Writing Challenge–Day 23

The brief for Day 23 of the 30-Day writing challenge reads: “One night your character decides to leave home and never come back (you decide the reason). But at the airport, he or she encounters an old friend, and they get in a conversation. Something about this conversation (you decide what it is) makes leaving home suddenly seem much more difficult than your character had expected…

This scenario is a lot more difficult that one first imagines. The first bit about why the character leaves home is quite easy – determine anything that makes life difficult for him and you have the reason for him to leave. But the bit about then being in two minds because of what an old friend says… note that it is an old friend…

I have spent a number of hours sketching two different situations, but have discarded them because the reasons for leaving as in the conversation with the old friend at the airport are not at all plausible: if you’ve bought your plane ticket and you’re about to catch your flight, then the reason to cancel must be pretty solid – it is indeed life-changing.

In my first attempt a 17-year-old is forced to look after his two smaller brothers every day while his alcoholic father ill-treats him. He finds out that the siblings are fosters and he decides to leave to start a new life. The second attempt dealt with a printing salesman who worked for his father-in-law and was having problems playing his employer off against his wife…

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