A quick update on the blank page I had been sat with in Starbucks that cold January day is that it is not blank anymore! I actually finished the original draft at the end of February, and am on the start of a new first draft for the second story of the set. For now I am not looking at that first piece because I want to get all first writes out of the way by the end of this month. April will be the month of the scissors as I chop and slash my way to writerly refinement.
However, here are the first paragraphs as a quick taster:
Blurs of light streak by in
slicks of yellow, green, red, and white, in the distance I hear the blue
flashes of sirens rise and fall. Ma, as always, wears a cool expression on her
face as a cigarette hangs loosely between her lips like prey.
From this position I cannot see
her but I know this to be true. Instead my view is filled with the dull grey
skies of midnight opening themselves to me. It’s that same dullness that filled
the windows of all the hospital rooms, an artificially lit skyline of smog and office
blocks remaining the same through day and night. More often than not the
ceilings had been more interesting than the city views; at least there the
lights occasionally flickered out into deep and blank darkness. It was during
these obsidian times that I would paint with my mind pictures of home into the
abyss. I’d take those vivid colour memories with me wherever I would go, the
neon green floors, and the blue florescence of Pa’s aquarium tank. In these
portraits I’d find myself free to walk in and out. Most often I’d walk myself
into the kitchen, sit myself down across from Ma and her cool expression and
she’d tell me all about her childhood in the countryside. Of course the lights
would soon interrupt and I’d be flickered back into white rooms and grey
cityscapes.
Writing this major project is a bit of a pain, however, it will be worth it when I'm holding my degree in October.
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