Writing prompts.
I hated them in grade school, because it was always something dumb: “Tell about a time when you set and reached a goal,” or “Describe something that inspires you to be a better person.” Um, I’m ten, how the f*** would I know?
Then in high school, we had a student teacher in English for part of my freshman year. Her writing prompts were much better: “Write your stream of consciousness for five minutes, starting… now!” or “The protagonist just stole something. Tell the story of how they got away with it, but don’t reveal what was stolen until the very last paragraph.”
Now that, I could get behind.
In college, I took a poetry course. I didn’t major in writing or anything to do with the fine arts; my degree is in mathematics with a minor in secondary education. (Long story, likely for another blog post.) I absolutely hated it; I’ve always been more of a prose person. Yet that TA had a fun strategy: she would cut out a full-page photo from a magazine and tape it to the blackboard. It was 1989, don’t judge the lack of tech. Our assignment was to write a poem about the object.
I wrote some really fun short stories. Poetry… nah. No idea how I managed to pass that class. But from then on, taking photos and using them as inspiration became my writing prompt. Some are cutouts from magazines; others are pictures my friends send me; many are my own images, even from back in the days of film. But the idea of creating a story just from an image has always stuck with me, and has on many occasions helped me to break through a writer’s block.
I’m going to suggest you create your own scrapbook—physical or digital—of images that inspire you. Whether it’s a really cool candelabrum or a lovely autumn tree, capture the likeness for when you need it.
The photo above is one I took last week on the morning of the full supermoon, hours after the partial lunar eclipse. Of course, living in the Philadelphia area, a cloud cover prevented anyone seeing the eclipse… In any case, I captured this on Tuesday morning. I posted it to my author Facebook page; What would the beginning line of this story be?
And so I ask you: What would your story be?
Enjoy, and get writing!