I belong to a writers group where we encourage each other on our writing journeys. We meet on a regular basis throughout the year.
One of the enjoyable activities we do at each meeting is a writers prompt. This is a device used to spark imagination. Each writer has a chance to practice his or her own writing for about 15 minutes. It’s a spur of the moment exercise and a good tool.
I have found it gives a great view into the window of my mind and heart. I am learning to ‘hear my writer voice’ and this activity helps me see that more clearly.
The way the writers prompt works is that a picture is randomly picked from a collection of photos of a scene or an object, and each writer studies that picture for a few minutes before starting to write. Usually we write for 15 to 20 minutes on whatever comes to mind when we each view the photo. Someone keeps track of the time.
Recently, the picture was of a young boy, a young girl and a small dog in a boat on a very large windswept lake. The water was choppy and the umbrella the young girl held seemed almost to be pulled from her grasp by the wind. There were cows grazing on the distant hills.
After we had our 15 minutes of writing time, each person shared their story.
A few wrote about the two youngsters in the boat, the promise of a picnic and an adventure in the offing. One writer delved into the monochromatic color scheme of the picture itself, and another person wrote from the perspective of an artist painting that picture. I wrote about a conversation between the cows who were feeding on the far off hills. We each chose something interesting to us from that one photo and wrote in our own unique styles.
In my story, one cow wanted to be adventuresome and break out of the humdrum of his routine existence. He was attracted to the kids in the boat, though he was resigned to the idea that in his experience, cows didn’t go boating. The other cow was content with the normalcy of life as they had known it for years.
Each writer shared a bit of him or herself in their writing. Our individual writings were not just sharing facts or weaving a plot around some events, but exploring the unanswered questions within our hearts and minds. I have just in the last few years taken up this craft in earnest, but it is a fascinating medium for conveying ideas, learning new information, being a part of an adventure or traveling down new thought paths.
As far as finding my voice I often fight for the person, or in this case cow, that hopes to break free from constraints or find a new path that is acceptable to follow. It’s fun to see where the imagination can take a writer when unexpected ideas are pondered!
Back in our writers group, we have rarely finished those short stories that began from a writers prompt, but it would be a great idea! I might explore this story just to see what happens to a cow that wants more out of life than eating grass.