Visual Trigger
Spark:
Someone told me that up till a child is 4 years old, they’re incapable of creating or retaining memories. Much of what we remember of our early life is from what we see through photographs that people show us.
To say that a picture speaks a thousand words is cliche, I admit, but, when you think about it, it’s quite true. Looking at a picture of myself at age 3, sucking on a pacifier, a melted chocolate ice cream dripping in one hand, it looks so foreign to me. I can just about make up a thousand and one stories from that one picture and none of them will be about me.
Assignment:
So, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find an image, and tell the story that comes to your mind as you see it. You can locate this image anywhere: in a magazine, on the internet, in a shoebox in the closet. You can even have taken the photograph yourself, but you cannot photograph something in order to complete this assignment. You must imagine a story simply because the image inspires you to do so.
Does this sound easy? Perhaps, but there’s a part of this assignment still missing. You must incorporate the principles of tragedy into your writing. That doesn’t mean that something bad happens and the story ends. It means something bad happens as a result of a flaw in your character, and you show how this tragic fall forces your character to learn something about herself (or himself, depending on whether you think men or women are more tragic.) Do this while remembering our rules about third person, present tense, and visual voice.
Add this to the blog as a page, NOT a post, and make sure it is titled “visual trigger.”
Questions: pss3@np.edu.sg
