The Prompt

Write the story of a picture

Tips

*You can pick a favorite picture, or use one of these examples

• You can change the time-period, to make it easier to write. Pay less attention to the setting, and more attention to the people’s faces and their body language.

• You might want to write the story of the central figure in the picture. Or you might want to look at one of the less significant details in the picture. Why is it there? What does it signify? Who is that person?

• You could also write the story of the person who created the picture. It doesn’t have to be a real historical version. You don’t even have to know who created the picture. You could tell the story of someone anyone who sets out to create this picture. The obstacles they faced. The things they overcame. Or the situation they found themselves in.

• You could write a fictional history of this picture. Where it has traveled? Who has owned it? What scandals hasn’t seen from its place on the walls?

• This prompt is a reminder that it’s quite all right to be inspired by other artists work!

Leave a comment and tell us what picture you chose, what you wrote about, and how it went. Also: how’s your month going? What have you learned about your writing practice so far?