Love Kills
Wiping away a solitary tear he scribbled goodbye on his tattered notepad. Her words repeated in his head. He locked the door, drew the curtains and fell motionless to the ground.
“you are worthless and mean nothing to me” She said.
Her words stabbed deeper than his knife ever could.
Jen Pickering 2011
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I found an old memory stick the other day and on it was an anthology I had to create during my first year at university. The anthology contained many things including the short story above. I love reading through my old pieces. Seeing how I used to write and reflecting on where I am now. I always loved writing stories and in that same anthology was my first picture book I ever created, a story about a mouse named Barry. During my masters I wrote another one about a red umbrella and the two styles are completely different. The artwork for both, however, is equally slightly lacking in skill and maybe effort. I think I have decided that I am now going to set myself a mini-project; to rework both of them and post them here so look out for those!
Looking back, I still enjoy my own style. It was definitely more direct with less depth but it is still something I enjoy reflecting on. It is like a time capsule of who I was and what interested me at the time. It was also from a time where I didn’t use my personal life to influence my work and I feel that in injecting who I am into my work it has only become stronger. Using real experiences rather than trying to create new ones has helped take my work from being “frilly” to real and has made it more relatable for others (or at least, I like to think so) and has generally improved the style. Actually studying writing and learning from others and reading a range of styles has helped too and now I have many influences to draw from. I’d definitely say I am a better writer now but I’d also still give 19 year old me credit for what she could do as well!
Love Jen x
Jennifer Pickering 