creative writing images

creative writing images

The Power of Creative Writing with Images

1. The Impact of Visual Stimuli on Creative Writing

A study by Cartmill, Joyce, and Hall (1977) using pictorial prompts found that students were able to generate a larger number of words in a descriptive writing task for pictures that were colored and showed motion than for those that were still and black and white. Consultant studies reinforce the power of pictorial stimuli to generate more writing and a wider variety of vocabulary as an aid to communication (Taylor, 1986). These studies suggest that the quality and quantity of a written piece can be influenced by the quality and type of visual stimuli used to inspire writing. Looking at more abstract visual stimuli, Stipes (1989) conducted an experiment with undergraduate participants that suggests that the impact of visual stimuli on written metaphor is stronger than that on written similes. Using nine pictures and phrases from textbooks, students were asked to write either a metaphor or a simile. Results showed that the metaphor group used a larger variety of imagery stating that “the more vivid visual material prompted production of significantly more vivid and varied imagery.” This suggests that visual stimuli can be tailored to the strength of its impact and the desired outcome of the writing task.

2. Techniques for Incorporating Images in Writing

Use visual language. This image is an example of how to communicate more with less. By using strong visuals and short but potent descriptive language, students drafted captions that were written specifically for images, as opposed to simply describing what was in the picture. This encourages students to select their words carefully and make each one count. The task and image are from “Street-Fighting Man” on “The Sweet Smell of Success.” The image is a still from a disturbing scene of violence. The online slideshow, “Picturing America Artwork” and extended captions from The Gilder Lehrman Institute, is an extensive collection of important American artwork. For many of the images, there are also audio clips that provide information about the artwork. “Picturing America” serves as a somewhat interactive art museum. Students can investigate the historical context of the artwork as well as the artist’s/era’s technique. This offers a rich listening and writing task for students.

3. Enhancing Descriptive Writing through Visual Inspiration

It is widely recognised that the first stage in the process of creative writing is the gathering of ideas and/or information. This process is commonly recalled as ‘pre-writing’ and can consist of varying methods that include brainstorming, meditation, and personal reflection. What visual inspiration ultimately offers is a means of simplifying this initial stage and can be particularly beneficial for descriptive writing. By using colours, shapes, and patterns, you can quickly collate a range of information that can be the springboard to your next piece of writing. Try focusing on one particular image and, in a mind-map fashion, note all the associations and emotions that you can draw. Visual images are also very useful in setting the mood prior to writing. A serene or bleak image can be beneficial to descriptive writing in evoking the relevant feelings and providing a clear mental picture of what is intended to be conveyed in the writing. An example of this would be a war photograph to an ex-soldier writing a personal account of his experience in battle.

4. Using Images to Spark Imagination and Creativity

4.3 Observation and Inference Take a picture of your choice and spend five minutes making a list of everything that the picture makes you think of or remember. This may well come in the form of an extended description, a dialogue, or an internal monologue of a ‘character’ featured in the image. Now look at the list you have made and divide it up into two smaller lists which are directly concerned with the picture and those things which were triggered off by the picture but are not directly about it.

4.2 Imagination and Stereotypes Take a look at set ‘A’ and write a description of each picture in turn. Now do the same with set ‘B’. You will probably notice that you write quite different things about the two pictures, though they are in fact describing the same thing. This is a result of the different cultural associations for the word ‘Gypsy’ – while the image may be relatively innocent, you will have been influenced to interpret it as such by your pre-existing ideas about what a Gypsy is.

4.1 Preparation Get hold of some old magazines from a variety of different sources and go through them, cutting out any pictures that you find striking in any way. Make a collection of about 12 pictures and stick them onto separate pieces of A4 paper. Do the same with a set of postcards. Now collect the pictures together and sort them into two sets of 6. Label one set ‘A’ and the other ‘B’.

What follows are a series of exercises intended to help you explore the potential of images to serve as stimuli for creative writing.

5. The Role of Visual Prompts in Engaging Readers

Picture books have long been a staple of the early years classroom and have now passed into the hands of adolescents and adults. Their appeal has expanded beyond emergent readers and second language learners, to readers of most ages and proficiency levels. Picture books and graphic novels represent complex literary forms that are valuable to the emerging literacies of the twenty-first century. Visual literacy is now recognised as a skill essential for success in modern society, in which a large proportion of our interaction is done through visual means, such as in web interfaces, multimedia, television and video. Adults and children alike need to be able to critically evaluate visual information and as print becomes multimodal, the line between visual and verbal language becomes increasingly blurred (Anstey & Bull, 2006). This is clearly evident in picture books and illustrated novels where the visual and the verbal text share the telling of the story and contribute to the meaning-making process. The inclusion of visual images to engage and enrich the text is an underpinning principle of readers’ writers and has been highlighted as a way to engage adolescents with multimodal text. Fountas and Pinnel (2007) argue “It is important to realise that the rapid development of technology has made visuals a ‘first language’ for many students of today. They may respond to illustrations in picture books or photographs in informational texts before they read the print to understand the message. Visualising has always been an important comprehension strategy, but in this age of videos, digital cameras and multimedia, the ability to comprehend through the construction of mental images has taken on added significance” (p.187). Understanding the ever-increasing prevalence of visual images in our society, writers need to consider the role of the visual text in engaging readers and as a means to scaffold and enrich the reading experience.