This is how it works: We place three prompt cards face-down. We reveal the first card, then have five minutes to write. After five minutes, we reveal the second card and take another five minutes to write. Repeat for the third. At the end of 15 minutes, you’ve produced a bit of creative writing.
I wrote this on 22 October 2023 at home, using prompts sent across in the WhatsApp group for the Writers’ Group meetup. These are the prompts, in order:
- I had this system for getting exactly what I wanted out of people.
- “You could make a living doing that kind of thing.” I suppose I could, but I had never thought about it, until then.
- The thing he does with the newspaper
And this is my story:
I had this system for getting exactly what I wanted out of people.
They didn’t realise it, you know. By the time they were doing what I wanted, it felt like it was their idea. I don’t know how I learned this technique. I really don’t. But it felt good the first time I realised what I’d done. And then I kept going.
At the start, it was small things. A toy I wanted. Maybe a sweet. I was 8. But eventually, it became bigger, more important things. I sweet talked a friend of mine to stop talking to another person in class, because I didn’t like them. I managed to convince a tutor that another tutor was against me and got them to intervene in the altercation. I had my ex-girlfriend come visit me in the hospital after I ran purposely in front of a car – but made it seem like an accident, naturally – just a few days after she gathered the courage to leave me.
It might seem insidious to some. But why should it be wrong for me to get what I want? The end justifies the means, surely. And the end is for me to get what I want. That’s all there is to it.
“You could make a living doing that kind of thing.” I suppose I could, but I had never thought about it, until then.
I was 22 years old, out of university and with no job. Everything I could apply for seemed pointless, beneath me. “I am meant for greater things,” I raged in front of my then amour du jour. She stared stupidly at me, her lipstick smeared at the side of her mouth, and then said, “You always get people to do what you want. You got me here and I’m not even sure how. You could make a living doing that kind of thing.”
It was the most profound thing to ever leave this ineffectual and boring girl’s lips.
I knew what I was going to do. I was going to figure out where I wanted to end up and make people get me there. After that, the world was my oyster. I left my little village in the middle of nowhere and managed to con – no, ‘convince’ is a better word… I managed to convince a few people to ‘help’ me with my wardrobe (it needed an update) and used my own savings to buy a ticket to Hong Kong.
Why Hong Kong, you ask?
Well, the corner shop in my little village got English newspapers a few days out of date. Since no one wanted then, the fat little shopkeeper had this odd thing he used to do with these newspapers: he’d shred them and create little paper sculptures with them. He had talent. Pity he had no idea how to harness it. Like I did. Anyway, I always asked to borrow them before he shredded them to oblivion and found a report saying that Asia, particularly East Asia, had a lot of work opportunities for young people like me. I zeroed in on Hong Kong and decided to make my way there.
A new breeding ground of people to convince. A place where I could make something of myself, without the weight of my past activities in this small village weighing on me.
But ten years later, I had to leave anyway. It’s a small city. People find out who you are. But, I have no regrets. I had a new city to conquer next.
I haven’t edited it at all, so this is the raw copy from 15 minutes of writing, errors and all! Any thoughts? Let me know!
Devina Divecha's Journals 
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