Blog
Visual Writing Prompts
As a trans-nonbinary person, growing older has been a complicated process, navigating mental illness, toxic relationships, the version of me I created to receive the love I thought I wanted and the version of me I became to receive the love I truly deserve. But sometimes we run out of map. What does moving on beyond that look like for me? A love letter to the cycles in my life.
Sometimes it feels like I’m chasing the story. But that’s not the truth. The truth is that the story is a scared child. They are asking for their story to be told, but slow to trust. I am sitting down by the fire I built for us every day and listening to them, connecting with them, seeing them. And every time we do this it can get a little bit easier. And some days it gets harder again. Some days the blackberries we pick are sour and the wood is wet so the fire sputters out, we shiver together and don’t say much except that I will come back tomorrow to try again.
Do fictional worlds call to you? Do you wonder if you have it in you to tell stories? Not sure where to start? Start to ignite your storytelling magic with these tips.
Being a creator, a writer, an artist, any of those creativity based things, I need fuel. And when you’ve been running on empty for so long, it can be hard to figure out what actually fills your cup. But here’s the secret…. You can do whatever you want! You can try things. You can play. Make it play! Get to know yourself! Don’t do what you think “should” be considered relaxing for someone your age or demographic. And some days I wake up and say, “wow that puzzle was really hard and a bit more draining than I wanted, so maybe puzzles aren’t my thing, but what can I try tonight?”
Honestly, writing this blog was one of the things that felt both nourishing and draining. Amongst my illnesses and injuries and struggling to quench my creative thirst enough to survive let alone create it’s been easy to forget all that I am capable of some days. And I am proud of this. But tonight…… maybe tonight will be nourishment through reading and lego building. Maybe it will be watching a movie. Maybe it will be making some digital art. But I know I will do something that is completely unrelated to my work and it will be glorious and nourishing.
Welcome to the tender-hearted warrior family. Let’s start by getting to know each other.
For this week we’re talking about writing with color as a tool. Color is a powerful tool when writing. The way that we introduce color can set the scene, create emotion, draw distinctive images in our head, foreshadow what’s to come, and so much more.
Writing from personal experience or from deep emotions can be scary at times. Sometimes, like I’ve done, it requires a first draft that is purely the facts of it all. But if the goal is to create fiction from your own personal story, there are some tools that I have used that have helped me to build a novel with independent, fully-crafted characters that are not thinly veiled versions of me and my friends.
Let’s talk about writing from a prompt. One of the things I love about visual prompts is that there’s no set point of view. You get to decide whether you are writing from the point of view of the person on the other side of the camera, any people that are in the picture, or someone off to the side who can see the photo being taken.
Happy New Year my lovely humans, let’s get the creativity flowing with another visual writing prompt.
Happy holidays to all. Whether it was bright and full of joy and family and love or full of challenge and struggle and reconnection with toxic people, or somewhere in the middle, I hear you. As we grow up, holidays can be really challenging in many aspects, and hold plenty of joy and wonder as well.
But let’s get back to creativity, so here’s another visual writing and creativity prompt!
Creative prompts are a great way to get the creativity flowing, whether you are stuck in a project, stuck in general, or just looking to have a little fun in your process, hopefully my visual prompts can help. Every week I will share a visual creative/ writing prompt and a piece of flash fiction that I wrote, inspired by this photo.