writing

NWW Photo Prompt ~ Dimples

~ Chloe Cocking ~ 16 Comments

Welcome back to the NWW Photo Prompt!

The New West Writers Photo Prompt is a twice-monthly challenge for writers of all genres. It’s easy to participate — and we encourage everyone to do so. Just spend a moment with the image below and write whatever comes to mind. A couple of lines, or a couple thousand words. Prose, non-fiction, poetry, even a six word story, if you like.

Dimples
Dimples
Photo by Jo Martinez
There are no winners (we’re all writers sharing our words) and no rules. Well, one — be respectful with your words.

You can announce your post with a link in a comment below, or if you link to this page from your post, we’ll publish the trackback link in the comment section of this page. Add an “nww photo prompt” tag to your post and we’ll also provide a link to your response in the next challenge. This post outlines these few simple steps.

To get you going, one of our writing group’s members will have the first go at the prompt. Base your post on theirs or go a completely different way.

Dimples
by Chloe Cocking

 
 
The dimples near the end of her spine drew his eye. He noticed the scar nearby—a surgical incision, surely. She felt his eyes on her, and drew her robe up and over her shoulders. She glanced at him, hostile, frowning. His face flamed and he shuffled to the side so his easel hid him. He studied his hands, knotted with work and years, holding a piece of charcoal.

 
 
Happy writing!

Dancing with Vertigo
Dancing with Vertigo
Here are the posts written in response to the July 1st NWW Photo Prompt:

Dancing With Vertigo
Communion
A Better Photographer
How is dancing a symbol in dream interpretation?

NWW Photo Prompt ~ Dancing With Vertigo

~ Elizabeth Sinclair ~ 10 Comments

Welcome to the inaugural NWW Photo Prompt!

The New West Writers Photo Prompt is a twice-monthly challenge for writers of all genres. It’s easy to participate — and we encourage everyone to do so. Just spend a moment with the image below and write whatever comes to mind. A couple of lines, or a couple thousand words. Prose, non-fiction, poetry, even a six word story, if you like.

Dancing with Vertigo
Dancing With Vertigo

There are no winners (we’re all writers sharing our words) and no rules. Well, one — be respectful with your words.

You can announce your post with a link in a comment below, or if you link to this page from your post, we’ll publish the trackback link in the comment section of this page. Add an “nww photo prompt” tag to your post and we’ll also provide a link to your response in the next challenge. This post outlines these few simple steps.

To get you going, one of our writing group’s members will have the first go at the prompt. Base your post on theirs or go a completely different way.

Dancing With Vertigo
by Betty Sinclair

 
 
A click sounds deep in my skull
I am the pivotal point of a carousel – trapped

The room is lit by a candelabra. The teacher has a surprising German accent for one teaching Argentine Tango. “Walk backwards like you’re descending a spar. Lean in.”

Blurred things fly off the edge
Speed unmanaged – unmanageable

Claus, or as we should call him, Claudio yells so that his voice is heard over the bandoneon, “Control, no ballroom-head, shoulders down, head haughty.”

Bricks fly past
Whooshing in the ears – roaring

“Feel the rhythm. No looking at your feet. Listen to the music.”

I grab at a shiny object, what was it
No memory – panic

“Form a triangle with your partner. Basura – throw away her foot with yours – rubbish.”

Back against the wall – solid.
Slowing, slowing, slowing – nausea

We lean against the wall, stretching our stiff necks. Changing out of our soft shoes into street boots, we laugh. Nervous and embarrassed, because adults don’t usually give a stranger consent to shout at them. “Practice, learn to walk with control,” says Claudio not quite ready to release us.. “Bien hecho. Until next week.”

 
 
Happy writing!

NWW Photo Prompt

~ Patrick Jennings ~ 22 Comments

New West Writers Photo Prompt

Welcome to the NWW Photo Prompt where twice a month we offer a photographic writing prompt. We publish our writing challenge on the 1st and 15th days of each month, but you can respond to any prompt, any time you like.

Participation is simple. Just:

  1. Check out our photo; write something awesome and post it to your blog.
  2. Display the photograph somewhere in your post.
  3. Use “NWW Photo Prompt” in your post title, AND/OR
    Add a link to our post offering the prompt you’re responding to.
  4. Add “nww photo prompt” to your tag list, so we can find your post.
  5. (optional) Announce your response as a comment on the NWW Photo Prompt post.

So long as you use the “nww photo prompt” tag, or post a link to your submission in a comment, we’ll add a link to your post on our next photo prompt.

Prompt ideas:

  • Tell a story about what’s happening in the photograph
  • Find something in the photograph to tell a story about
  • Write a poem about the mood or emotion you get from the photograph
  • What’s the first word that comes to mind looking at the photo? Start there!
  • What’s the backstory?
  • What happens next?
  • Who took the photo, and why?
  • Continue the story we posted for the prompt.
  • Or change its ending!

Your written piece can be as short or long as you like, a couple lines or a couple thousand words, even a six word story. Write in any form, in any genre. Poetry, haiku, flash fiction, longreads, non-fiction, memoir… anything!

But, most of all, have fun!

Current and past prompts:

Grand Cayman - Queen Elizabeth Botanic Garden - Palm Fronds
Palm Fronds August 1, 2015

Dimples
Dimples July 15, 2015

Dancing with Vertigo
Dancing With Vertigo July 1, 2015

The Museum of Used Candles – Frisby-on-the-Wreake

~ Julian Worker ~ 3 Comments

This museum in England has been collecting the used candles of the rich and famous for 20 years. The proprietor, Anne Wickham, started the museum in 1994 after a Women’s Institute meeting where she found that all her fellow members found it difficult to throw away their used candles as they were like dear, old friends.

Anne decided to keep those candles and to turn them into a tableau, which she entitled “Growing Old” drawing parallels between the ageing of the WI members and the way the wax had melted and formed wrinkles on the surface of the candles.

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Favourite Words

~ Chloe Cocking ~ 10 Comments

Skeletal– relating to or functioning as a skeleton. I think this word is best with the UK pronunciation “skel-EE- tel” rather than the US “SKEL-eh-tel”.

Amnesia– loss of a block of interconnected memories. The soap opera disease! A cliché plot point so hackneyed that it almost makes me want to use it, just in case it comes back into fashion.  Even better is the adjective ‘amnestic’, as in “They were amnestic for the duration of their vacation on Secret Bloody Skull Island. They did not know exactly why. Privately, Charles suspected something terrible had happened.”

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A Day without Reading or Writing

~ Chloe Cocking ~ Leave a comment

I spend the better part of most days reading and writing. In recreational reading alone, I average about 150 hours per month. (How do I know? My e-reader software actually tracks my reading hours.) When the time I spend reading things like paper books, the Interweebs, and work documents is factored in, I think the grand total would be closer to 275, or maybe even 300 hours a month.

Recently I performed a thought experiment on myself: if I had a whole day during which I had lost the ability to read and write, how would I spend it? What would I do all day?

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