Story Starter: Broken Record
Seriously – there has to be a Story Starter fairy.
How else can you explain my luck in finding something like this in the road outside the car park where I park every day? Lying in the gutter, all forlorn and discarded. And smashed. How come? Where did it come from? Who was carrying it – and why? – and then dropped it? How long had they had it? Was it a much treasured item of a collection? Were they distraught? Part of a house move?
Now, having put all those thoughts in your head, I can tell you that near where it was is a patch of waste ground. And on the other side of that waste ground is the back door of a second-hand record exchange type shop. So I can guess the scenario, and that might also spark your story idea.
But look what it is. Literally a broken record. That has its own connotations, doesn’t it?
Mood Music for Listening And Relaxation… Record 11. 11! Of how many? Quite a collection…
Is your story about the record player? Is it about a Readers’ Digest collection? Pub quiz? I don’t know why the Readers’ Digest makes me think of that.
Maybe your story is about the odd look I got from the guy behind me who had to jink round me when I suddenly stopped to whip out my phone and take the picture. Why would I take a picture of that? He was on his phone, too, watching some live streaming video.
I know because I see him every day, walking along, headphones in, staring at the screen. All weathers, the same routine, the same route. Like me. Smartly dressed youngish guy, wears a suit – except on casual Fridays. And he never looks around at the sunshine and the trees or hears the birdsong.
It’s all about his phone.
There. Food for creative thought.
