T3 Journal - Student Writing in Drama, University of Exeter 2018-19
Rose Petal Jam Ridhi Kotecha
Rose Petal Jam is a thriller/mystery short story about a chef whose husband mysteriously disappears and her sudden rise to fame, unravelling the dark secrets of her success.I wrote this story in March 2019 as a Creative Writing piece for English. As I have recently been trying to experiment with scriptwriting, I composed this short story in such a way that it could be performed as a monologue or a dramatic reading. It was quite an exciting piece to create as it was my first time writing a short story as well as my first time writing in this genre. Although writing a short story for the first time was testing, I feel that I was able to keep the reader in suspense throughout my piece till the very last word and my experience in writing poetry definitely helped with this. The ideas behind some of my poems influenced my style and plot in this story as well, as my writing often revolves around emotionally challenging topics. I’m a fan of the arts and a lot of the
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music I listen to and the films I watch influence and inspire my writing. I often write down my favourite lyrics and dialogues and everything I write has some truth to it, as I combine these with things that I have written about my own life experiences. A film I watched last year (White Bird In A Blizzard ) and one of my favourite songs (Nikki) influenced the plot of my story. My own experiences such as my recent interest in crafting unusual food combinations and dealing with personal issues including trying to give up smoking, helped to develop the persona of my main character (the chef ), as well as certain events in my story, Rose Petal Jam.