Here’s a family photo (in front of my sorority house at Northwestern) that I wrote about once for this exercise.
I’ve been assigning this exercise for as long as I’ve taught Creative Writing and Creative Nonfiction, but lately I’ve taken it up as a regular habit for myself: Find an old photo from your own life, and write a few hundred words about it. That’s basically it. Nothing revolutionary. I personally resist elaborate writing prompts, and this one always brings forth great stories from my students. Since I recently got all of my photos scanned (ScanMyPhotos.com, though there are other sites as well), I just pull up the files, pick one, and write about it. You can do this every day, maybe even a few times per day. I love doing some kind of writing every day besides the professional kind, and this exercise has reminded me of so many surprising little memories. I’m hoping some of these pieces will yield some publishable work, too; maybe a few could come together to form a personal essay or somesuch.
If you’re wondering what to write about today, try it. It’s like a prose #TBT.