creative writing picture prompts

creative writing picture prompts

Creative Writing Prompts: Igniting Imagination through Pictures

1. Introduction

Using the creative writing prompts with pictures, you can assure your students that their writing is not just another meaningless assignment. Writing stories is something that all students will have to do in their life, whether it is for a standardized test or a college entrance essay, so you might as well equip them with the most interesting and fun tools that you can. These writing prompts are fun because they are open-ended and there are so many to choose from. It is nearly impossible for a student to not find a picture that will inspire him/her to write a story. It is also a very valuable skill for students to learn how to be self-motivated and a self-initiator. Too often, students will only write when you tell them to. But as they write more and more creative stories, they will eventually reach the point where they have their own ideas that they want to put to paper, and that is the ultimate goal for writing. With interesting and fun prompts such as these, learning how to start a story will not be an issue.

From time to time, the well runs dry. Your students simply cannot think of anything to write! What do you do? How can you teach and assess writing when your students have no interest in writing?

Introduction

Creative Writing Prompts: Igniting Imagination Through Pictures

2. Section One: Exploring the Power of Visual Stimuli

Creative writing, as a discipline, should offer a number of effective processes by which we can achieve its chief aim: surrounding our experiences and ideas in language. This act of recasting can be facilitated by many strategies, and visual stimulus offers an incredibly effective and various panacea. Traditional practices of associative thinking (like idea mapping) are based on the proven theory that the mind does not link memories and ideas in a linear fashion, and the vector for these associations are often found in visual imagery. The visual stimuli used in these exercises are a direct attempt to access these imageries, and following this it should be expected that the student can more easily locate and depict memories and perceptions. This should be a help to students working with personal writing, who often find their richest material comes from the recollection of strong emotion. An interesting approach might be to contrast the resultant writing with the picture or its prompt, allowing for critical examination of how the initial stimulus was interpreted. An extension of this exercise can be made by using several photographs with the intention of creating a short story. This can help to develop skills in building plot and showing character development, as well as storyboarding- a skill often useful for writers planning longer prose works. All too often images are given minor description in written works, and this can be a useful strategy to buck that trend.

3. Section Two: Unleashing Creativity with Picture Prompts

Your goal for this section is to help readers see how they can use pictures as a great starting point for a writing activity. Suggest that they think about a story they know well, such as “The Three Little Pigs,” and tell the story from a different point of view. For example, it might be interesting to retell the story from the wolf’s perspective. Then show the children a picture of a wolf looking a bit like this one and ask them to write a story about the wolf and why he was trying to catch the pigs. This sort of activity encourages children to try to use descriptive language. If you have a set of exciting pictures from a magazine or the internet that are likely to appeal to your class, deal them out and allow each child to choose a picture to write about. Sharing finished pieces of writing also provides a good opportunity to discuss the use of effective vocabulary to describe emotions and senses. If you have a digital camera, you could also take your own photos to use as prompts. For example, you could stage an action scene and take lots of pictures to capture the drama. Ask the children to choose a picture and write a description of the event. This sort of activity may work well as pair work, with the photographer explaining what is happening in the photo to his partner, who is then trying to write this description as accurately as possible.

4. Section Three: Enhancing Writing Skills through Visual Inspiration

When you write a story inspired by a picture, you might go no further than literal description or a complete departure into fantasy. Allow the picture to inspire a sequence of ideas that work themselves out in logical progression from a single concept (What might happen if a boy climbed that wall? What could a penguin do with a house?) or work out cause and effect (How did that cat get marooned up a tree, and how will it get down? If mice live behind the skirting, how do they feel when the plumber comes to call?). Draw the idea or sequence of ideas and annotate them with their outcomes. Key objectives are to stick with the picture and avoid tacking on some irrelevant initial stimulus, so that pupils understand the link between visual meditation and story plan. Also, plan and organize a story to avoid aimless description or dense muddles of unconnected activity.

5. Conclusion: Embracing the Artistic Potential of Picture Prompts

The writing and discussion of visual prompts creates an empowering and imaginative atmosphere for writers that embraces the artistic process. This goal is twofold: to grow as a writer and be more comfortable around a range of visual material. Though the freedom writers have in interpreting and incorporating visual stimuli may seem daunting at first, visualization is an inseparable part of the creative process; being able to comfortably interpret instead of passively receive images is a very useful skill to develop. With regular practice, writers will see that ideas have become more flexible and nuanced. They will discover new depths of meaning in their fiction and find themes developing with an unprecedented subtlety. This in itself creates new ideas for future projects. The other goal of this exercise is to prompt writers to observe and write about visual material more objectively. Though a great deal of good fiction begins with powerful visualization, novice writers often rely too heavily on their own subjective understanding of the images they see and have trouble communicating these ideas to an audience. By practicing the techniques in these exercises, writers will cultivate a more keen-eyed interpretation of their own mental imagery and do so in a way that many readers can share.