Finally, I'm posting a new idea! Hoorah! Sorry, but this might be a long one!
Writing Poetry? Here's a good idea for your next poem. (Or free writing entry!)
1. Think of a color. Make it easy on yourself and use a basic color. You know, red, green, blue, yellow, orange, pink, purple, grey, white, black, or brown.
2. Think about all the things in the world that involve that color. This could be anything. For example, rainclouds are grey. Tree trunks are brown. The ocean is blue. Write down all of this on paper or type it on the computer. (Whatever you prefer) But hopefully you're writing/typing this to put it in the writing portfolio I suggested you made.
3. Imagery. Lemme educate you really quick. It's review for some of you.
Imagery is descriptive language that deals with any of the five senses (sight, touch, smell, hearing, and taste) and is intended to make the reader feel more interested in the work by creating a mental image of the subject. Imagery is any series of words used to create a mental picture, or sensory experience. Such images can be created by using figures of speech such as similes, metaphors, personification, and assonance. Images can also be created by relatable action words or onomatopoeias that trigger pictures in the reader’s mind. Imagery helps the reader imagine the sensations described as they are related through the language of the author.
*A simplistic view is that one can think of the imagery as painting a picture with words. (Provided by Wikipedia)
You don't even need to know the basics of imagery to be able to use it. If you've had enough experience with writing, you've probably been using it a long time without knowing that there was a word for it!
4. Now let's see what we can do with all these objects that involve our chosen color. When I did this activity, my color was chosen for me. (Well, I picked it out of a hat- which could work great if you can't choose yourself!) My color was grey. So of course my first pick was rainclouds. Let's brainstorm how we can get imagery from this.
Let's use the five senses:
*smell: The air always smells good before, during, and after rain (In my opinion)
*see: well... rain clouds are grey and thats why we're even doing this, go figure.
*touch: we all imagined clouds as soft, plushy, fluff balls one time or another right?
*taste: I guess we can describe how rain tastes here, unless you've personally flew up to a cloud and licked it. If so, please PM me with all of the details
*hear: This is probably the easiest. Just describe everything you hear in the next thunderstorm, or try to remember the last one. But be creative! It's never fun to get the same old: The thunder was loud and angry!
5. Here's a bonus step for you! A follow-up for the sentence, 'The thunder was loud and angry!' Let's think about what that sentence is saying.
The sentence is:
(A) Imagery
(B) Telling us about the thunderstorm
I'd say B, but we've all got opinions. It's important, in ANY and I mean ANY form of writing (poems, stories, journals, etc) that you DESCRIBE the imagery, not tell us about it.
Here's an example:
The girl cried.
Okay... so she cried. That's not very interesting is it?
How about:
The girl felt the warmth of her tears stream down her face.
Not the best, but its better than the first sentence. Your readers want to figure stuff out on their own. I'll go into more detail about this in my next post, but for now, let's get back to our colors.
6. Finally! It's time to actually write the poem (or whatever) We've got our main idea, our color. We've got some information about that color, objects that involve it. We've got a good stack of imagery ideas. Remember, you don't have to use all of the ideas. And hey, that idea you decide not to include could be great for your next poem! We're ready to go right? Sure! But there's one more thing that might challenge you. And you don't have to do it, but it might make your poem ten times better.
Don't use the color in the poem. Shocked? Don't worry, all of that was not a waste of your time. You've got plenty to work with! You're now capable to talk about that raincloud all you want without even mentioning that its grey and STILL finish with a good poem. Remember what I said? Readers want to think about what they're reading. They don't want to be told. So whether you just come up with a poem about a tree trunk or you describe whats going on in that hive, your reader WILL be thinking of colors and your poem can be a success!
P.S.- For some color means, you know, like red means love, white means pure, and all that stuff, go to this website: http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html
It's pretty good and it'll give you even more ideas about your color!
Expand this lesson! You don't have to use colors, pick a letter out of a hat and describe apples, ants, and airplanes. Be creative with these writers block lessons too!
I hope you're doing all this in a writing portfolio!
-Jassie!
Gender:
Points: 890
Reviews: 8