Days Like This

Days Like This. We all have days we’ll never forget… 

This unique project, run by Scottish Book Trust and BBC Radio Scotland, encourages people across Scotland to write about a special day in their life. The project aims to gather thousands of intensely personal stories – snapshots of everyday life, from born-and-bred Scots to newly-arrived immigrants.

Author Irvine Welsh, broadcaster Hardeep Singh Kohli, mountaineer Jamie Andrew, actress Siobhan Redmond, percussionist Evelyn Glennie and Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble have joined the project as celebrity curators, writing and recording their own story as an inspiration for people to do the same.

All the stories sent appear on BBC and Scottish Book Trust website. The best ones will feature in a series of broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland and be published in a book in February 2009.

To take part in Days Like This, all you need to do is write about a memorable day in your life: It could be the day you didn’t get married, or the day you got lost in a supermarket. If the story is true and centres on a single day, we want to hear it! Stories should be no longer than 1,000 words and can be about anything as long as it’s true! 

To get you started, read Irvine Welsh’s top tips for writing a story on the website.

Or read some of the stories sent so far, such as Vivien Jones’ Triang Hornby (http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/node/23037):

 “I thought Daddy would be a better bet than Mummy. I started to talk at tea-times about trains. I drew lots of trains in my drawing book. I asked if we could go and watch the trains pass by from the hill above the line. Finally, I mentioned I would quite like a train set for Christmas. My sister spluttered her tea...”

Deadline: 1 November 2008

For more details (including all stories), go to: www.scottishbooktrust.com/dayslikethis