August Writing Challenges: Day 7 - Story From Image

August. The summer is nearly over. Kids are
going back to school. You now have some time on your hands.  Okay, you still have a list of chores a mile long, but let's put writing at the top of the priority list, okay?

I am going to challenge you with a writing prompt every day this month. Are you up for it? I hope so.

The writing challenges will be about a variety of topics and hopefully cause you to dig into your writing toolbox to complete with emotional skill.

Watch out, I just might throw in a fun one, well, just for fun!

For the seventh challenge we're going to see how well we can create a story from an image:

Here is your challenge:

Find a visual image that makes you feel. Tape, staple, glue, paper clip, whatever, this image to the top of a piece of paper. Write, for thirty minutes, about what's going on with your connection of the image and yourself, and what is going on in the image. Tell a story. 

Answer these questions in your descriptive story (If the image has people in it.)

• Who are they? 
• Where are they?
• To whom do they belong?
• What are they doing right then and why?
• What will they be doing later?

These are bare ideas. Think about some familiar images from our / your culture and try to concoct a narrative from them.

Tell a story.  Let your imagination fly. Whatever you pick, you will be using your ability to pull a story from a frozen, static moment - kind of like a baker pulls a hot tasty baguette from a shapeless lump of dough.

This is an important writing challenge. I believe that the instant your characters and their destinies take shape on a page, they have life. They exist. And it is entirely up to you to make that world a valid place.

IMPORTANT POINT: This is not to say that your fictional world is obliged to be a rational, realistic world. If that were a requisite for literature, then Alice would have have dropped down the White Rabbit's hole.

So, find a picture of something and write about it. Make up a story of what's going on in that moment in that world right then. Fill in with as much detail as you can.

I hope you enjoy this challenge. I enjoy visual journaling. It's like telling a story with only images and words cut from magazines or other papers. 

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