In her creative writing workshops British author Clare Wigfall read out the really short story “Safe” as an example of a dystopian story, meaning a story which takes place in a really undesirable (negative) future society. The pupils were taught how to start writing a (dystopian) story – so here are some examples of creative texts, introductions as well as finished stories (on Friday we’ll publish a really long one, definitely worth reading!!!).
In the final part there are three short stories based on a photo input (different photos, though).
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It was the day everything fell into ruin
It was the day I met him, like everyone did this day. It was a meeting I never had expected. I thought him being far away.
It was the day everything fell into ruin.
I had no idea about the date we had; however I knew, I would never forget this day. You lose your sense of time, when your whole world stops moving.
I wrapped my hand around the stick, hoping it would protect me.
I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream but my throat was empty. I wanted to turn my back, I didn’t want to see anymore. I wished darkness before my closed, teary eyes; such a comfortable view. Monochrome and silent. No red of burning flames or blood. No desperate screams of people crying for help.
My black, silent world. But my eyes widened even more. Standing on a hill I could see it. I could see everything and I wasn’t able to take my eyes from it. I saw it falling into ruin.
Brick by brick.
Burning to ash.
Though I stood so far away from it, the fire burned my eyes.
I never thought I would meet him – not at my age of twelve.
And I never knew that he would come that fast and so close.
But now, he was here, stealing lights away. He was everywhere. In the town and even one step behind me.
The person you are never pleased to meet.
The person called “Death“.
Katharina
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First Steps on an Unknown Planet
He looks around. It’s dark and the sky has a black color without any stars. He thinks about his girlfriend ‘There is no chance that she died! I know her for 12 years and she is strong enough. I will see her again. I’m sure about that.’ Tom hears nothing but the silence. Never before has he heard absolutely nothing. And suddenly he realizes that he is alone. There are no other creatures on this planet. Everything is destroyed. A teardrop rolls over his pale face. And he takes the first step on this unknown planet.
Elena
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Zombies aren’t really your best friends
John is 21 years old, he is alone. Well, there are Zombies with him, but I guess you can’t say that you can be happy with that. Because Zombies aren’t really your best friends, though. They are more like your enemies and they like brains, especially your brain! So, John wants to escape – from the world. He thinks he hasn’t got anyone on the world. When he went to Oklahoma with a stolen car, he found an old farm where he hid for several months. One day he went to a city 12 miles away from his farm to get new food and medicine and weapons. On his way he shot 16 Zombies who wanted to attack him but then he saw a girl who really didn’t look like a Zombie and ran through a street after she had hid behind a trashbucket. John screamed and yelled at her. When she saw him, her eyes glanced. There was hope in her eyes. John shot a Zombie that came along. She got scared. John stopped the car and the girl ran to him. She breathed very fast.
John started the car. He drove along the street and parked in front of a supermarket, where no Zombies were. They still didn’t talk a word. Suddenly she started a conversation with a ”Hi, I’m Jane.”. They got into a long conversation while John was searching for food and other helpful things in the supermarket. She just walked by his side and told him about her story and that she had lost her whole family to the Zombies and hid herself in an old hospital at night.
John took her home. They felt safe. One day, when he was going home to the farm, after he had gone to the forest, he saw thousands of Zombies at the farm.
He ran as fast as he could but he couldn’t help it anymore. The Zombies got Jane. He screamed and cried. His new-found hope was gone, he lost Jane in the Zombie invasion.
The Zombies got attentive because of John’s screams. But he got his eyes closed, he opened them when he heard some strange noises in front of him and saw all the Zombies coming toward him. He ran to his car and turned on the engine. He drove away from the farm, crying. After hours of driving he didn’t know where he was. But he was still crying. He drove along a lonely highway. Every hundred meters there were some crashed cars with dead persons or Zombies. He knew he was lost. After days of only driving around he stopped the car on the highway. He took his gun and held it to his head. His eyes hurt and were red. There was no other way. He lost his only hope and he got crazy in the last days. He started conversations with himself and had no food for days.
