Alex's Bit of Everything

  I remember that old journey well. It was the summer holidays for Catie, and I was supposed to be starting school soon – we were headed on a short family trip away. Dad got a puncture on the motorway. He had to change out the tire on the side of the road as the cars whizzed past. He probably didn’t fit it properly – that must have been what caused the crash. I had started to think I was delusional after waiting for hours, the relentless assault of wind and rain a cruel test. I’d finally made it to that same road but was no closer to speaking with them. I was a wreck. The kind stranger had settled back into his car, children in the back peering through the back window as he indicated and set off. That was when it finally arrived. With a flat tire, it rolled up behind me, the headlights flickering in rain and inky blackness. I staggered over to the driver’s door, hands shaking, glad to finally bring everything to an end. Dad opened the door and pulled me into a loving hug. His...

The situation with the police was dealt with fairly quickly. They asked their questions and I gave them answers. Hazel came to pick me up after I’d been issued both a hefty fine and been advised to go to a doctor. I kept seeing the car after the accident. It would pass by multiple times a day, though I got in the habit of pretending I didn’t see it in front of others. People would think I was crazy when I mentioned it. My relationship with Hazel became strained as I tried to explain myself to her - she’d respond to me kindly but it was clear that she wasn’t taking me seriously. She slyly encouraged me to seek help with a therapist. When everyone else was out, I attempted to chase down the vehicle but it eluded me when I tried to pursue it, speeding off out of sight. I knew who was in there, that same hand waving out of the window - Catie had begun to stick her head out now. One day I’d had enough. I saw it trundling by and made a split second decision. I grabbed the keys to my car in...

  The first time that I saw the red car was about two months ago. I didn’t think much of it at a first glance. After sitting at my home desk for hours on end, I couldn’t help gazing out the window – the sun was out, the breeze was comforting and with a dozen unopened emails waiting for me, it made for a pleasant distraction. Something burned in the distance, smoke drifting in through the open window; my pulse quickened and I found my hand unconsciously clawing at my throat. I slammed the window shut and took a shaky breath. The car itself arrived at our house around lunchtime. It seemed to slow down as it passed by, an old red family car spluttering with its headlights on despite the clear blue sky above. From behind the driver’s side a window lowered erratically. I assumed it must’ve been one of those old winding ones. A small white hand snuck through the half open window and waved from the back seat, though their face was obscured from the sun’s reflection. Must’ve been a child. ...

The Red Car I held a trembling arm out with my thumb pointed to the sky, sopping wet hair plastered to my forehead and blood rushing down my foot from the bite of a jagged rock. Wave after wave of cascading water scraped at my skin. My vision had begun to blur about ten minutes ago – I hoped it was just the rain, it was getting hard to tell. I shuddered in the empty darkness and howling wind. This road was no place for people. As the occasional car whizzed past me in the storm, I knew my opportunity for finding it was slim. But while the lone sign at the side of the road was faded, the surrounding trees and landscape were unchanged – this was the right place. I couldn’t miss it. I wouldn’t miss it. Numbness crept from my feet to my legs and the bitter chill forced me to dig my nails into the palm of my left hand, the stabbing pain a forceful and necessary reminder that I was still alive. How many hours had I been stood here? A sharp cramp stabbed my stomach as it growled desperately, b...

  With the upcoming release of Ace Attorney Investigations, the return of Phoenix Wright doesn’t look too far away.   While everyone’s favourite lawyer has been off the grid since 2016 with the release of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice, the prospect of an Ace Attorney 7 seems closer than ever for fans of the franchise. Following the success of the port of the original trilogy on all consoles, Capcom has shown a trend of steadily putting every Ace Attorney game on modern systems with the shiny new coat of a remaster. These releases have included not just the main series titles, but also spinoffs: the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and the soon to be released Ace Attorney Investigations Collection . Both of these remasters include new games that were previously unreleased on western consoles, that of The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve and soon to be Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor’s Gambit . When everything has been released, it poses the questio...

So I've just graduated with a first class degree in creative writing and one of the first things I've chosen to do is hop on this little blog and share some writing tips - the things that I personally found the most helpful in developing my style of writing while at university. I'm sure that for pretty much everyone, your first draft will be far from what you've envisioned. You could have been planning a particular story for days, weeks, maybe even years with well formed of characters and plot. Alas, when it comes to representing everything you need to on the page, it is a woefully inadequate version of what you were imagining. And that's normal. There's a reason that authors have editors, and even their draft manuscript that they send off will have been reworked numerous times. Step one of improving is embracing the stink of the first draft. Writing something bad is better than writing nothing at all; writing something bad can very quickly turn in to writing so...