1300 Words
Julie looked around her, the library was empty again!
Alone, she thought.
She picked up her pencil and started to write ‘The Trial’. This was the homework for this week but she wasn’t sure how to start.
A trial, about what?
The obvious answer to that was a court trial but she didn’t want to write about that. She looked at the ideas sheet everyone had come up with in class. Ideas, some were good, but none that seemed to jump from the page. A personal trial was another. She was going though plenty of them right now but she didn’t want to write about them. How could she? There’re meant to be kept to yourself and all that. She went to the window, it was getting dark, the security light came on, a group of students were heading out for the evening. She watched as the silhouettes disappeared down the drive.
Oh well back to work
She sat back down, picked up her pencil and wrote the words ‘The Trial’ again.
The trial of writing this!
At this moment, creative writing’s a trial, a trial of patience. ‘Tick Tock’ she looked at the clock, she’d been there 2 hours and all she had written was ‘the trial’.
This is not good
If only she hadn’t stopped smoking she’d have a cigarette but no, she’d given up the week before, chuffed away on her inhalator or ‘gizmo’ as she called it. And until the pressure came on, thought she was doing fine. Maybe a cup of tea would do the trick but that meant going to her room
Would she come back?
Of course she would, she’d leave her work, take her mind for a walk, have a cuppa, then come back, that’s what she’d do.
After half an hour; she was back.
That worked
She was feeling refreshed, the tea did the trick, even though singing at the top of her voice helped too! She smiled and started to write ‘The Trial’ it was the third time she’d written it. She started to think about all the things the word ‘trial’ meant to her. What trials had she been though? Illness, court cases, addiction, raising a child they all took form in regards to ‘The Trial’. She looked around the library. She wondered how many of the hundreds of books in there would have some sort of trial in them. She knew the ones behind her would have they were about Ireland Ulster
She picked up the dictionary that lay on the table next to her
Maybe the definition of ‘trial’ might help me focus
- A formal examination of evidence in order to decide guilt in a case of civil or criminal proceedings.
No, that’s not any good, that’s a court trial
- A test of performance, qualities or suitability.
Test of performance maybe, no.
- Something that tests a person endurance or forbearance.
Yes that’s the one. That’s what I’m doing right now trying to write this story. Testing, my endurance. Pushing me, to the edge of my patience.
Now how would I start it?
She picked up her pencil to write.
Think of a character? Male or female?
Female, yes
Name?
Julie
What does Julie do?
She’s a student, having trouble writing a story for her Creative Writing class
Yes, a plan was forming. Ok.
Where is she?
She’s in the library. she’s packed up smoking and finding this task hard. Could do with a cigarette but decides against it
Taking out a packet of mints, she popped one into her mouth.
‘Tick Tock’ Julie looked at the clock, she needed to be in her room at 8.30pm for a phone call. It was 8.15pm now. She wondered if she should leave it and come back after the call or carry on.
Cup of tea time, I think
Julie got back to the library after her phone call and cuppa. While she was in her room, she’d written what it said in her Thesaurus about the word ‘trial’.
- Court case
You know the obvious one, she giggled to herself.
- A test
Like in a drugs test, when testing a new medication.
- Nuisance
That’s what not having a cigarette is, a nuisance
She started to giggle. There was no one in the library now they’d all finished their work and left her sitting there on her own, so she laughed out loud.
- Troubles
She’d already thought about them, not what she wanted to write about.
She picked up her pencil, read though her notes and started to write a freewrite, she didn’t like them very much. Writing quickly made her hand ache. 15 minutes later she stopped and read over what she had written. It sounded ok.
Needs a bit of tweaking
She counted the words, not quite 1300 but not that far off. It would have to be stretched. An extra sentence here, the odd word there and that would do it. This was turning out to be a trial in its self. She tried to think of a title, she didn’t want to use ‘The Trial’. The rest of the class were doing this exercise too and that would be the obvious title. Her’s had to be a little more original. She thought for a moment but nothing came.
The Story, maybe
No
She decided to leave the title till she’d finished the story, hoping that something would pop into her head when she was finished. She continued with another freewrite, her hand was throbbing as she wrote as quickly as she could.
Maybe another cuppa or something to eat
Now what to have? Cheese and crackers or chocolate?
Chocolate, it wins every time
A little while later she was back, she sat down at the table, took a fresh piece of paper and wrote on the top ‘1300 words’. That was the title, not a great title but original. She smiled at herself and looked around the library. She loved working in there, with its fusty smell, amongst all those great novels. It was like the words flowed out of the books, down the pencil and onto the page like water from a tap. She gathered all the bits of paper she had lying around her, read over it all again, sharpened her pencil and under the fresh title ‘1300 Words’ started to write her story.
Julie looked around her, the library was empty again!
Alone she thought.
© Mills Laine
