Creative Writing
From a short story about Germany’s remembrance culture, to an excerpt of my current project: a collaborative play about peer pressure — my writing in the past three years has encompassed a wide variety of themes and styles.
My studies of English and Creative Writing at university encouraged me to be experimental and to tackle topics outside my comfort zone. It was often challenging to start an assignment for something that I had no prior experience in (like writing an entire one-hour play!) but getting the chance to workshop my pieces and receive feedback from professors and peers was an incredible valuable part of learning the craft of writing.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
A short story about Germany’s remembrance culture
I wrote this text in February 2024 for my “Vernacular Literature” module. We were encouraged to examine our own cultural influences and bring them to life through our unique vernacular.
Part of the assignment was to write a methodology in which we reflected on influences in the creative process and our use of language. It also includes some translations of the German passages.
“The back seat used to feel like a trap. It had made her nauseous, as if she was a pregnant woman and the foetus inside the womb at the same time – isolated, too big for its surroundings and carelessly tossed from side to side.”
Mirrors and Echoes
The opening chapter of a novel about three generations of women trying to get wiser without having to grow up
This chapter marks the beginning of my creative writing dissertation. The complete piece is currently at 15000 words and I still occasionally return to my three beloved protagonists to continue their story.
My main focus during the writing process was to establish unique and lovable protagonists, who were on drastically different paths in life, yet still shared similarities. After working on many short stories, it was a challenge to slow down the pace and let the characters take over, but I love what it ended up being — and I hope you do too!
“There were only three things she remembered from that windy February day: the fact that her grandmother showed up without any birthday presents, that she had not known about Sam’s lactose intolerance, and that little golden spoon that had sparkled in the light of the golden chandelier and which she had stolen in silent scorn. ”
11:11
One of my favourite free verse poems
This poem was originally part of a portfolio about the theme of “Time”, written during my first year at university. Revisiting the portfolio now, I must admit, that they are rather full of clichés and I had forgotten, that I even wrote most of them. Yet, this one has always stuck in my head — and that must be a good sign, right?
Writing poetry is not my area of expertise, and most of the poems I do write end up in the comfort of secrecy in my journal. Poetry requires a level of vulnerability that intimidates me. However, poetry is meant to be shared, even if that means to step outside of my comfort zone.
“Do not open your eyes. No. Not yet. Not ever again. Let the darkness turn into swirls of colours, promising you a treacherous fresh start.”
Toast is not Bread – Toast is a Disappointment
An opinion piece From a German Girl in England
Moving abroad, even if it is just a few countries over, comes with a cultural shock around every corner. This one jumped at me in the Tesco “bread” aisle.
Instead of letting my heightened emotions get the best of me and flee the country, I wrote an opinion piece for an imaginary column. This created a reoccurring writing alter-ego, in which I found an ideal outlet for turning my disappointment into something positive: humour.
“White, thin, weirdly dimensioned toast; that was the moment I knew: I had made a mistake. ”
24-Hour Virgin
An in-the-making collaborative play about peer pressure and lads culture
This project was born during a second year playwriting module and it has continued to lived with us for the past two years. As with any great project, it is not yet finished. However, our final rounds of edits are almost complete and we are now making plans to enter it into scratch nights in the hopes of getting to see it on stage soon!
I've only included a very small snippet in this portfolio so as not to give too much away, but as soon as we have more news I'll share it here.
“Don’t know why you’re laughing, Virgin”