QuickWrite of the Day #21: Living in the Age of…

"Writing can be used as a vehicle to express ourselves as we negotiate the journey through our lives” (Gallagher, 2011: p. 24)

Today’s QuickWrite of the Day:

The famous opening lines to Charles Dickens’ novel about the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities, start like this:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

Drawing on this, what kind of ‘age’ do you think we are living in right now? What words capture what it’s like at this point in time? What times’ or ‘seasons’ are we experiencing?

Start with a list, then have a go at writing a paragraph that captures what it’s like to be living through this moment in history. If you need inspiration, check out the questions below:

• What words can you think of that sum up what people have been experiencing over the past few weeks? (eg: boredom, anxiety, stillness, peace, worry, change, being stuck, hope, resilience, grief, etc.)

• What have you seen, thought or felt over the last few weeks that capture what this moment in history is like? (eg: seeing empty shelves at the supermarket, calculating how far apart people are when walking on the footpath, feeling a surge of joy when greeting your neighbour, etc.)

Want more QuickWrite topics? Check out the slide deck here, or see it in presentation mode on our Resources page.

Happy writing!