The Christmas season seems to arrive earlier every year. Once the John Lewis Christmas advert drops, that’s it, there’s no going back. It arrived on November 9th and it didn’t disappoint.
The original masters of emotional marketing offer us a carnivorous plant, a boy and a unique friendship. But it’s no ordinary plant, it’s a Venus flytrap that provides us with more laughs than tears for 2023. Andrea Bocelli sings Fiesta, a perfect lively song to accompany this unusual and quirky story.
It fits nicely with the fiction writing exercise for this month in the Just Write Together pre-record on WriteWell. Follow along to the recording and pace yourself through the writing material. Once you are a member you can access each month’s writing class here.
Find two objects in your home and pair them together to create an unusual scenario. It could be a toothbrush, a plant, a shoe or anything else that catches your eye. If the objects could talk, what would they say? How many miles has your shoe walked and what has it seen? Jot down some notes, not worrying too much about creating a story at this point. Allow your two objects to strike up a conversation.
The John Lewis advert shows us that a story can develop from the most unusual things.
Placing a Venus flytrap as an alternative to the Christmas fir tree but with a personality to do extraordinary things, like helping the boy make Christmas decorations, shows how almost anything can work once you place it appropriately.
The festive season setting is the perfect time of year for the young boy to discover a seedling in a box at an antique fair. It makes its way to the young boy’s living room and grows wild and free.
And it’s a useful plant too. By the end, it proves itself by the way it unwraps the presents quicker than anyone else. It’s a heartwarming story with all the hallmarks of the Christmas tradition we love but with a twist.
This December why not enrol in WriteWell’s 4-week Starting to Write Fiction 2 course, which explores setting, planning a story and working with time.
You’ll find weekly step-by-step guidance from experienced writers and you can take the writing tasks in your own time. There are no deadlines to write to, only brilliant material available to you!
Join WriteWell today.
