Photograph

Describe a photograph of some member or members of your family.
Write a piece about this photograph.

Here are some rules that might appear at first to limit your options, but will hopefully make the writing easier and the final product richer.

1. Use at least four of the following words in the poem, though not necessarily in their photography-related meaning:

• lens
• reflex
• develop
• blow-up
• crop
• negative
• shoot
• diaphragm 
• expose
• focus 
• reel
• print

2. Begin the poem by describing the photograph making three observations about it.

3. Tell us two or three things we would not know from the picture. Let those draw you into your past until you discover something that you had never realized or had never articulated or had never before dared to reveal about to yourself or others.

Layering Dialogue and Action

Write a few sentences to set the scene (like in a play). Give yourself a 30 minute time limit. Don't go over 30 minutes.

Where are we?

What is the weather/atmosphere/time of day/quality of light?

Character 1:

Write a few sentences about Character #1:

what is she wearing, how is he sitting, what is she fiddling with, what is his emotional state, what is her desire?

Character 2: 

Write a few sentences about Character #2:

what is she wearing, how is he sitting, what is she fiddling with, what is his emotional state, what is her desire?

Character 1:

Write a line of dialogue.

Character 2:

What is Character 2's response (first in a line of dialogue)?

What exact gesture or tiny action do you see Character 2 do?

Character 1:

What is Character 1's response to the comment/gesture by Character 2?

Write the physical action/tiny gesture you see. Your characters can get up and move around. Your image is alive.

Character 2: 

Responds first with dialogue, then with a gesture. Repeat the pattern