Writing in Color
I used colors to inspire my writing today. Read what I wrote, then use color to inspire your own writing today. [From the Archive.]
Use this writing prompt to guide your writing: Write about something we typically associate with a color, or that is a color (e.g. the sky, ice, water, cold, sadness, freedom, etc. is associated with the color blue, while roses, cherries, blood, heat, passion, rage, danger, etc. are associated with the color red). But don’t use the word for the color you’re writing about like“blue” or “red”(or various shades of it like cerulean, cobalt, navy, sapphire, crimson, ruby, scarlet, etc.) in what you write. Instead, try to use metaphors and objects to describe the color your writing is based on today.
See what I wrote below for examples.
All I See Is Green
Tessa didn’t want to be here among the ruins at first, but it was her sister Kammi’s wedding weekend. So this is where she would be whether she liked it or not. Kammi was never one for subtly. Her motto was always “Go big or go home”, which she applied to all facets of her life; everything from her hair to her car to her occupation as a Rockette. And she never understood how appealing the “going home” part was to Tessa, the chubbier, shorter, nerdier sister.
Tessa walked around the castle grounds alone and found a medium-sized rock to stand on that was near the edge of a cliff. That’s right, she was at a castle for her sister’s wedding. Kammi insisted that she get married in a previously abandoned but now newly renovated castle in Ireland. She said it would bring her luck.
But ever since they arrived, oddly enough, Kammi hadn’t had any luck at all. Her caterer had been admitted to the hospital with a terrible bout of food poisoning the previous day. Bad cheese, supposedly. Her dress was lost in a shipping container somewhere crossing the Atlantic. And when they arrived at the castle this morning, they discovered a large leak in the ceiling of the main hall where the ceremony was supposed to happen tomorrow.
Tessa looked out over the water crashing below from the edge of the cliff enjoying the strong wind in her hair and couldn’t hold back her smile. Being here was wildly peaceful. Perhaps it was a luckier place for her after all.
She heard someone shout her name in the distance behind her so she turned to head back to the castle. Looking out over the lush sprawling hills behind the stone of the castle was equally humbling and stimulating.
When Tessa arrived at the front entrance she noticed piles of shamrocks growing in large ceramic pots near the gate. And although she didn’t have time to investigate, she knew there was one with four leaves among them, just for her.
All I see is Blue. Water-Sky
After Jane received the call she had been dreading for months, she grabbed her favorite throw blanket and headed toward the beach mere meters from her back door.
It was a bright Wednesday with the sun directly overhead. The hues of the ocean were melding with the tones of the sky on the distant horizon. And as she continued to stare at it, Jane began to believe that if she jumped in and kept swimming, she just might be able to fly away. Maybe escape her impending new reality. A reality that hadn’t arrived yet, but would still be here much sooner than she had planned. Tomorrow.
Finally, Jane reached her favorite spot in the thick sand near a collection of boulders. She placed her blanket on the sand, sat down, and looked out over the water-sky into the distance. Her sullen mood lifted as she lost herself in daydreaming about being somewhere else far away, on the other side of her current view, anywhere other than where she would have to go in less than one sleep from now.
All I See is Red
I felt the temperature in my cheeks rise after he admonished me for being late this morning in front of everyone in the break room at lunch, so casually and smugly. They all laughed, pouring fuel onto the flames of his fabricated sanctimonious moment at my expense. Which was intended to be loud enough for our boss to hear.
My proud judger didn’t mention, of course, how he would always waltz into the office twenty to thirty minutes late. And that he always bullied others into doing his work. Most days, too. Just not today.
His blatant hypocrisy filled me with this burning sensation I could feel in my gut. A sensation I eventually stifled with the knowledge only I had–the knowledge of what was going to happen next. He wouldn’t see it coming and neither would his co-conspirators in my shame and indignity. And they never would. But I still smiled as he put his mouth around the fork that was tampered with in an unhygienic way earlier, in a way I will never say. And no one will ever know, but me.
All I See is Purple
The trumpets blared their stately sounds as the newly coronated queen stepped up to the throne next to the man embodying the future chosen for her by celestial forces she didn’t yet understand. The train of her velvet robes trailed behind her, outlining her wake, her fate, her mystique. And at that moment she vowed to clutch her secrets close to her chest with the same firmness she now clutched the front of her gown as she ascended.
The stone on the queen’s left hand gleamed in the vibrant shadow of the silhouettes of the divine ensconced in the stained glass above. Regal hues cascaded over her as she took her place in the sun, honored by provenance at last, still not knowing anything other than she was to be a vessel headed toward stormy seas and a brutal end.
I might revise, edit, or add to the drafts above in the future. Stay tuned.
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© All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC. The above works are pieces of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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