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Sunday, January 28, 2007

See It 'n' Write it. Shhh, It's a Meme


When my artist friend first got me started in drawing, he would challenge my creativity by randomly making me select three words (of tangible things). He would make me write these three words down on the back of my sketch book paper that I was going to draw on. He would then make me select another word, a verb, and make me write this down as well. He then made me stare at all of these words. When he said 'now', I was supposed to flip the paper and start drawing. My drawing had to incorporate all three items that were doing the verb that I had chosen. The drawing of the things I had chosen did not have to be literal, exact renditions of the items all doing the one thing. The idea was to be more symbolic with the things, even merging them as a single entity doing the action, or the action being appearent in the drawing. For example, a chicken, a bulldozer, a chessboard as the things, and raining as the verb, now imagine a black and white checkerboarded chicken with treads of a bulldozer as its feet, and the 'chickendozer' caught in the rain with the checkerboard pattern bleeding onto the ground from the wetness of the rain.
(Sorry, I was looking for visual examples that I have drawn, but I just can't seem to locate them. When I do find some examples I will post them here, or draw some new ones.)
Since I started blogging, a few neat things have happened to me that have made blogging an enjoyable experience when it comes to writing. I found that memes can be fun to do. I found some writing challenges such as Gem's Flash Fiction were very addictive (even if I was always late, and didn't completely follow the flash guidlines). I found Mimi's Dating Profile Comeback Challenge to exercise my funny muscles in text form. These are just a few examples, but then I started thinking about those early creativity exercises and wondered if they could work in reverse. Starting with three pictures of tangible things, and a picture of an action, could a coherent short story, a flash fiction arise fom the pictures?
Well, there's no use talking about it, lets see what happens.

First, three pictures of tangible things

And now an action

Now for some guidelines, and some fun...
Using the above pictures, write a small short story that incorporates all three tangible items, and the action. The story should be no longer than 500 words. Be creative with the items. Freud said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar," but sometimes it isn't. A zepplin is cigar shaped, is it not?
So, just

'See it 'n' Write it'

Oh Yeah, before I forget, it's a meme!
(this once, so don't forget to tag others)
So I'm tagging myself (I've only googled the pictures at random, I haven't given any thought about a story),
Mimi Lenox (I have to do the Queen of Memes, and I'd love to see what she comes up with),
Gale Martin (I really think she'd enjoy it if she has the time.)
Lance Riley (Because I love tormenting him, and he is a good sport)
Bud Weiser (Because I know he'd 'tug' at my funny bone)
And any writer/blogger out there that just wants to have fun with a creative writing diversion.

I will post my own story with it's own heading by next Tuesday, and another set of pictures for another round on the 15th of February.
Keep looking back for the 'See it 'n' Write it' banner for future rounds. I'd like to make 'See it 'n' Write it' a regular (at least monthly) feature.
Have fun--that's all it's meant for!

3 comments:

Bud Weiser, WTIT said...

I accept and will publish my masterpiece tomorrow. God have mercy on our souls.

Anonymous said...

Great idea, Frank! I've been trying to crank out some new chapters for my book, but I'll accept your challenge as tomorrow or Tuesday's post. Sounds like fun!

Frank Sirianni said...

Bud
Thanks for participating so quickly. And yes your story is a hoot, er hooters too. I think I've been to 'Bow Ties' It's a great place with 'family' oriented entertainment. (my bad--again)

Gem
I'm really looking forward to your story. I've been thinking of this idea since writing my Friday Flash stories. I liked the one word trigger to create a story. Then I did start thinking about those early creative exercises that my friend Jason used to torture me with. It just took me a while to get the See It 'n' Write It idea together properly the way I wanted it.
Thanks everyone for playin. Tag some people too, because I'd like to make See It 'n' Write It a regular feature.

Now I've got a story to write, everones already so far ahead of me

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