Creative writing assignments #8

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
(writing piece #8)

A postcard could give you away. A license plate number can help track down people on the run… A Polaroid could make a connection… some say a picture’s worth a thousand words!

This is where you can show those things that are pertinent to your character and/or story… The image should intrigue your audience.

An image works and can be read the same way a “text” (letters, words, and sentences) can be read- you just have to know how and find the reasons that it is relevant.
Task: Find a photograph that illustrates some part of your story. Write a brief caption underneath it explaining it- try to use the voice(s) that you have already explored in earlier pieces (i.e. evidence=investigators voice)

Questions to ask yourself/ things to think about:
1. What scene/object/person do I want to illustrate.
2. Find something that ADDS to your story… it is a “textual element”.
3. What voice am I going to use to write the caption? Will this be a picture from a newspaper, from the notebook of the detective, a scrap found at the scene of the crime?
4. How important is this photo- will you be giving away the murderer…?