Last week, Michigan’s gorgeous Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore graced my eager eyes for the first time. As a gal who loooooooves rocks and trees, let me just say I was blissfully floating on another plane of existence.
While drifting around on my personal cloud of happiness, I was struck by the enormous variety of plant life and geological formation found in a single location. I don’t know about you, but I tend to take writerly inspiration from my immediate surroundings, especially from the natural world.
However, I too often glide right over opportunities to discover fresh nuance and meaning because I cease to see the magical in the mundane.
It can take a drastic change (like a first-time trip to Michigan) to remind me to slow down and simply look. Surprise surprise, I snapped more pictures than was good for me, and I’d like to share a few with you today. To that end, I want to try a photo-based writing exercise. (Apologies for any questionable photo quality; I’m a writer, not a photographer!)
For each picture below, I will prompt you to respond to a story I believe it tells.
Feel free to discard or alter my interpretation in favor of our own if something different strikes your fancy! Regardless, I invite you to take at least a full minute to study the photo each prompt describes. See how many details you can notice, and you can even make a list of your observations if that’s helpful!
1. Consider this first photo of a rocky outcrop. If you look closely, you can see that a tree is planted on a pillar of solid rock, and a few wiry roots are all that connect it to the rich mainland. Without that connection and support, it wouldn’t be long before the tree died and toppled into frigid water below. Now, reflect on a character (new or old) that you have placed in a situation far outside their comfort zone or realm of expertise. What is their connection‒their root system‒that sustains them through those otherwise untethered times? From what source do they draw when all else has failed? Write for eight minutes.
2. Now, observe this second picture that reveals Indian Head Rock. Can you make out the profile of a face? You might even see an eye and an ear! I invite you to consider the ways humans are poised to see humanity and fellowship in places some consider dead and unresponsive. We see faces in cliffs, in water, in smoke, in folds of fabric, and everywhere else you might care to look. Think about your character in a desolate place, away from obvious signs of human life. In that place, where do they see themselves reflected? To what aspects of their environment do they relate, and how does that relationship develop? Write for ten minutes.
3. Lastly, take a look at this third picture of a shallow cave. Its sandstone layers have eroded over the years to form a soft hollow space away from the wind and waves, or perhaps a dangerous abscess that threatens its stability. So often, it is the sudden changes in our lives we notice most clearly, but incremental shifts can add up before we know it. For this prompt, consider a slow erosion that takes place in your character, for better or for worse. Maybe they gradually shed a protective shell of arrogance after persistent call-outs by a friend, or maybe a sliver of ice seeps into your character’s heart, its expansions and contractions gently weathering away their joy. Whatever you choose, take note of the small, almost inconsequential, moments that make up this process and how they combine to create monumental change. Write for seven minutes.
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KAY TEEKELL is Claire’s Summer Communications Associate and fellow creative writer. She has five years of writing and editing experience that ranges from content writing for blogs and magazines to grant writing for nonprofit organizations. Kay is passionate about the power of storytelling and strives to amplify voices that might otherwise be forgotten. She is excited to use her artistic and literary skills in her professional aspirations and will continue to develop her talents for the rest of her life.