EXERCISE: Creativity Supercharged (2)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original posting 16 May 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

From drama and painting: A Painting As a Scene in a Drama

To get students to create dramatic action in their plays, playwright August Wilson asked them to describe a painting, then explain what was going on in the picture and evolve a story.

Your task: "Think of a famous painting or any other image you know from memory. Or find a photo of a painting in a book (one with people in it will serve best). Imagine the situation as a scene in a novel. Write one clear sentence describing how the characters arrived in their current state. Write a second sentence from one character's point of view. And write a final sentence about the scene that follows. Take five minutes."

So start with a painting or photograph. This situation is a scene in your novel. In one sentence, tell us how the characters got into their current state. Then in one sentence, look at the current state from one character's point of view. And then in one sentence, tell us what happens next. Three sentences -- how did we get here, where are we now, and what happens next. Five minutes.

Write.