We’re starting to plan our final short story on the Open University FutureLearn Start Writing Fiction course. My idea has in part been inspired by this graffitied door on the Via di S. Giovanni in Laterano, just up the road from the Ludus Magnus gladiatorial school, behind the Colosseum. I find it hard to look at a door like that – set in an old crumbling wall with a rusting wrought iron grille above – without trying to imagine what might lie behind it.
I’ve been trying to get away from the dour mood of some of my previous assignments, which is why I’ve moved the action on to sun-drenched Rome. I was hoping to get away from Hitchcockian thrillers and move towards to P G Wodehouse light humour, but that’s proved too difficult, so I’ve compromised and it’s a just rather sillier than usual thriller plot.
A Table on the Terrace
My story starts on the terrace of a restaurant closely modelled on the Ristorante C71Maximum, which overlooks the Circus Maximus. We called here for a coffee during our short break in Rome in February. How could you not want to use the location in a short story?
Note the door below, which is the Marmi bar, which – strictly in fictionalised form! – is going to play a small part in the plot.
Storyboard
I’m featuring two characters from my writer’s notebook: Rosie the tattooed Egyptologist and the ‘Ophelia’-like woman who walked along our street holding a posy of herbs. She will probably be called Kiera Atkin.
Rather than launch straight into the story, we’ve been asked to try various ways of developing our character, such as giving the person an unattainable goal to aim for and writing a scene as if the character herself had written it.
The Roman gangster In my story didn’t come from real life, I’m relieved to say. When we were in Rome Netflix were launching the second series of, Suburra, in which the gangsters take on corrupt politicians and the Vatican in an attempt to seize control of the underworld in the Eternal City. A huge billboard advertised the series opposite the Ludus Magnus:
‘All’ombra di Roma c’e un altro impero.’
‘In the shadow of Rome there is another empire.’
Poster ‘Suburra: Blood on Rome’
There’s going to be time to edit and rethink the story next week but we’ve been encouraged to start with an outline, just to get things going. I often plan out my publications in a very rough storyboard form, which is what I’ve done here. Along with all the snippets of scenes, dialogue and description, I feel that I’m already well on my way to getting the story to work. Silly as it may be!