The jump-off line comes from In the Middle by Barbara Crooker. It’s the first piece of Wild Writing I had done in third person. And personally I quite like it. Also, my norm for fiction is to write in third person. I mean, I can write in first person as well but my go-to is just the third person because it comes more naturally to me and I realise I have a tendency to write about mild-tempered protagonists (and from personal experience the first person seems to work better with an opinionated character). Anyway, the piece is below:
One day she looked out the window and saw herself. Saw herself for what she really was. She ran outside joyously and embraced herself.
One day she looked out the window and saw her father. She turned her face away, not deigning to look at that unworthy face. A face she had forgotten anway.
One day she looked out the window and saw her sister. She never had a sister. All she had wanted was a brother. An elder brother. Someone who would adore her, protect her. She looked at that face outside the window. There was not a face there at all. She was looking at air.
One day she looked out the window and saw only the sky. No clouds, just a wide expanse of sky like an unending bolt of cloth. She smiled and closed her eyes.
One day she looked out the window and breathed in spring. No scents but she knew it was spring. It hummed in the air.
One day she looked out the window and heard autumn. The quiet fluttering as leaves returned to their roots, to be fuel for the next spring.
One day she looked out the window and saw time. It was not a clock or a person. It was a cube, then a prism, then a serpent, then a sun, then shapes she could no longer recognise. It did not speak to her. Neither did she to it. There was a blink. It left. IT was just passing through.
One day she looked out the window and saw herself again. She ran out joyously and embraced herself.
Moonlake's Fiction Space 