One thing Levi and i talked about the other night is if the October Drawing Prompts thing would work as a writing prompt as well. We looked at comparing what this was to NaNoWriMo, and which is conceivably more difficult. I said that I think the two aren’t completely comparable as is. NaNo is about writing one thing through the entire month. I know some people use prompts to help nudge them along, but that’s now what I do (which may be why I’ve only succeeded once). It’s coming back to try to make the same thing you started with bigger and stronger and longer as you go along. I guess if Levi was drawing one of his infamous (and, to me, beloved) posters from back in the day, with each prompt coming together to make one giant scene, they would have more in common. The opposite would be be writing a drabble from each prompt, one a day, trying to make the word count of 1700 words a day, but it would be more about completing a specific scene or moment, to capture the essence of the idea.
I think both concepts have value. And I do think the physical labor of drawing or painting is well beyond that of writing (unless you’re the sort who writes by hand. I haven’t been able to do that one since I was a teen). At the heart though, they both involve trying to find some inspiration in a single word and make something out of that for others to see and enjoy and hopefully be inspired by themselves. I wouldn’t say one if necessarily easier or harder than the other. It depends on what you’ve spent your years trying to hone as a skill. It’s easier for me to discount writing as the less challenging because I could not ever draw like Levi or Phil or Corky or Erin. Any number of friends of mine. But there are very successful artists who maybe draw more simplistic figures compared to others, but the way they use them to tell stories or even just do a single panel or more of a strip each day, it hits the perfect note with the audience. That’s incredibly admirable to me.
Phil is a good example though because he also is a prose writer, and he’s done short stories that have drawn me in very quickly and fully and made me feel like I was a part of another world. J-F too, who I know has done his themes during October for art. I could ask him which is more challenging, the drawing or his writing. But I think it would be different for everybody. Meantime, I just get to sit and enjoy it. And complain that I’m not doing it, but that’s my deal.
When I was in high school, and I had my one class on writing, we were given a list of story prompts at the beginning of the semester. You were meant to get one done a week. And I remember starting out going from the list as it was presented. But then I felt like writing what I wanted to write. I thought I’d get in trouble for it, but that never came up. I got some great reactions and feedback from my teacher, one of the few times I can say that about my high school days. And I guess that’s maybe when I decided I enjoyed writing. I’d done it before, little by little, but it was always my own thing. I never sought feedback, never thought to share it. That class opened me up to it. But I still didn’t take it seriously beyond getting a passing grade (also rare for me at that time). But I’ve talked about that.
The idea of writing off of prompts is compelling. But I think, like Levi often does, I’d get tired of it at some point. I’d go off page pretty quick. But it would be nice to have as a backup for the days when I didn’t feel inspired under my own power. Again, I know plenty of writers that do this, during NaNo and any other time. I think my first Drabble was from a prompt Anne gave me. Maybe that’s another thing I need to start looking into. Since I can’t seem to get my head around one solid idea right now, a bunch of little, loose ideas could be what I need.
Something to think on.
