Assignment 3: Characters Drawn from Life

• Choose one person and invent a life for them. Think about who might be in terms of occupation, relationships with family and friends, pets or lack of them, personal possessions or lack of them, personality quirks and flaws, likes and dislikes, obsessions and dreams, crimes or acts of bravery or charity in their past. Don’t give your imagination completely free rein; try instead to link everything you say to something you can observe in the person. Write about 300-400 words. 

She stomps down the street like a runway, looking straight ahead like no one else exists. She is, in fact, a barmaid on the way to the post office to post her nieces birthday present, which is in the large oversized carrier bag she is carrying, before work. She hates ques and as it's lunch time knows the post office queue will be out the door. It's a sunny day which makes her happy and she dreams of maybe being able to afford a holiday abroad in the sun this year, that's if she can convince her boyfriend to take the time off work.

As she walks she is regretting her choice of shoes, the new boots with the 4 inch heel were a bad choice from a 7 hour bar shift, but she likes to look good to make her feel better about her boring bar job. She has to use her Fashion merchandising degree somehow.

She wishes she had a dog, one of those little ones rich women keep in their handbags, not as a fashion accessory but for company while her work-a-holic boyfriend works his long hours. She would look good walking a dog, like one of those upper class Parisian ladies you see on tv.

As she walks towards the post office, her eyes start to drift down to watch peoples feet, she is obsessed with shoes and finds herself judging people solely on the state of their footwear. As Haim blasts through her headphones she remembers last summer when she saw them at Glastonbury just before she graduated, it seems like a lifetime ago, when the possibility of moving to London to get a job in fashion still seemed possible. She's not given up completely but the job applications seem few and far between now.

As she finally reaches the post office, she is relieved the queue isn't as big as she thought it would be and begins to wonder what she will do on her day off tomorrow.