Ideas for Writing from Everyday Life

While I was out and about this weekend, keeping my eyes and ears open for things to write about, a couple of buses caught my eye.

The first was a modern bus which appeared to have no passengers. What particularly captured my attention was the LCD display on the front of the bus which usually shows the route number and destination.

It contained only one word followed by a comma:

Sorry,

I assume that there should have been another screen to follow which would explain why the bus company was sorry. Sorry, bus driver in training. Sorry out of service. Sorry, contract only.

But instead there was just that hiccupping apology and we could only use our imagination to fill in the reasons for it.

It struck me as a great hook for a story. You could do all sorts of things with that one word as part of an unfinished message.

What could it be from? A 'Dear John' farewell letter? A letter to an estranged friend? A suicide note? The possibilities are intriguing, but it's the very incompleteness of the message that makes it so tantalizing.

The other bus I saw was a very old one, a vintage one, possibly - I'm sure you know the sort I mean, with a separate cab for the driver and a platform open to the elements. How many of us used to jump on and off a platform like that when we were in a hurry to get to school?

This bus had something on it that you don't usually see on public transport - two white ribbons adorned the front, like the ones you get on wedding cars.

That opens up lots of possibilities for a story too. Could the story be about a couple who met on a bus or worked on buses? Was the bus taking the happy couple to the church? If so, then they must be quite unconventional characters? Or was it taking them off on their honeymoon? Perhaps it could have a 'Just married' sign and and a pair of old boots trailing from the back?

See what you can do with either of these buses. And don't forget to tell me if you manage to write something fantastic based on this exercise.