One Image, Two Story Ideas: Broken Window
Jen and Tina love writing prompts. Sometimes they turn into stories, sometimes they just get our creative juices flowing. Either way, they’re a lot of fun.
Jen’s Idea
I must be feeling in an upbeat mood, because this photo didn’t take me to a broken-down cottage where some terrible crime occured. Instead, it took me to a place where a broken window is an opportunity to be repaired and a home can get a new lease on life with the right owners. Despite my intentions, the story took me to an altogether different place.
Tina’s Idea
At first, the broken window image seemed ominous and creepy, then I envisioned this story going in an entirely different direction. Believe it or not, I went cozy romance on this one.
Jen’s Back Cover
Sheila isn’t the kind of woman who breaks and enters. She doesn’t even take free samples in the grocery store if she wouldn’t consider buying the product. But when she stumbles on Loxodonta Cottage, she is in desperate need of a bathroom, cell service and, if she is really honest, a ride back to her hotel.
But the moment Sheila pushes open the door, the cottage doesn’t hold any help. It’s obviously been abandoned for decades, with just a tantalizing note taped to the refrigerator:
I’ve found the fifth piece! Call me when you get back. We can go to him together.
- Sal
Sheila finds her way back to town, but she can’t let the questions go. Piece to what? Go where? Who was “him? Had the last resident seen the note?
Bored with the sun worshiping and gossiping of the “girls weekend” she was dragged to, Shelia digs for answers. And when she discovers reports of a missing treasure map, arson, and not one but two unsolved murders, she’s pulled into a mystery that no one in this small resort town seems to want her to find. When it’s time to check out, Sheila must decide whether to go back to her job and cat, or stay and see it through.
Tina’s Back Cover
Alice Greenway faces every day with a smile. She puts up with her nasty boss and his unreasonable requests. She rides the bus home every night, picks up some groceries on the way and makes a quiet dinner for two - for her and the cat. After dinner, she watches some British TV, then she reads yet another book set in the English countryside. She calls her mom every other day. She’s dated some nice young men and was even proposed to twice. She’s never accepted because she’s never felt that spark. She isn’t unhappy, but she couldn’t really say she is happy, either.
When Alice is approached by an estate lawyer who tells her that she is the heir to a cottage in the Cotswolds and a partnership in a small second-hand bookshop, she can’t believe her good fortune. This is a dream come true and is all the incentive she needs to reassess her life. She quits her job and packs her bags and the cat.
On the flight, she imagines how her days will play out. She will wake up early and have tea; she will walk to the bookshop. On her way home, she will pick up dinner for two. Then she will read and watch TV. And of course, she will call her mom once a week.
Her first stop is the bookstore where she meets her partner. Curmudgeon is a kind word for old Mrs. Biggles behind the counter. But Alice does not despair and heads to her cottage. At the end of the quiet lane, she walks through a muddy and weed-strewn garden to discover that her dream is not a lovely rose-covered cottage at all but a dilapidated one that needs new thatching and new windows. She stares through the broken window hanging off its hinges trying to hold her broken heart together. She has nowhere to go. She has given up her old life.
When her new neighbor steps out of his garden gate and puts out his hand in greeting, she turns and looks up into his deep blue eyes. Alice decides that maybe she can make this broken-down house her home, after all.
Tina’s Response
Jen is a master of dreaming up great fantasies and thrillers. This treatment is a combo of chick lit and thriller, and would make a great beach read. Now Jen needs to hurry up and write the book so we can enjoy it on our next vacation!
Once again, Jen and I somehow circle around similar ideas with the prompt. We both decided to see positive potential in the house that belonged to this broken down window rather than the obvious dreary, creepy old building, and it took us where we didn’t expect. Believe it or not, we do not peek at each other’s work until we are done - promise!
Jen’s Response
Tina’s story is just the kind of comfort reading I crave: a woman whose life needs a reboot, an enticing offer that isn’t all it seems, and the promise of an against-all-odds resolution. In Tina’s hands, this story would be lush and rich and just right for when the world is out of control.
What I love about this story is the reminder that a catalyst for change is often what we need, whether it’s a positive or negative one. So often we live life on a “good enough” autopilot. It makes me wonder what shake-up Tina and I are craving?
Photo by Aron Jäger on Unsplash