Story Starter Writing Prompt: Milk Bottles
I’ve been out and about again, camera in hand. Will my picture work for you as a story starter?
I passed this house the other day, with two milk bottles on the step. It struck me as quite an unusual sight these days. Quite old-fashioned.
I liked that it happened to be the doorstep of such a period style of house, too. Is that Georgian or Edwardian?
I don’t know if the house is still in private ownership. It’s not far from Dundee University and Dundee’s art college, so it may be divided up in to flats for students. And yet, would it have a milk delivery like this if that were the case?
Perhaps, in fact, that’s more likely: that young people with their environmental consciences have a delivery of recyclable bottles.
Sometimes I feel like a house detective. Who would live in a house like this . . .?
The garden’s a bit unkempt. (And apologies if you live there — I’m not being critical, just making an observation!)
Is it telling that the milk was still on the step when I passed at just after one in the afternoon?
I’m beginning to build a scenario in my head . . . Are you?
A period setting
Your thoughts might ping off to the house as it was first built.
Who was it built for and when? It’s relatively grand. A local industrialist?
Our “jute mansions”, built by the families who owned Dundee’s famous jute mills, were actually much bigger and grander than this.
And there’s no driveway for a carriage, which they surely would have had. So this is a modest, aspirational house in comparison. More food for thought . . .
I like the symmetry of it. Maybe the only thing you take from it is symmetry as a theme . . .
Over to you. Happy writing!
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