This isn’t really a story. This particular Creative Writing homework prompt has been a hard one for me. Every day I have turned on the radio waiting for the prompt that would inspire me to write something. I hate the news. There is never anything good on the news, and certainly nothing to inspire me to write. Maybe I’ve noticed it more because I have been waiting for a prompt, but this month seems to have been a particularly newsy month.
First the Brexit referendum, then a resigning Prime Minister and several other politicians, then a new Prime Minister with her band of merry men, and women. Do they inspire me to write? No. Then how can I possibly write about the dreadful events in Nice and in Turkey? Maybe I could write about the weather, but there is nothing unusual about British summer weather behaving as it has this month.
There was one very sad piece of news though that didn’t really make the headlines, but that affected me quite a bit: a 40 foot beached whale in Perranporth, my favourite holiday destination. I decided I would write about that, from the terrified whale’s point of view. I didn’t get very far because it upset me so much.
This morning though I turned on the radio and at last, inspiration. The Shangrila’s were singing “Remember walking in the sand” on Radio 2. Maybe I could write about that.
Yes, I do remember walking in the sand, long ago when my kids were young. Halcyon days. I was walking in the sand very recently too with my dog and both of my children who have never been on holiday with me together since they were about fifteen and sixteen. We had a fantastic holiday together, but although she enjoyed splashing about in the fresh water streams that ran down the beaches, there was no way I could coax my dog into the sea once the first little wave had rolled in.
We went to Perranporth, of course, amongst several other Cornish beaches. Perranporth has many salt water pools in the sand hollows, formed by the currents. My dog had a good time splashing about in them, but didn’t like the taste of the water.
We were on Perranporth Beach a couple of weeks before the beached whale. I wondered if the whale had been around while we were there.
Our Perranporth young female whale apparently is the seventh whale to be washed up on British shores this year, the first six all being male. I wonder why they are being so careless as to come so close to land? The waters around Britain are relatively shallow. Are they coming here for squid? Is it because of global warming? Is it because of pollutants? I don’t suppose we will ever find out.
Creative Writing homework: Switch on the radio and base your story on what you hear.
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