Plasticine puppets.

I have just come home from my Intermediate Creative Writing class and would like to share what I wrote in it. Our assignment was create a little plasticine puppet, then to write a short narration, dialogue, or monologue for them. We had fifteen minutes to write and, using an old idea of mine for a short story, I came up with this:

Calico Gray used to stand at the centre of the room. His whole childhood he was told how talented he was; how great he will one day be. This made him believe in himself, but also made him lazy. He found his passion in piano and took lessons for a few years then quit because he lost respect for his teacher. With “genius” being the word he most attributed to himself, he set out upon the world… for a few days. Actually, he only got one audition for a fine musical college, but decided he probably wouldn’t learn anything there anyway so he did not show. For the next ten years, Calico would sometimes play piano at the local cafe. His main occupation was talk. He would talk about how amazing the piece he is composing will be, how he will be the worlds best pianist. However, he let dust decorate his keys and left his notebook blank. One night Calico passed out, drunken, in a snow storm. Someone found him and took him inside, but it was too late for his fingers. Now Calico sits in the corner sipping his soup through a straw, wishing he could play piano.

We then had to perform our writings for the class of fourteen people. Jake, our professor, had turned out all the lights and we took turns sitting beneath a single lamp that illuminated only a few feet of the room. It was wonderful!