Panic

I hated going home alone in the dark after work, but in the autumn and winter I have no choice. As a woman I felt particularly vurnerable and often envied men for lacking this kind of vurnerability. I have always led a sheltered life, never opening up to the wider world more than was absolutely necessary to function in the world. I usually made the occasional friend at work and would stay in touch with old friends through social networking websites. Most people called me self absorbed as I was generally wrapped up in my own world and lacked self awareness. At work, I would concentrate on whatever job I was doing but sometimes be unaware of what was happening around me. Today was just one of those days.

I walked to the bus stop as usual, not really noticing the people around me. There was a Number 29 due in 12 minutes which stopped very close to where I live. I opened my handbag and got out my purse to get ready the usual bus money when I was startled by a noise behind me. I looked round. A drunken man in his late twenties was leaning against the low bus bench, leering at me. I was surprised but ignored him. Having got out the money, I made to put my purse back when the drunk for some bizzare reason started to get aggressive. I put the purse back anyway but got scared. I didn't have a problem watching things like this on television but I didn't want to get caught up in it myself.

I backed away as he started coming towards me. I looked around but there was no-one else about. I had been referred to as "paranoid" by the occasional friend or neighbour and it got blamed on my liking for Dramas and crime fiction but I didn't think of myself as paranoid. I picked up a brick that was lying down near me and continued to back away. I didn't care that the man was drunk, I just didn't want to be attacked. Suddenly panicking, I hit him with it. He fell to the ground and I stood in utter shock with the brick in my hand. Normally I wouldn't have behaved like this but at this point all I cared about was my own safety and I panicked, even though the drunken man hadn't actually tried to attack me - i just feared that he would.

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Author guidance for This exercise

If you love detective stories, or thrillers that involve a crime to be solved then play this. Choose an object and setting of your choice and then write a scene in which the object is stolen, or someone is killed or whatever. For example, someone lashing out in self defence with an object.

Interesting and/or unusual objects like a torch or a tea tray or whatever would be great. Also it's more of a challenge - what I mean by this is that a tea tray for instance would be an original choice of murder weapon rather than something cliche like a knife. A person having the compulsion to kill would be a more unusual motive than doing it for money - but if you can't think of any original ideas the cliche ones are fine too.

I love crime writing and wrote Jacqueline, Retribution and then Inspector Silverstein but the next one I tried to do didn't work out and then I got writers block, and I have deeply admired novels like Three Act Tragedy where motives, the way the person was killed or whatever was original and unusual.

I have marked this mature in case you want to include mature content in your scenarios.

Although I originally intended for each chapter to be a new piece, you can carry on from the previous one if you want to, and the pieces can be written in first, second or third person though obviously if the piece carries on from the previous it must use the same viewpoint, tense etc.

Thanks. :)

updated Oct 24 '11 by 98slbrookes98