Publishing Books for Eternity
One Author, One Book at a Time
Publishing Books for Eternity
One Author, One Book at a Time
(in Short Story)
Writing About What You Said
When I was working in Leeds, I was travelling every day from Huddersfield. It would start with a 10-20 minute bus ride, a 40 minute train ride and then a 15-20 minute bus ride, each way. Commuting was a waste of time. As an artist, I would want to use the time to draw or sketch out paintings, but the train was almost always too packed.
One day, I managed to find a seat, I was scrolling through social media trying to avoid eye contact with other passengers. In the seat behind me there were two men in their early thirties, one was telling the other about a trip that had gone wrong. He had been for a job interview down south and due to the distance he had booked a hotel. He screwed up the interview and annoyed at himself, he got pissed. Then he couldn’t find his way back to his hotel and ended up wandering the streets all night.
I tried to put myself into the poor lad’s shoes and it got me thinking. What else could have happened to him that night? I was so absorbed by the question, I picked up my phone and started writing. I finished the story on the way home later that day. I called it, Fight or Flight. The protagonist was left with a terrible decision, stay and fight or run away.
From that point on, whenever I was travelling, I would pay attention to conversations around me. Most of the time, it would be, ‘Did you see the match?’ or ‘Did you see Eastenders last night?’ But every now and then, someone would say something that would fire my imagination. Then, all I would be thinking was how to turn it into a story.
The train was easier to write on than the bus. There were times I would be so lost in writing, I would miss my stop. Once I ended up in Manchester and twice in York. Some journeys could take four or five hours due to delays. I must have been the only person hoping the train would break down. If it wasn’t for our trains being so bad, I probably would never have finished these stories.
