Here is an interesting photo that I took with my compact digital camera.
What does this photo cause you to think of? How does it make you feel? What event, place, time, etc. does it remind you of? In other words, if it could suddenly come to life and speak, what would it say?
Now take 5 minutes to write a poem, story, etc. with this picture as inspiration. The key to this exercise is to be relatively strict with your time limit. This is not a dissertation prospectus it is creative stimulus. Do not waste time trying to make logical sense of your sentences and/or syntax. Move quickly and let you thoughts flow. If you take your time trying to make sense of the photo, logic and reason will take hold and your thoughts will most likely be less creative and interesting. (For Example: It is dark and cloudy. The sun is beginning to set behind the trees). Just let your thoughts flow.
Thunder of the mist
Willows-whisper of eve’s hollow eyes
Gray and electric structures
Shake the solar plexus until chakras bleed light
And the cold ubiquitous sky bleeds rocks
I need to build an ark
So that all of my animal friends will be safe from
The son of the morning ice
We will die if our father does not
Invent something new to aid in our survival
Now all you have to do is take it a step further. Take the ideas, thoughts, sentences, words, etc. that you came up with and expand upon them. For example, consider the last two lines of my writing: "We will die if our father does not/Invent something new to aid in our survival." Imagine if this was the first line spoken by a narrator in a story or movie, what would happen next! The possibilities are endless!
