Weekly write 6
Picture-prompts
First, choose one picture - any picture. Make a collection of your own. Postcards, magazine and newspaper illustrations, pictures cut out of old books from charity shops - all are cheap and plentiful and work well. (This idea appears in 'Writing Together - getting started' by Jeni Smith and Simon Wrigley 2014.)
First, choose one picture - any picture. Make a collection of your own. Postcards, magazine and newspaper illustrations, pictures cut out of old books from charity shops - all are cheap and plentiful and work well. (This idea appears in 'Writing Together - getting started' by Jeni Smith and Simon Wrigley 2014.)
Once you have chosen your picture, write in complete sentences in response to the following 7 prompts. The sentences don't have to hang together and you can revise and shape it once you have the ideas down. However, you will find that, on the whole, your sentences will have some coherence, so it is well worth articulating thoughts as sentences in the first place.
1. Describe the first thing you notice in the picture.
2. Write a sentence with a colour in it.
3. Write a sentence with a comparison in it (e.g. the tree is like ...)
4. There is a detail in the scene that you may not have noticed before, describe it.
5. You can hear something in the scene. What is it?
6. Something is hidden in the scene. What is it?
7. Someone or something is about to enter the scene. Say who/ what it is and how they will appear.
You should have on opening - or at least a way in to a story - and you can continue. It may be that you follow only one - or none - of your seven sentences, adapting freely as you write. Try to write for 10-20 minutes and see where it takes you. If you undertake this exercise with others, the sharing afterwards is always invigorating.
The thing about a setting is that the writer can imagine it and use it while she/he is writing, without having to give a detailed account of it. Let the scene percolate through your consciousness, freely picking up ideas and connections. Don't be too critical of pathways that appear: follow and explore them rather than trying to fully understand them or connect them at first. You can keep or drop ideas and characters at will. It can be liberating to write without knowing where you are going.
In the group or classroom
This is an easy idea to replicate and not expensive in terms of resources. It might work well with pairs of writers, talking through ideas before writing individually. Prompts might be devised and suggested by the writers themselves -
Generally, the exercise works best when the prompts are open and adaptable to any writer's imagination. However, occasionally, it can be useful to suggest including particular forms - such as
I have found it especially interesting with a limited number of pictures - some copied a number of times, even in black and white: pupils have been fascinated to hear how the same picture-prompt has generated completely different observations, ideas, moods and stories.
This idea was used by NWP Bedford on 6.5.2017
Posted by Simon Wrigley 14.5.2017
1. Describe the first thing you notice in the picture.
2. Write a sentence with a colour in it.
3. Write a sentence with a comparison in it (e.g. the tree is like ...)
4. There is a detail in the scene that you may not have noticed before, describe it.
5. You can hear something in the scene. What is it?
6. Something is hidden in the scene. What is it?
7. Someone or something is about to enter the scene. Say who/ what it is and how they will appear.
You should have on opening - or at least a way in to a story - and you can continue. It may be that you follow only one - or none - of your seven sentences, adapting freely as you write. Try to write for 10-20 minutes and see where it takes you. If you undertake this exercise with others, the sharing afterwards is always invigorating.
The thing about a setting is that the writer can imagine it and use it while she/he is writing, without having to give a detailed account of it. Let the scene percolate through your consciousness, freely picking up ideas and connections. Don't be too critical of pathways that appear: follow and explore them rather than trying to fully understand them or connect them at first. You can keep or drop ideas and characters at will. It can be liberating to write without knowing where you are going.
In the group or classroom
This is an easy idea to replicate and not expensive in terms of resources. It might work well with pairs of writers, talking through ideas before writing individually. Prompts might be devised and suggested by the writers themselves -
- following the five senses,
- thinking of possibilities inside (top right/ darkest area)
- outside the frame of the picture (what might be to the left and right, before and after this picture was taken)
- speculating on who took the photograph/painted the picture and why
- how and where the picture was used - the headline that accompanied it, the product it was used to 'sell' or promote.
Generally, the exercise works best when the prompts are open and adaptable to any writer's imagination. However, occasionally, it can be useful to suggest including particular forms - such as
- a rhetorical question,
- a headline,
- a spoken line of dialogue,
- first, second or third person,
- a list of nouns.
I have found it especially interesting with a limited number of pictures - some copied a number of times, even in black and white: pupils have been fascinated to hear how the same picture-prompt has generated completely different observations, ideas, moods and stories.
This idea was used by NWP Bedford on 6.5.2017
Posted by Simon Wrigley 14.5.2017
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