There was no noise around him. He pulled the trigger, a loud noise came out of the gun.
He took his life, two miles before he reached the military base where he could have been safe with other people who gave up on their hope. But he didn’t make it.
Fenja
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No Signs of Living Humans
He wakes up, confused, armed with only a torch in a big forest with no signs of living humans nor any other living being. Not able to run fast he decides to walk through the forest, trying to find a way out, to find civilization. When suddenly he finds a car. Maybe hope, but it is destroyed very quickly since the key isn’t in the car. He slams the door full of anger and apparently a sheet of paper drops right in front of his feet. He stares at it for a moment… [to be continued]
Huy
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Julie Coulson
It was a big lie. All those years I believed he was gone forever. All those months I spent crying alone in my room, reading about his adventures he wrote down for me.
Only to find out that he was still there. Anywhere. But there.
Kenny, that’s what I decided to call my new furry friend, barked in his sleep. It seemed like he was dreaming. I did not want to wake him up.
I leaned back in my chair and took a deep breath. Down here in my hideout, the air was a lot cooler than outside. I spent a lot of time down here, trying to make contact with other survivors through this radio station. But I did not expect to find him. I heard his voice again.
“My name is Lennard Coulson. Are there any survivors?“ I did not manage to respond. This could not be! My grandfather was dead! There is nothing I could do about it. Maybe I was just going crazy. I’ve been alone for months. It is a miracle that I managed to stay sane for this long anyway.
”My name is… Tyler Green“, I lied into the microphone. I was afraid to tell him who I really was.
”Tyler, where are you? Are you alone? Why are you still down there?“ ”Down where?“, I asked confusedly. ”Down on earth, of course!“ And that was when I realized that a lot more had happened, during the time I was knocked out, than I knew.
I can tell you are confused. Let me just start at the beginning.
My real name is Julie Coulson. The last time I knew what my age was, I was 16 years old.
I lived anywhere in the states, I guess. To be honest, I do not quite remember those things anymore.
It’s not like they still matter, do they? I can’t tell you a lot about my parents either.
I remember everything about them, but there is not a lot to remember. I’ve almost never seen them.
They were always too busy to spend time with me. They went to work all day. And sometimes they travelled to foreign countries. Without taking me with them, of course.
When I was too young to stay at home alone, they left me with my grandfather at his house.
I sure do remember his house better than my own. I even had my own room!
Grandfather and I would sit under a tent made of blankets and chairs we made ourselves, and he would tell me about all those adventures he went on, when he was younger.
He was one of the greatest explorers the world had ever seen, and there is no doubt about that.
Sadly he passed away when I was 12 years old. But he loved me and he left me a lot of his stuff too!
I’m the proud owner of the diaries he kept with him during his adventures and a beautiful shining knife. Every time I hold it in my hands, I imagine how he used it to cut liana or fight dangerous animals. Before he passed away, he told me to ”use it wisely.“ It was such a cliché, but that’s why I loved him.
Four years later on another day I spent alone at home, the thing happened. The big thing. I’m not trying to overdramatize something, I swear. It was a big thing. I’m not talking about the spring break, my first kiss, meeting my celebrity crush, or anything else a normal teenage girl would refer to as a big thing. It was the apocalypse. The literal apocalypse.
I ran out of the house when thousands of meteors fell from the sky. I can’t remember what happened after that.
When I woke up, I found myself in the middle of a lonely desert. There were no buildings, people or plants. My throat burned because I was so thirsty. After finding a broken satellite dish, I figured out that the houses had to be somewhere under the sand. I dogged down beside it and it wasn’t too long until I found the top of the roof. I managed to break one of the windows and climb down into the house. Luckily, I found a lot of water bottles and some food that still looked kind of edible.
It was the same house, where I found Kenny. His leg was trapped under a closet and the poor dog whimpered the whole time. I searched for a first aid kit after I had freed him and tried to make a bandage around his leg, to avoid more loss of blood.
