Well, I’ve started a two week Creative Composition class. It is commonly referred to as “Paint/Write” around campus. We meet everyday from 8:00 – 12:45. The time really does go by quickly because I’m painting the whole time. Sometimes we write about what we’ve painted. Sometimes we write about something we see in someone else’s painting. Eventually, we’ll work on paintings as a group. We have to put together a portfolio of our paintings and writings at the end of the class and contribute some pieces to a class anthology.
I got the most old fashioned idea in the world, but I still think it’s a good one. Read one of the novels (or more) and illustrate key scenes.
However, I think a reverse of this is also good to try: Draw/paint something that’s important to you — of whatever genre, only you know what’s meaningful to you — landscape, still life of favorite objects, designs, etc.
Then you free associate ideas related to the image(s) you made.
Then you take these free associations and rewrite them into a tighter form, into some kind of expository writing — memoir, description, narrative, dialogue, whatever.
I majored in art and literature … how’m my doing?
Sounds great. I’ll definately incorporate something like this into the lesson. Keep the ideas coming everyone.
What I’m going to do now is something from ZOMBIE BLONDE. I’m going to find some key words from the book, paint a picture that represents the feeling of the book and then put the words on the painting. Or, I might write the words on first and then paint the picture over them. HMMM!