THE OLD STORY - DONE DIFFERENTLY (A WRITING PROMPT)

Most of us are a collection of stories. Some are our experiences. Some come courtesy of others. Sometimes they are a combination.

The thing is - they are all potential kick-starts when it come to creating something new.

I mentioned telling my granddaughter about a dairy from my childhood. It's a private house now, but back then it had a yard for a cart and a stable for the horse. The idea of the milk being delivered by horse and cart is at the furthest reaches of my memory. But! When I mentioned it to my wife's uncle, he reminded me of the milkman's name, told me his horse's name, and remembered a time the horse tried to pull the cart into his garden. Apparently, he used to feed it bread.

So, I took the story, added the description to make it seem present and first-person, gave him an excuse for not being at the gate (he never mentioned why he wasn't there), and added the question 'Are we our actions?' at the end of it.

A quick trip to Unsplash for a picture... and here we are!

Now - for the reader - it's a new thing!

What story - from another time or another "world" - sticks in your mind? Imagine being there. Describe it as if you were. See what questions, complications, or characters find their way in during the process. (Don't wait to have these things before you begin. Trust that they will come.)

This kind of writing can also be seen as a form of therapy, helping you tidy up, or even find a better understanding, events from the past.

They are gone. They were, naturally, untidy. If you can re-frame them as art then that might just help in some small way with the healing of your world.