Write this. Take eight minutes to write what you see. Simple as that. Double the time if you like.
Images are great story-starters, but sometimes it’s hard to get as excited about a photograph you find for yourself, or one you know really well. When it’s expected or familiar, it loses some of that luster for the writing prompt.
One of the ways you can harness the possibility of potential luster/fun/intrigue/wonder in photographs-for-writing is to simply swap images with friends. Agree on a date/time to email your writing partner with an image for writing.
The surprise factor can make all the difference.
So here’s an image for every day of the coming week.
(Or one image for every couple days, or once a week—whatever you have time for).
These are images I posted on Instagram a couple weeks ago in anticipation of an image-rich Write NOW session. It was fun to collect .
For each image, open it up and study it for a couple minutes. Then write what you see and feel in this image.
Let this image guide you in the writing for eight minutes. You may come up with a character who isn’t pictured; you may focus on the place itself.
If you have more time than eight minutes, great. Double it. Triple it.
Schedule an image per day to make the most of your daily writing time (ten minutes, twenty minutes, whatever).
Tell me about it on Twitter or Instagram. I’d love to hear how it goes!
BONUS
Keep it going! Agree to swap images with a friend once a week to fuel your writing time.
