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29 April 2022

Wear It For Them

“We’re live!”

Brody and Lucas threw peace signs as they started their stream. Over 2,500 fans had already joined them.

“We’re taking a test drive!” Brody shouted into the camera. “We had a call from this wild guy inviting us here, wanting us to try the new Apocalypse A model.”

“It’s fully automated,” his sidekick yelled. ‘It’ll enable you to go to the moon!”

Brody pressed the start button, and the influencers laughed as the neon green car spluttered slowly into action.

“Houston, we have a problem,” Brody raised an eyebrow to his adoring audience.

Now 7,500 fans watched as the car suddenly accelerated, throwing Brody and Lucas around like rag dolls. The sleek vehicle quickly reached its top speed of 340mph, hurtling around the mysterious track in the middle of the desert.

At no point did they switch their camera off. The viewers watched, some in horror, many in delight, as Brody and Lucas screamed, puked, and cried for their mothers as the motor showed no signs of slowing down. Heart signs, laughing faces, thumbs up, and some thumbs down, flooded their stream as the furious journey continued.

The broadcast came to an abrupt halt when they were ploughed into the empty spectator stand. Brody died instantly, thrown out of the windscreen, whilst Lucas was pummelled into the dashboard, the car then bursting into flames.

From the final fiery shots, a message took over the screen.

“Don’t be stupid like Brody and Lucas. Always wear your seat belt.”

© Claire Tallentire, 2021

The ideas behind the story

'Wear It For Them' was originally submitted to Round 2 of the NYC Midnight 250-Word Short Fiction Competition in 2021, so there was a very tight brief in terms of word count but also in terms of the direction of the story. An enjoyable part of the NYC Midnight competitions is that you are given an assigned group with an assigned genre, action and key word for your story. Mine was horror, 'taking a test drive' and the word 'enable'. Lucas saying '‘It’ll enable you to go to the moon!” doesn't sit well with me as dialogue, but it was a way of getting the word in and continuing the story. I usually write about locations in the UK, but I was drawn to the idea of a test drive in the desert and a car that does something terrible to people, a modern day Christine as such. The story is slightly ambigious, who has hacked into Brody and Lucas' channel and sent them to their deaths? It's a dystopian vision of a 'Wear Your Seat Belt' awareness campaign.

Please do let me know your thoughts!

7 January 2022

On Leos Carax and Sparks' Annette (2021)

Many of you will have heard me sing the praises of Annette (2021) through my social media accounts. And I know we're not talking about books here, but as an author many of my influences are outside literature and in the wider world of the Arts. I'm influenced by Stephen King, but also by David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, Chris Morris, Keith Haring, Debbie Harry, Dario Argento, David Cronenberg, Wes Craven, Madonna and many more. When I write, I see pictures; I see images, I see visuals, I see landscapes like Kubrick. My stories play out like I'd watch them on screen. I now add Annette to one of the most beautiful and inspiring pieces of art I have seen for some time. It's outstanding, with the best performance Adam Driver has put in to date. I could watch it every week. I think I have watched it every week so far since it came onto MUBI.

Why do I love it so much? It's bold, creative and fresh. You'll not have seen anything like this. If you mix Leos Carax, a visionary who takes risks, with the wit and quirkiness of Sparks, then you've got something very special indeed. Add into this a musical - a rock, revenge opera essentially - and two strong leads, plus one amazing little girl, out of this world, stunning cinematography, and a haunting, disturbing plot, it's wow, Bob, wow.

And, oh boy, Adam Driver. As Henry McHenry, he got firmly under my bloody skin. He's an abhorrent character but one you can't take your eyes off. He prowls the stage as The Ape of God, menancing, threatening, and you fear for Ann (Marion Cotillard) and little baby Annette. How Driver has not been nominated for more awards this year is beyond me, as it's an Academy-worthy performance in my eyes. Yes, he's that good.

Baby Annette. Sweet baby Annette. You'll be swept away by her and her toy monkey, which she gives mouth-to-mouth to after the ship incident and she flies through the sky with in musical sequences. When she is forced on stage for the first time, I found this so emotional and there's a perfect, horrific moment where Henry rips her monkey away from her. And the Hyper Bowl and her drones is extraordinary. What she delivers to Henry in denouncement is *Chef's Kiss*.

