youngish guy, wears a suit – except on casual Fridays. And he never looks around at the sunshine and the trees or hears the birdsong.
It’s all about his phone.
There. Food for creative thought.
Shirley Blair Fiction Ed Shirley’s been with the “Friend” since 2007 and calls it her dream job because she gets to read fiction all day every day. Hobbies? Well, that would be reading! She also enjoys writing fiction when she has time, long walks, travel, and watching Scandi thrillers on TV.
