Writing prompts from Donald M. Murray's Write to Learn--Chapter 3

Chapter 3     See and Write

1. List songs the you love and that evoke a certain moment in your life. What memories do these songs bring back to you? Think of all the sensory details you associate with these songs and the events they represent--the taste of fruit punch at junior prom, the fragrance of your crumpled corsage, the smooth wooden pew at your friend's memorial service, the grief-stricken look on her mother's face, the feeling of cold water cascading over your body at the shore, the odour of hot dogs steaming on the vendors' carts. Come up with all the memories and sensory details you can for each song.

4. Visit a room or spot you go to every day and see it anew. List as many details as you can, from the unusual to the ordinary. Then circle the details that you noticed for the first time. Return the next day and notice what you didn't notice last time.

6. Try some intergenerational seeing. If you are a young student, think of an issue or topic that an older relative or friend might view differently from you; if you are older, choose a young friend or relative. Write your viewpoint in your daybook and then interview your friend to get his or her perspective. Describe how your ways of seeing are similar or different and why.

9. Hone your sense of touch. Feel the textures of different cloths; run your hand along surfaces; immerse your fingers in liquids; hold objects and test their various weights and shapes. Record your observations in your daybook.

10. Go to a particular site with a writing partner and write about it separately, each from your own viewpoint. Compare notes and discuss the difference and similarities in the way each of you viewed the same space.

15. Visit an isolated or quiet spot, such as a church or wildlife sanctuary. Sit still and listen for at least fifteen minutes. Write down in your notebook everything you hear. Then add a layer of details by describing what you see and then what you smell. Finally, note everything you feel--cold, wind, snow, rain, sun, or heat on your skin. Then write a short descriptive essay about the spot using these details.

19. Take a "smelling tour" of your neighbourhood, jotting down odours and fragrances you encounter as you walk--food, flowers, garbage, rain, anything that you can detect by nose. Try to describe how these odours make you feel, what they remind you of, and what they say about your neighbourhood.

Murray, Donald. M. Write to Learn. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College, 1998.