Shifting Perspective

A writing exercise

(Based on an exercise by Maggie Anderson, which she calls “In a dark room.”)

polaroid

Find a photograph and “interrogate” it by asking and answering the questions listed below. This is my favourite exercise because it challenges you to write from different perspectives and in different voices. It will take you outside of yourself which is sometimes a good thing. You can do this exercise over and over again—especially useful when you are stuck for something to write about. Ask questions of, say, family photographs. Or old postcards. Or pictures in newspapers and magazines. You can respond in poetry or prose. Write as much or as little as you like. But try to answer all the questions. Have fun.

  1. Describe the photograph
  2. Write in the voice of someone or something in the photograph
  3. Write as someone or something in the photograph addressing the photographer
  4. Write to say something to someone you know who has not seen the photograph
  5. Write about the photo as the photographer
  6. Address someone in the photograph
  7. Describe what happened just before the photo was taken
  8. Describe what happened just after the photo was taken
  9. Describe what was happening outside the camera’s range just as the photo was being taken
  10. Write as if you found the photo 50 years after it was taken

Recommended

House-Sitting/In Joy’s Bed

Months ago we woke snorting up brown and lime green snot We held hands and laughed about it lay beside each other in bed Took turns soaking the sheets with contagious sweat At the bleating horn of the other’s alarm on mornings he or I could have slept in Instead, grabbing at the other before the day tore away to laces undone fumbling down Livingstone Street’s steps Cold feet scalded sweetly on hot water bottles sainted long johns undershorts worn three days in a row piles of clean and dirty laundry on the floor The first night unpacked we lay on the bed looked out the window to ocean cranes The mattress didn’t spring it absorbed our shapes When he and I were in it it was hard to roll around so we pressed legs to legs licked each other like ice cream cones lost hairs in the sheets held on while we drifted off  . . .

Found Poems

I always find that writing found poetry stirs up my creative side. Try collecting all the newspapers in the house, old love letters, recipes, grocery lists, old science textbooks and cut out the interesting words and sentences . . .