Hey guys ,
I was just looking through old creative work for an application – and I found this document which has all of the comments people put on my short story, The Wall. It was beautiful to read people’s impressions of my work and how they had been impacted by it. Some of the people defended my work and others wanted to critique it. But most of them loved it haha.
It amused me how some people could say “I am not a writer but here’s how I would write it…” haha. It is easy to be a critic, but not as easy to create, people should remember that. 🙂
So many people loved the story, it took me six months to write and edit it, and I thought about it for about ten years, after I met a man on the streets of Kings Cross (Sydney) when I was giving out food and coffee to people who were on the street. We were giving out food and hanging with a group of male sex workers. I did this for a few years with a Christian organisation based in the inner city, but there was one man that made a big impact on me. This is the man I based the character of Jay on.
He was so resilient, so spirited, but he had such a sad story, his Mum had made him enter into the life of sex work from a young age. Some people’s lives, you wonder how they have survived. What struck me was how he just wanted to be loved and accepted. That’s all he wanted. Isn’t that all we all want? He also was warm, humourous and caring.
It still makes me sad thinking about him. My story is fictional however, I heard his story but the two characters are fictional and I didn’t tell his story. That’s his to tell. I pray he is loved now. 🙂
The story however, has a brother and sister and how they both responded to the same childhood. Their response was so different. I thought it was really interesting how people in the same family can respond completely differently to the same upbringing.
Anyway, check it out if you would like. There are swear words in this story as this is how his character would speak. Thanks for reading. 🙂
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