I’ve had the flu this week 🙁 I’ve been trying to avoid taking extra medication for it, though I have had my very own madeleine moments with a big bottle of Benylin that took me right back to all sorts of sense memories about my grandmother.

I’ve felt a bit tired and weary (and no, it’s not manflu – and I’m not fond of that sexist and lazy term!). And I couldn’t rustle up an idea for a writing experiment, so I thought I might have to skip one this week. But then earlier this evening I had a little exchange with a Facebook friend that reminded me of one of my favourite films, Valley of the Dolls (you can watch the trailer above), and it made me think about taking pills, or dolls (‘She took the red pills …’). I’m not a drug taker (I’m high on life, and non-drowsy Benylin), but so many writers and characters in literature have experiences with drugs and pills (Alice in Wonderland, Trainspotting, a vast raft of the creations of William Burroughs), and then Colorado has just legalised marijuana. So this gave me an idea.

Write a story or a poem in which three different characters are affected in different ways by taking drugs, pharmaceutical or recreational.

A variation that might also be good for revision would be to see what happens to a character when he or she takes drugs for the first time.

I’m not glamorising drug use, btw. You could write a moral tale … Or just a fairy tale. Up to you.