Issue 62
Introducing Scene Spurs: Photos as Writing Inspiration

Welcome!

This month, we have an applied playwriting newsletter. Exercises devoted to using photos as writing inspiration.

In This Issue

• INTRODUCTION
  An introduction to the newsletter
• CHOOSING A PHOTO
  How to choose an inspiring photo
• WARM UP
  Start every writing session with a warm-up.
• QUESTIONS
  Use questions as a path to creativity.
• ACCEPT ALL IDEAS
  Push students to put every idea on the page.
• CHARACTER PROMPTS
  Use a photo to practice character profiles.
• LOCATION PROMPTS
  Explore the story possibilities of a location.
• PERSONIFICATION PROMPTS
  Give human qualities to something not human.
• MONOLOGUE PROMPTS
  Write monologues inspired by the photo.
• SCENE PROMPTS
  Write scenes inspired by the photo.
• DOWNLOADS
  A free sample from Scene Spurs, our new collection of writing prompts.
• STAY CONNECTED
  Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
• FREE RESOURCES
  Some amazing (and free!) resources for drama teachers.
• CONFERENCE ALERT
  Meet us in person.
• IN THE NEXT ISSUE
  What you can expect next.
• STAY IN TOUCH
  How to reach us.

Introduction

Students have a visceral reaction to the act of writing. This is actually true of all people, not just students. They feel writing is something they can or cannot do. Either/or with no in-between. It's hard to convince someone who feels they can't write that the ability is within their grasp. Writing is intangible; left to those who are 'creative' or feel 'inspiration.' But what makes me a writer is not an innate ability to write, it has nothing to do with inspiration or creativity. What makes me a writer is the fact that I do it all the time. I do it over and over and over again. Same as the athlete preparing for a race. Same as the law student studying for the bar. The more you do something, the more tangible it becomes.

Having said that, you can't just say to a student, “You'll get better at writing if you write more.” That is also intangible. What does that mean? What do they write? Where do they start?

It is my experience that ALL students have the capacity to write when they are given a starting point. Instead of staring at a blank page waiting for creativity or inspiration, a starting point provides direction.

To that end, photos are a fantastic starting point for writers. Photos can generate ideas. Photos can trigger questions. Photos can tell a story. Photos can give direction for character development. Abstract photos can stimulate writers who don't respond to traditional structures.

This newsletter offers writing exercises which use photos as a starting point for plays and theatrical exploration. Though the exercises are theatre focused, the photos could easily be used for songs, poems, and short stories. The sky is the limit.

There are several photos in this newsletter. Each photo can be clicked to be taken to a much larger version.

Choosing a Photo

The first step is finding a photo. The best place to look for photos is flickr. flickr is a huge online photo album where you can search for photos using a specific theme. If you want to be able to print, copy and distribute photos in your class look for photos with non-commercial use licences in the creative commons category or any photo in the commons category.

Not any photo will work – a key factor is whether or not the picture draws you into a world. If there's a 'world' in the photo, then there's something to write about. The photo also has to present a clear picture, the situation has to be visible, if not always understandable.

For example this picture does nothing for me. The picture is not clear. There isn't anything that grabs me, I don't get a sense there's anything interesting going on in the picture or beyond the frame.

While this picture makes me ask all kinds of questions and makes me want to know more about the situation. What on earth are they doing? Why is there a crowd watching? Who is taking the photo? This is an intriguing photo, which is going to act as a great starting point.

What makes a good photo:

• Does the photo make you ask a question?
• Are there interesting shapes in the photo?
• Does the photo make you wonder why the photographer took the photo?
• Is the picture clear?
• Do you wonder what's happening outside the frame?

Where do I start my search?

If you're using flickr, start your search with a keyword or tag. This way you're not sifting through endless photos, you're focused on a theme or subject. If your keyword doesn't bring up something interesting on the first page of photos, switch up your search. It's easy to get bogged down when you don't know exactly what you're looking for.

Active keywords:

• the seasons – spring, summer, winter, fall
• action words – protest, jump, play
• the environment – storm, rain, waves, snow
• architectural elements – stairs, window, roof, bridge
• body parts – face, hair, eyes, hands
• groups of people – crowds, family, friends, portrait
• light and dark elements – sky, night, shadow, reflection
• emotions – happiness, anger, fear
• events – wedding, festival, carnival
• places – street, beach, city, farm

Exercise

Give students a keyword. Have them go to flickr and bring to class a printout of two different photos derived from that keyword. Discuss the variety of photos. How are they similar? How are they different?

Warm Up

Whatever the eventual exercise, start every writing session with a warm-up. Diving into writing is like diving into the deep end of an ice cold pool – it can shock the system. Ease into the writing process. Athletes prepare to use their body at its peak. Writers need to prepare to use their brains at their peak. Get the brain ready to write with exercises that focus on the act of writing rather than the content. You can use photos as part of your warm up routine with an automatic writing exercise.

