Writing in the rain

Writing in the rain, it’s not hard to believe summer’s coming to a close. Manchester’s famous for this wet stuff – the atmosphere always makes the city. The cotton industry flourished here, the damp climate making fibres less likely to snap during spinning. They’ve also attributed the vibrant music scene to the rain, suggesting decades of Mancs forced indoors by the weather with only guitars to amuse themselves. A quick listen to The Smiths and you might well believe it.

What’s definite is that it is most certainly raining, an absolute torrent as I sift through submissions to The Mancunion’s New Writing section. And waddya know, it’s raining on the page too. And where it’s not, there’s the threat of rain. Then, occasionally, brief holidays from the rain. Enough time to relax the shaking bones a little to look out of the window – where it’s raining in Manchester, and again I remember summer’s coming to a close. There’s nothing to despair though: if the months of more downpour mean sitting indoors creating, writing, spinning, singing, then we can embrace it and set to. Write about people, places – and the weather. Here’s a small offering of works to kick us off, all poetry. Prose next week and, please, submit anything you like to [email protected]. The more the merrier. And don’t let the rain ruin your ink. Just write.

John North