There’s a pencil on my desk, recently sharpened. The words ‘Crawford & Black’ are written in gold lettering along the side of the pencil which is black up to the last fifth of its length which is red and has the letters ‘HB’ written, also in gold, and on the same side. A small band of gold separates the black from the red.
I have been using her to practice drawing basic shapes. Squares, triangles and circles. I say her because she appears feminine to me, waiting, recepetive, oddly elegant. I said feminine, not female. I think of those as quite different things.
I used her to draw, and now I draw her with words and draw out something from her lying there. I will call her Shirley.
Exercise:
Take a simple object near you – a pencil, a mug, a shoe, a set of keys, and look at it carefully.
Describe it in detail. Try to see it as if for the first time.
Give it a character. How does it feel in this moment. What is its personality?
Let imagination play. Write a short passage where you bring this object to life. You might name it, give it a history, or imagine what it might wish to say to you.
Reflect. End by noticing how the act of writing about this “ordinary” thing changed how you see it and perhaps, how you see yourself.
Use the comment box to post your passage.