Yes, she's a puppet, but we know why. Henry doesn't see her as a real little girl, she's something to be exploited and monetised. The ending, whilst heartbreaking, brings closure for Annette. Also keep an eye on that girl at the start of the film. I have my theory about her.

As I've been writing over Christmas and into this year, I've been thinking a lot about Annette and I am incredibly inspired by what Carax and Sparks' have delivered. Thank you to them. This film is truly a gift. Hold onto your influences tight, embrace them, and let them help and guide you to create your own art.

27 October 2021

On Stephen King's The Stand

Over 33 years ago, I first read Stephen King. My Mum worked in our local library in Essex, so I spent much of my youth there and deliciously skimmed the adult fiction section looking at all the delights that were slightly out of my reach at that time. The same can be said for the browsing of the local video rental store; you'd always find me in the horror section looking in fascination and disgust at the VHS front and back covers of Carrie, Chopping Mall and Ghost Ship. I was a macabre child, it's fair to say, and it's no wonder now that I write horror. It only clicked a few years ago when I undertook my MA in Creative Writing and refused to ignore any longer that you really should 'write what you know', and that what I know - with an overactive imagination and tendency to overthink calamity in any scenario - is the strange and the horrific.

The first King I read was Pet Sematary. As an animal lover, it was truly repugnant but King's way with words and his ability to carve out a gruesome story with human interest sucked me completely in. This was closely followed by Salem's Lot, Carrie and The Tommyknockers, and I loved every book. I remember thinking 'Wow, he can get away with that?!' with the more horrific descriptions, and they were always relatively quick reads for me due to his pace and flow (well, maybe some of the books that are less like doorstops - we'll come to that shortly). They were also an early introduction to 'romance' in some of its more squelchy forms. Yep, they were certainly an eye-opener for a young girl in a village in Essex.

And then I read The Stand, and to be honest I found it hard going. Probably as I was too young for it then. It didn't capture me as much as the stories of rabid dogs, reanimated cats, vampires at your window and Prom Night revenge. The themes of a devastating global pandemic and an almighty battle between good and evil were a bit beyond me then. But today, oh today, in my 40s, that's why I've returned to read the book.

It's an absolute masterpiece, isn't it? The complexity of the plot and characters, interweaving, coming together at the right time, is superb. The menace of Randall Flagg in this particular book is so strong, he's a fantastic threat and bubbles along under the narrative as a constant presence. I'm particularly enjoying this time around Trashcan Man's story arc, as upsetting as it is. Perhaps the story bites even more as we've been through COVID and the scenes at the start of the novel echo what we have experienced of deserted New York City and the fear going through us all. Even though we're reading over 1,000 pages, at no point does the story get boring or have anything in it which I would deem unneccessary to the plot. King makes every word count, as all brilliant authors do with their craft.

I should be finished by Christmas. And then I'm seriously considering going back and reading the master's entire back catalogue.

5 September 2021

Generating Ideas For A Theme

One of my goals for 2021 is to enter more creative writing competitions. They really help in terms of building not only your confidence as a writer, but also your profile too if you are successful. Many will set a theme, and encourage you to be as bold and adventurous with that theme as possible. So how do you generate ideas around a theme?

The technique I find most successful is to set myself an online alarm and just let my mind go wild, coming up with as many different ideas as I can within that timeframe. They may be plots, they could just be one word. Don't discount anything at this stage, just get the words down no matter how absurd or silly they seem. I find it works best for me to have a notepad and pen, to jot down on one page - almost a spider diagram.

When your time limit is up, stop and put the page/ideas away overnight. Come back to it the next day and see what has legs, and what you can get rid of. Where will you go from here? I then go on to plot my story in a three act structure (thanks Syd Field, I come back to this screenwriting technique again and again).

So here we go, I'll allow myself five minutes now and type some ideas below for the theme of - via Random Word Generator - CONFIDE

A listening ear of a friend; a secret that comes out; a friendship that turns sour; Official Secret's Act; a stranger tells a secret; agony aunt; therapist; a tweet that blows up; a dark secret that comes out; a secret that is held for a long time; a vampire tells his/her story; spies; phones a hotline and tells a secret

There's some really interesting ideas here, although five minutes is not very long. The ideas that come through most to me are secrets and telling secrets, as well as spaces/professionals where someone would talk in confidence to that person. A vampire tells his/her story - well, of course, that's been done before (very successfully!) but could it relate to another gruesome creature or character?

I'd love to know more about how you generate your ideas for themes - please do post a comment.