Bespoke stories, written on the spot

A simple question can take you to some very interesting places.


I had my second outing as a writer in residence yesterday. This time I was in Oxford Street Books, Whitstable, writing stories inspired by whoever came into the shop. To make life more difficult, I decided to try and write these stories – brief flash fictions – on the spot. Give me the inspiration for a story, and you can take the resulting slice of literature away with you. Now.

Partly, I wanted to demystify the process of idea generation. I wanted to show people – and myself, too – that ideas can be found anywhere, and that the writing process can be very quick, when necessary. I also felt that I, like many writers, spend a lot of time hanging about in the shadows, eavesdropping and observing, finding small details that could form the beginnings of a character or a story. I wanted to be more open about this process, I wanted to thank the people who inspired me, and show them what I had produced as a consequence – even if it was rubbish.

So armed with my now familiar toolkit of 3x5 cards, BlueTac, paperclips and pencils, I set about my task. I picked customers at random and said something like this: "Excuse me, but I'm a writer and I'm working on a special project here today. I'm writing stories inspired by the people who come into the shop. Would you inspire me please?"

This question tended to generate a nervous laugh, a look of terror or just blank incomprehension, so I quickly followed up with a simple instruction: "An easy way for you to inspire me would be to tell me your favourite word. What is it?"

Now, the answer to this question wasn't very important at all. But it opened the door to further probing. It was remarkable how quickly I could go from a simple question ("So, why is peace your favourite word?") to something much deeper ("So, do you feel that your life is in a dark place at the moment?") I had no idea these brief conversation would be so revealing.

I'd furiously scribble notes and when the conversation seemed to have run its course – and people wanted to talk for a lot longer than I expected – I would ask them to browse the shelves while I wrote something for them. Every time I sat down to look at my notes, I had no idea what I would write. But I always managed to produce something. I would give the result to the customer, and stick a copy to the wall or a shelf for other people to read.

It was an exhausting, but inspiring day. Massive thanks to the great people at ReAuthoring who – yet again – made this all possible. Here are some photos (be kind – keep in mind, each piece of writing took about 90 seconds! And apologies for the handwriting):

This is Anne, reading "Anticipation", which she inspired

Anticipation, inspired by Anne

Start Counting

This guy had a great attitude. He inspired Start Counting

Brilliant Brian – he owns the shop and makes great tea

Jane enjoying "On the Edge", which she inspired 

On the Edge

Some of my stuff, pinned in place

The Woman Who Married a Parrot

Wendy with "The Woman who Married a Parrot"

The poster I put up in the window

Poster for inside the shop

I wrote stories on the reverse of these "thank you" cards