Jack's English Journal

Station: The day the lights went out.

Just before I start, I just wanted to say that I’m sorry it’s late but it took me a while to get going. Can I speak to you about that.

It was 7.30 pm and Alfie’s bag was empty. The continuous drone of words, going in through his right ear and passing out through his left, lulled him to sleep. Cold air rushed in through the open window and Alfie tucked his hands into his pockets to secure some warmth. It was dark and foggy outside and there was no natural light to illuminate the room, the flickering light just revealed the damp walls and cobwebs. Stood in front of a blackboard with scrawled notes on it was Ms Briggs, she was sad, depressed in fact, teaching here at Station Secondary School wasn’t what she had planned. Alfie and the other children of Station School were ‘lucky’, as they were told by Mr Williams in his weekly assembly.

Mr Williams was a short, fat, red faced and disciplinarian headmaster, he stood in front of all 600 pupils to address them every Sunday. He told them how fortunate they were that the school was an old powerstation and therefore, they were one of the few schools left with power worldwide. Mr Williams was increasingly nervous each week and he told all 600 pupils that the power was running out.

Alfie was searching through his bag for a pen, he couldn’t find one. Nobody had ever forgotten a pen for English before, and Ms Briggs was in a particularly bad mood today. Alfie timidly raised his hand and 20 bored teenage pupils looked his way, hoping for some drama. Sat next to Alfie was Michael and Michael nudged him to see what the problem was. Alfie was lucky, Michael had a spare pen, and he was safe from the wrath of Ms Briggs.

Ms Briggs turned to the class and told them that today they had to write a short story. Alfie already knew what he was going to write. He was going to write about the power running out. Everyone began writing and Alfie began ‘Station: The day the lights went out’. After 20 minutes of solid writing, Alfie had finished. He set the pen down on his paper and looked up. Alfie shivered as the wind blew harder and he raised his hand again. Ms Briggs walked over to him and read aloud ‘… the lights went out…’ The lights went out.

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One response to “Station: The day the lights went out.”

  1. jnorth Avatar
    jnorth

    Hi Jack,

    I wondered if you had considered the use of semi-colons in this piece and whether you thought that they a) were necessary or b) detracted from the already fully formed work you have submitted.

    I also wanted to take another opportunity to say how very impressed I am with your work ethic and dedication; I know that you strive to better yourself.

    With regards to motivation (and quite possibly writer’s block) my only response to this is: write, write, write. Bob Dylan would force himself to sit in front of his type writer until 12 pm each day with nothing but black coffee. Stephen King forces himself to produce 2000 words a day and then edits them afterwards. Neil Gaiman believes that you must write continuously until the first million terrible words are out of your system; only then will you be practised enough.

    I know that this is a struggle, but it is on e that works – you simply have to make time for it (which I believe you already do).

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