A writer's imagination has to go beyond what most people see. It has to exceed the mundane reality taken for granted. A writer needs to perceive more than just a 'fat man,' 'a cone,' 'a beautiful woman,' 'a seashell,' 'a leaf'... Instead, a writer should ask him or herself: What does a leaf remind me of? What can I compare it to in order to describe it best to my readers?
Therefore, in the AES Becoming a Writer club students practice sharpening their sensual
perception of objects, people, surroundings… This is what they have recently
noticed:
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| What do these objects remind you of? |
Students looked at the above objects carefully through a magnifying glass. A dry leaf became a saucepan and a boat, a seashell - a band shell and a fingernail, a cone - a fat Christmas tree and a flower. This is what writers see!
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| Vivian Maier's photograph (detail) |
The man, however, is not simply an obese man, but "an obese man who looked at me as if he wasn't prepared to be photographed" - isn't that a much more interesting way of showing him to readers?
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| Johannes Vermeer's painting (detail) |
And this lady became "a girl whose lit face looks like the lighter part of a rape peach."
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