Image Week Day Five: Breaking Out of Old Patterns

In Foe, Nobel Laureate, J.M. Coetzee, writes:

“He turns and turns till he lies at full length, his face to my face. The skin is tight across his bones, his lips are drawn back. I pass a fingernail across his teeth, trying to find a way in.”

“His mouth opens. From inside him comes a slow stream, without breath, without interruption. It flows up through his body and out upon me; it passes through the cabin, through the wreck; washing the cliffs and shores of the island, it runs northward and southward to the ends of the earth. Soft and cold, dark and unending, it beats against my eyelids, against the skin of my face.”

And that, folks, is how you tell readers what someone said without telling them what was said. It takes a tremendous amount of imagination to produce imagery this powerful, but imaginations are fickle creatures. They come in their own time, and sometimes they disappear for years on end.

The best poets speak about their work in the same way: They feel each poem came to them as if from god. It’s just another way of saying their fickle imaginations came out to play. Inspiration arrived.

And inspiration can be incredibly rare, so most writers try to live a life with certain habits. Some sketch people in coffee shops. Some carry notepads. Some drink too much tequila. Some take a new route to work every day. Edward de Bono said, “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” That’s all we’re really doing when we use tricks like writing prompts and morning pages—breaking established patterns so that we can invite our imaginations to come out and play.

I want to force you out of your comfort zone, so I want you to write three pieces of flash fiction of around 200 or 300 words. If you can manage it in 150 words, you’re welcome to, but there’s a catch. All three of your pieces must tell the same story, but each one must use a different set of imagery.

Your imagery themes are:

Water
Fire
Plants and trees.

I've been pushing you hard, so I'm going to give you a few days if you're keeping up with the stricter schedule.