Family photographs are rich sources for writing stories. Pictures are stories— visual stories of moments frozen in time. As a writer, you can take those moments and expand, explore, and rewrite them with sensory details and dialogue, breathing new life into history. Below are three exercises that use pictures to help you generate ideas. Complete these exercises in your journal so you can access them easily when you need them.
Enter the Photograph
What you need: a family photograph taken before you were born
Instructions: Pretend as though you are entering the photograph as a silent observer. Write a scene based on this picture. What is happening? Who are the people present? Use dialogue to capture the voices of the family members. Embody them as best as you can. Use sensory details to bring the scene to life.
Interior Monologue
What you need: a photograph of a “former” you
Instructions: Write in the present tense about what you are thinking and feeling. Write this as an interior monologue.
Photo Dialogue
What you need: a photograph of you with another person
Instructions: Write a dialogue between you and the other person.
Upon finishing these exercises, read what you’ve written. What, if any, insights can you glean? Did anything interesting about you or your family come up? Revisit these exercises in a few days and see if you can explore them further.
That’s an interesting way to be creative, but instead of your own family picture from before you were born, you might feel more free to be creative if you use a picture of a random family from before you were born
Thanks for your input!
A very interesting idea, I must say! Good one 😀
Thanks for visiting, Pragati!
Oooh! I really like this idea with making a story out of a photograph. Sometimes, we just see a family portrait but don’t know the complete story of each of the family member’s lives. You know, back then, people also dealt with drama but what kind? LOL! I really like that kind of imagination. Great job for thinking of this!!
Nancy ✨ exquisitely.me
Hey, Nancy!
There’s a lot of treasure to be discovered in family photographs. I’m glad you enjoyed the article. Thanks for stopping by!