Door

Here is a nice way to get into a story, or to discover a character. Begin with a door. You could draw the door or write about it. Think about the shape and size of the door, what is it made from, and what colour it is. What leads up to it? What surrounds it? Bricks, stone, grass? Is it set in a wall -think of the door that leads to the secret garden, or does it belong to a shed, or barn, mansion or bungalow? Think about the furniture of the door. Is there glass, frosted or stained; a knocker or bell push, a letterbox, hinges, padlock, words…? Is there a tub of flowers by the door, a boot scraper, two empty milk bottles?

Once you have described the door. Go inside. Who or what is there? Your story has begun.

It is good to start this writing task just by imagining the door and allowing your imagination to take you into what follows. Equally, you may want to think about doors in fiction and  the way writers have described them. Consider the round green door that leads to the Hobbit hole; the door and knocker of Scrooge’s house, the entrance to the Water Rat’s home in Wind in the Willows, the doors to the various houses in Winnie the Pooh and what they reveal about their owners.