Other People's Stories

I didn't tape the discussion, so all I have is these scrawled notes about everyone else's stories and the places that are important to them. It's already got me thinking. I still want to write about 294 Eureka Villas but there's so much more to get my teeth into here. I wonder how I'll manage to fit it all in.

Journeys are important. A journey between Rock Ferry, Hamilton Square and Birkenhead Park, using the Mersey Rail I've become so fond of? Now I need to start thinking about characters - what happens, and who does what. The skeleton of a story is starting to emerge.

Routes and Maps

After Elaine taught us all to geo-locate our stories (I'll be trying that on this blog too) I thought about routes and maps. I got lots of leaflets and spent one or two of my train journeys looking over them.

It didn't help, really. It made me feel like a tourist. The maps and trails were too dry - the stories had already been written. There was no room for me to ask questions - no areas of the unknown or gaps in the information.

I think I'll learn more and get more inspiration from listening to other people's Wirral Stories, and taking a tour of the place in person.

294 Eureka Villas

294 Eureka Villas - right across from Rock Ferry Library and the title for a story if ever I heard one. This is an old boarded up shop right next door to a chemist that used to be called Fogg's and was the only place this side of New Brighton where you could buy fresh candy floss.

It looks abandoned, but there is someone living above it. I could find out, and maybe interview them, but really I prefer not to know because it gives me more room to make it up.

I know Barbara is going to write about Fogg's chemist. Maybe there's room for a link between her story and mine?

More tunnels...

The view of the tunnel from the Northern Line platform at Liverpool Central station. There's always a strong breeze blowing along here, but the air feels warm and stale. It's creepy, even though there are so many people on the platform it also feels quite lonely. I still wonder where all these people are going, and try to listen to their conversations.

More trains...

It seems most people are setting their stories on a route - either walking from one place to another, or on public transport, or using a bike or even the ferry.

I'm still interested in the train. I want to write about the sinking feeling I get as I take the escalator down from Lime Street station to get to the Wirral Line. It feels like I'm going into another world.

I'm always interested in people going places. When people are between places, what are they thinking about - the place they've just been, or where they are going to? Or a bit of both?

Or are they, like me, feeling a little bit travel sick and wondering if they're going to be late?

It came up on one of the workshops and it's made me think - it's the mysteries in life, the things we don't know about other people, that get my imagination going and are one of the inspirations for inventing stories.

Rock Ferry

Rock Ferry is where we've been having most of the workshops. It's no wonder one or two of the buildings here have caught my eye as the possible location for stories.

Nail Station. I like the pun and play on words with rail station. I wonder what it is that is making me want to write about public transport? Probably because I love to watch people, and because I'm a visitor to The Wirral the way I experience the place is through my long weekly trips from Preston and back.

More research in pictures

When I'm travelling on the train, I don't even think about going under the water. Much less scary. I wonder why the tunnel isn't featuring more in other people's stories? We have lots of stories about the river and the ferry, but no-one wants to write about the rail and road links between the Wirral and Liverpool that go under the water.

Research in pictures...

I love the heading on the second picture... 'the story of an undertaking' - it's from an old bookcover and I wonder what the story inside was about? The making of the tunnel, I suppose.

The first picture is a diagram - I looked at this and it was supposed to help calm my nerves for my first drive through the tunnel. All I keep thinking about is how long the tunnel is, and how deep underground and under the water I will be.

Q - What's the last thing you want to see on a drive through the Mersey Tunnel?

A - A drop of rain on your windscreen!