Portrait of Words – Writing Guidelines

Welcome to my monthly writing challenge, known as a “Portrait of Words”.

In a nutshell, here’s how it works. Once a month I give you a set of categories along with photographs to use as inspiration for your story. Look at each of the pictures, interpret them, then create a story based on what you see and feel. It’s really that simple. Below are the specifics to help guide you through the process.

The most important thing to remember is this: it’s supposed to be a fun experience for everyone, and viewed simply as a writing exercise designed to stimulate creativity and camaraderie between fellow bloggers. In other words, don’t get too bogged down with the rules. Use them as guidelines to help you, not to confine you.

The categories

Main character or characters

Your story can be told through or about this person or people — first person or third, either way you like. However you go, their involvement in the story should be a focal point. Have as many or as few additional characters as you wish, but at least one of the people pictured should be central to the story overall.

Backdrop

This creates the setting. It can take place at the location depicted, be a destination on the way to it, or be a journey away from it.

Purpose

This is what drives or motivates the main character to act. You can also think of it as the objective of the story.

Item or items

The object should have significant value to the main character, to the backdrop, or to the purpose of the story.

Wild card

Writer’s choice. Pick one of the three options offered and use it in your story however you see fit.

General guidelines

• Your story can be any length or any style. Long or short, comedy or tragedy, fact or fiction — it’s up to you.
• Use a picture from each of the Main Character, Backdrop, Purpose and Item categories somewhere in your story. Use only one of the wild card options.
• Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just beginning, everyone is invited to join in.

Posting

• The pictures and prompts go up on a Wednesday, and your story is due one month later on the Wednesday. Don’t worry though — if you don’t get it in by Wednesday, any time is fine.
• I post the pictures for the following challenge on the Thursday after we submit our stories, which gives everybody roughly a month to build the next one.
• Read the other participants’ stories only after you’ve posted your own, and please remember to leave them a comment about their writing.
• Sign the link list so others can find and read your story. There is a link box at the bottom of my story post every time it goes up.

I look forward to reading your story.

What happened to it

Portrait of Words ran monthly through 2010 and was retired at the end of that year. The reason was plain enough and was said out loud at the time: it took a lot of work to assemble and only produced a couple of stories a month. It was offered to anyone who wanted to take it over.

The format holds up, though, and it is worth stealing. Photo-prompt writing exercises work because they remove the blank page without removing the choices — you are handed a person, a place, a reason and an object, and everything that matters is still yours to decide. If you want to run something like it yourself, the Academy of American Poets and the writing-exercise archives at the Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center are decent places to start looking for prompts that aren’t your own holiday photographs.

The other meme hosted here, The Muffed Target, went in exactly the opposite direction: no writing to speak of, and the worse the photograph the better.

Hey, it’s only my opinion.
A Hui Hou