• Hand out a photo to the class.
• Everyone has two minutes to examine and write out their response to the photo. What do they see? What do they think about the photo? What would it be like to be in the photo?
• The aim of the exercise is to keep writing for the entire time limit. Don't self-judge any thought that comes to mind regarding the picture. Everything goes on the page. If students get stuck, write about being stuck. The act of writing is more important than the content.

Other automatic writing warm up prompts:

• My ideal television show.
• The perfect vacation.
• The best/worst birthday I ever had.
• Peer pressure.
• The best super power.
• In twenty years I will be...

Again, the aim of an automatic writing warm up is to practise the act of writing. Getting words on the page without pressure or judgement. Sometimes getting words on the page can be the hardest part of writing, so just to be able to practice that act helps a beginner improve.

Questions

Students thrive when they are given a starting point. When it comes to writing, that starting point has to naturally encourage students to get words on the page. That's the aim of writing. Sometimes one starting point is not enough – some will look at a photo and not know what to do. Questions provide a great answer to “What do I do?” Look at the photo, ask questions about it. An inspiring photo will naturally inspire questions.

Once questions are asked, they have to be answered. And the wonderful thing about theatrical writing is that there is no one right answer. Creative writing is not fact-based. As long as the writer is approaching the questions with sincerity, the answer could be quite fantastical. As students get into the habit of asking and answering questions, they are getting in the habit of getting words on the page.

Exercise

• Hand out this photo to the class.
• On the back of the handout, students must ask five questions of the photo.
• The five questions should being with the words “who, what, when, where, and why.”
• Collect the photos, and then re-distribute them. Each student should receive a hand-out with questions from a different student.
• Each student must answer the questions on the back of their new sheet.
• Emphasize that the aim of the exercise is to answer the questions with sincerity.
• Collect the hand-outs and discuss. How did the process differ for students between asking and answering questions? Which was easier?

Check out the download section, which has a free sample of Scene Spurs - our new playwriting prompt book.

Accept All Ideas

Self-judgement is something that stops beginning writers in their tracks. They stop the writing process before a single word hits the page: “That's stupid, that's not good, no one will like that.” They fear that what is going to go on the page will be a mistake. This is not their fault. We are trained from the first day of school that mistakes are bad. Mistakes earn you a lower grade. In writing (and frankly, in life) mistakes are the steps you must take to get to something better.

Easier said than done. It takes practice to get into the habit of putting everything on the page and circumvent the stop reflex in case what's going on that page is a mistake. It takes practice to accept all one's ideas as possibilities.

Here is a great photo exercise to push students toward a habit of acceptance. The aim of the exercise is to encourage students to think and respond to a photo quickly without stopping the ideas that comes into their head. I find that a prize for the group that finishes the quickest is an excellent motivator to drive spontaneous thinking.

Exercise:

• Divide the class into groups of 4 or 5. Each group needs a pen or pencil.
• Each group stands at one end of the room.
• At the other end of the room place a different photo for each group along with a page of sentence starters. Click here for an example.
• One at a time students run to the photo and page, look at the photo and respond to it by finishing a sentence. Once they are finished their sentence they run back to their group and the next person in line goes to the photo.
• If your room is cluttered with desks, then sit the groups in rows, one behind the other. Have students pass the photo and page to the person sitting behind them.

Rules:

• No repeats. (e.g. I wish I had a dress like that, wouldn't it be interesting if I had a dress like that, I wonder what it would be like to have a dress like that.)
• The sentence has to make sense to the photo. This focuses students on responding to the photo rather than writing anything to finish the task.
• The first group that finishes their page of sentences, without repeats, and all the sentences make sense as a response to the photo receives a prize. Click here to see a sample of this exercise.

On every page you'll find a combination of silly sentences and boring sentences. You'll also find startling sentences. Emphasize to students that sometimes it's necessary to write down the silly and the boring (i.e. putting down the 'mistakes') in order to get to something good. This is why it's important to accept all ideas as possibilities.

Variations: Do this exercise where all the groups use the same photo. How do the sentences vary? How are they similar?

Character Prompts

Students often miss connecting character development as part of the writing process. And yet, characters play such a huge part in theatre. Audiences experience the world of the play through the characters on stage - what they do, what they're going through. Characters are the backbone of all great plays. If they're thinly portrayed or one-dimensional, the play's ability to communicate is hindered.

Use portrait photos to practice writing character profiles. What details can be created simply by looking at a photo?

Exercise: The Portrait

Answer the following questions based on the above photograph.

• Who is in this photograph? Give them an name and an age.
• What do they do?
• Who is in their family?
• Where do they live?
• What is their favourite food? Least favourite food?
• What is the emotional state of the person in the photograph? Why?
• What will they do next?
• What is their most important relationship? Describe it.
• What secret are they keeping and why?

Exercise: The Photographer

 

Answer the following questions based on the above photograph

• Who took this picture? Give them a name and an age.
• Are they a professional photographer or an amateur?
• Where is this photograph being taken?
• Why did they take the picture?
• What are they thinking about as they take the picture? Write out their thoughts.
• Where will the photographer go after he/she takes the picture?

