A BORDERS woman has written a book with her family inspired by their weekly Zoom calls.

Carol Beveridge along with her daughter Jude, and her sister Sandra Petrie – who lives in Vancouver Island, Canada – came together during the pandemic to stretch their imaginations.

Each week during their Zoom calls, the trio would set three writing tasks for each other, with different prompts, which they would write about for 15 minutes, to then share the following week.

“[Writing’s] been an absolute delight,” said Carol. “It’s brought us so much laughter.

“It made us all sparkle.”

It was in April that Carol and her family decided to compile their stories into a book – Writing Our Way Through Lockdown.

“It was never meant to be a book,” said Carol, who lives in Ettrickbridge. “It was never meant to be shared.”

The writing tasks covered a range of topics, some were based off objects, other included starter sentences each writer suggested.

Carol told this newspaper how the writing tasks not only brought out the family’s imagination, but also helped her to laugh more.

She said: “[Over the last year] I’ve learned how important it is to laugh.

“And to smile more.”

And the group hopes that readers of Writing Our Way Through Lockdown will be inspired to try some of the tasks too.

“You don’t have to write in perfect English,” said Carol. “At school it could feel like a criticism, like you were being held back from letting [writing] flow.

“It’s like abstract painting.

“You just let it happen.”

You can pick up a copy of Writing Our Way Through Lockdown from The Forest Bookstore in Selkirk, or from www.wowtl.bigcartel.com