Together we travelled through the desert until we found this hideout. We only went out to grab some water and food from desolated houses. Kenny was a really smart dog because every time I started digging, he just joined in and helped me.
Well, this is how we lived through a few months. I guess that now you understand why I was in a bit of a shock when my grandfather made contact with me.
“Where else should I be?” My voice was trembling. “You seem to have missed a lot of stuff. Do not worry, we have your coordinates. I will come down to you and pick you up. There is a lot to explain.” There sure was a lot to explain. All of the sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks. Picking me up? My grandfather, who I thought was dead and who probably did still think that I was dead, was about to meet me? I jumped out of my chair, walking up and down through the tiny room. Kenny woke up because I made such a noise while panicking from one corner of the room to another. “I’m sorry, my dear”, I said, walking up to him and petting his head.
Wherever my grandfather wanted to take me, I needed to pack my things. I grabbed an old dusty backpack from underneath the desk and stuffed some clothes into it. Kenny was watching me curiously while I put my grandfather’s diaries and the knife into the backpack, too.
It made me remember that they were the only things I took with me during the end of the world. There was nothing else I cared about a lot. Just the knife and three and a half diaries. The forth was complete once, but grandfather used to tell me that the other half was eaten by a crocodile.
Actually, I never believed in that story. He probably just wasn’t careful enough and broke it, so he had to find an excuse. “Come over here, Kenny. We’ll go on an adventure!” Excited, like she understood me, she ran after me. Before I shut the door to our hideout, I took my time to look into it for surely the last time. I knew, wherever I was going, I wouldn’t return. It might sound strange, but no matter how awful and lonely my time down here was, I will miss this place. Even though I spent most of my time down here being afraid of dying, it was the only safe place to go.
It was my home for so long, and I fancied the idea of spending the rest of my short life in there. I sighed deeply, closing my eyes as I shut the door. “Calm down, Kenny”, I mumbled under another sigh. As so often in the past, he was barking at something which was probably nothing but a piece of trash he was afraid of. But when I turned around, I laid my eyes on something else. Or rather someone.
Doreen
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Stories based on a photo input
Mysterious Woman
Mary sits on her chair in the pub, like every single day. Every day she waits for him. Every day she makes herself up like on the first date they had. He’ll never come. She knows that but she doesn’t want to give up hoping for his return. Mary grabs her beer, her sixth, she drinks the rest of it. Then orders a new one. She waits for hours, but the man doesn’t come. She looks disappointedly into the air, thinking about the man, only about him. But she knows he’ll never come to another place anymore. She isn’t proud of that and she knows that she never should have done this, but she did…
She killed him!
Antke
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The Moment
At the moment it was happening we all were together at the window of the café, which is in front of the worst place ever. I knew that all lay in my hands. My brother and my eight-year-old sister stood by my side. We all had to see the worst moment in our lives. It was so bad. Romeo, my elder brother, took my hand and shook it very hard. Julia, my little sister, jumped to the window as if she wanted to stop it. Her screams were awful. This moment, when our parents were murdered, was the worst I’ve ever seen. All this time I swore to revenge them and I was no longer myself, but just a shell that looked like me.
Pia
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An Unexpected Evening
One day Bella and her boyfriend Sam were invited to a birthday party of Sam’s friend. Happy to spend time with her boyfriend Bella and he went outside and walked to the party. It was a beautiful evening and the moon was shining brightly. When they arrived, everybody was already there. It was a great atmosphere until Sam disappeared. Bella was worried about him, so she began looking form him. Suddenly she saw him kissing another woman. At this moment she rushed out of the door and began to cry. Finally, sitting in a bar, she was angry because of being hurt but also sad about losing Sam. The trust in their relationship was broken. Having drunk a bit of alcohol, she walked outside. Her teardrops reached the ground at the same time the raindrops were falling down into big puddles. Bella walked down the street into the depressing darkness, hearing nothing but the sound of raindrops falling onto the stony ground of the street.
Delina
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