Location Prompts

Use photos to prompt students to think specifically about different locations. Beginning writers often stick to what they know when it comes to locations, and unique photos can show them theatrical possibilities. Also, beginning writers equate theatre locations to movie locations. It is of course, impossible to stage a scene as realistically as a movie. When students try and inevitably fail, they think it's because they're poor writers. If you can prompt students to take something real that they see in a photo and change it to suit the stage, they will start to create a habit of theatrical thinking.

Exercise:

Respond to the questions and activities below using the above photo.

• Where is this location?
• What time of year is it?
• Is something usual or unusual happening?
• Automatic write for two minutes in response to this photo. What are your thoughts on the location?
• What character would be comfortable in this location? Describe them.
• What character would be uncomfortable? Describe them.
• Write a conversation between those two characters.
• If you had to stage this location using limited props (two cubes, a bench, a music stand and a garbage pail) how would you do it?
• Theatre often uses dialogue to create the world of a location, rather than realistic sets. Write a line of dialogue that would show the audience where this picture takes place.

Personification Prompts

Beginning writers are often influenced by movies. They're also influenced by realism, attempting to make a stage location 'real' as is done in the movies, focusing on the 'real' aspect of conversation (e.g. the process of ordering food in a restaurant) rather than the theatrical aspects. It's great practice to take something real (like a photograph) and write something surreal about it. One technique that works is personification – giving human qualities and emotions to inanimate objects and animals.

Exercise:

Look at the above photograph. Write out the conversation between the bird and the dog. What would they say to each other if they suddenly could speak English? What 'human' problem does each animal have? How does the other animal help or hinder that problem? What doe they think of their human minders?

Monologue Prompts

The best way to get better at a genre of writing is to practice it. So the way to become a better playwright is to practice writing monologues and scenes. The more students practice, the more comfortable they'll become. Instead of giving students a blanket 'write a monologue,' use photos to provide a starting point. There's a story, a character, at the very least a photographer on which to base the monologue.

Exercise:

Use the photo above as a starting point for a monologue. Start by asking questions of the photo, creating a character profile, and automatic writing on the location. Then, use the following prompts to write a monologue.

• The girl has just received some bad news. Write that monologue.
• The girl has a secret. She tells it to the dog in a monologue.
• The girl has to make a decision. Write that monologue.
• The girl hates fishing. Why is she doing it? Write that monologue.
• It's the last day of summer. The girl in this photo is worried about going to a new school. Write that monologue.

Scene Prompts

Exercise:

Use the photo above as a starting point for a scene. Start by asking questions of the photo, choosing two people in the photo and writing character profiles, and automatic writing on the location. Then, use the following prompts to write a scene.

• Write a scene between two characters in this photo before the event in this photo takes place. One has to convince the other to participate. How do they do it? What do they promise?
• Write a scene between two characters where this event is their first date.
• Write a scene between two characters where one is trying to break up with the other during this event.
• Write a scene between two characters in this photo during the event. What is the conversation? Change the emotional state of the two characters – now the one who was reluctant is having a great time and the other is miserable. Why? Make sure you decide specifically what they are doing in this photo.
• Write a scene between two characters who are watching this event. There is a conflict between the two that has nothing to do with the event. How do you bring up the conflict, as well as focus on the event?
• Write the scene that takes place once this event is over. Where do these characters go next?

Downloads

Have you heard about our new Scene Spurs collection? It's a set of 35 photo-based writing prompts. Each prompt features an inspiring photo as well as warm-up questions, automatic writing suggestions, monologue and scene prompts. Use Scene Spurs as an introduction to writing, as warm-up material or as an Emergency Lesson Plan. Click here to learn more!

Just for reading this newsletter, you get a sneak peak. Click here to download a free example of what you can expect in Scene Spurs.

You can also click here for one of our free resource handouts on Writing Inspiration: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.

Stay Connected

We’ve got big plans for this year, including giving away some free plays through our Twitter and Facebook pages. Now would be a really good time to friend us up!

Free Resources

Did you know we have a page full of free resources for theatre teachers? Check it out here!

Conference Alert

Here's our upcoming conference schedule. If you're attending, please drop by and say hi!

• Arts Alive Conference Mississauga Secondary School, Mississauga, ON
  Feb 23, 2012 to Feb 23, 2012
• OCTELA Conference Worthington, Ohio
  Mar 9, 2012 to Mar 10, 2012
• Florida Thespians Tampa, FL
  Mar 16, 2012 to Mar 17, 2012
• International Thespian Festival Lincoln, NE
  Jun 26, 2012 to Jun 30, 2012
• NCTAE North Carolina
  Sep 14, 2012 to Sep 15, 2012
• FATE - Florida Association of Theatre Educators Orlando, fl
  Oct 11, 2012 to Oct 13, 2012
• CODE Nottawasaga Inn Resort, Alliston ON
  Oct 19, 2012 to Oct 21, 2012

In the Next Issue

Our September Newsletter offers a look into another era of Theatre History.

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