I have the Fiction team’s Tracey to thank for today’s Writing Prompt Story Starter image: a 1958 Buick.
It’s the most beautiful 1958 Buick Special – details which Tracey gave me, helpfully.
I’d have had no idea, but our Tracey’s a details gal.
It pings you back in time to America in the Fifties, doesn’t it? A time when a car was as wide as a road.
The average UK road, at least; US highways could accommodate it easily.
Stick shifts. Bench seats. Lettermen in letter jackets, girls in wide skirts and ponytails. Or beehives and slim pencil skirts.
Is that still the Fifties? That was a look that was pure “Mad Men”.
Road races and picnics – which we learned today is also something some IT helpdesks (not ours, I’m sure!) use to describe their callers . . . it’s an acronym for “problem in chair, not in computer”!
Mr Fiction Ed informed us of that one.
Pride and joy
Anyway, back to our silver Buick. It’s somebody’s pride and joy now, just as it was when it was brand new 60-odd years ago.
It must have been imported, but when? Recently, or did a young man here in the Fifties live and breathe everything young American?
If recently, why? And in what state? As it is now, or as a wreck?
What’s the reaction when the proud owner drives it anywhere? Maybe it’s not even for personal use, but is a novelty hire car, for special occasions.
You know how brides like to be different, and be first with the Next Big Thing.
It could be on its way to a motor museum, to become the pride of their collection. That seems unlikely given Britain’s rich heritage in vintage vehicles!
I’m sure you’ll come up with loads of scenarios I haven’t thought of, and we’re looking forward to reading them.
Remember, we’re especially looking for 3000-word stories at the moment.
Photograph by Tracey Steel.
Has this story starter inspired you? If not, why not try some of our previous suggestions? Fiction Ed Shirley provides one every week!
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.
