Writing Prompts

Nowadays it’s easy to take a photo with your phone. We have hundreds and hundreds of images clogging up our phones that we put on social media. But remember the days of having to get photos developed and waiting days for them to be ready? I was so excited to go and collect them to see how they turned out – only to find that half of them were no good, as I’d managed to cut people out of the photo or it was too dark. But I do have some that I cherish and which I’ve kept in an album. I also have some displayed around the house of family and friends. They always make me smile when I see them.

So your prompt this week is

PHOTOGRAPHS

What photographs are precious to you? Do you have albums full of old photos? You can write a true-life piece or something fictional – maybe a story about a photograph that’s important to someone, that they’ve held onto for years, or maybe it’s a crucial piece of evidence in a crime.

You don’t have to share your work, but I always enjoy seeing what you come up with if the prompt gives you inspiration. Here is the work you shared on the last prompt BEAUTY.

Kim Smyth:

Yes, to the starving, pizza is a beautiful thing! Myself, I find beauty in nature; plants, animals, people that you can see are beautiful on the inside.

Peter Bouchier:

natural beauty
veiled in sensual perfume
all she needs to wear

Tessa:

My sister-in-law was what you would call drop-dead gorgeous. I envied her and wished I had the same looks.

I didn’t know then that it took her 2 hours to put on her makeup to create what we all saw. She was not beautiful at all. I could now see why it took her 2 hours to put on her make-up. She created a face that was not her.

After seeing this, I no longer envied her beauty. It was only skin deep in reality. I would rather be me.

Pensitivity101:

There is beauty all around us if we just choose to see it. I hate spiders, but think their webs, especially when bejewelled with morning dew, are totally awesome.

I used the photo of one of the world’s ugliest dogs for another challenge, and thought the dog has a certain charm. You can read that entry here if you wish.

I see beauty in the night sky, the landscape, people, birdsong, animals, of course dogs, music, plants and poetry. The sand art on the beach as the water recedes is picturesque, a once in a lifetime sight before it is washed away on the incoming tide.
Some of the responses to my Three Things Challenge have been wonderful.

We all see things differently, but IMO if you look beyond the outer casing, there is quite often a treasure therein.

Wilf Leahy:

0430hrs on a summer morning I open the gate to the allotment and drive to my plot parking at the bottom of the plot. I sit and look out over the valley then getting out of the car I bend over, rub my hands in the morning dew then hands to my face thinking what a beautiful view. I have been to many countries and seen many lovely places but none as beautiful as the English countryside: the quiet majestic countryside beautiful plants and trees so peaceful nature the God of all things beautiful. That’s beautiful to me.

Christine Mallaband-Brown:

Beauty can be on the inside, you don’t have to look amazing to be alive and well thought of. If people could read your thoughts? How would they interpret them. Odd or plain, ugly or old? It’s your brain and thought processes are important. Consider the world around you and how people are perceived. Media makes things worse.

Roberta Writes:

Beauty (shadorma)

Young beauties

Skin smooth rose petals

Lips plump fruit

Hair fine silk

Life a freshly planted field

Just waiting for rain

***

An old photo of my dad taken in the 1940s.

37 responses to “Writing Prompts”

  1. George wrote it for Ringo

    Photo cos it wasn t ez.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. This is a wonderful prompt! Even my marriage color pictures are fading but brings out so many memories!

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Photographs really do capture those treasure moments.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Lovely prompt Esther. Here’s mine

    Esther Chilton: Writing Prompts.


    It’s rather long and has a lot of photos in it so please edit for your round-up.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you for sharing them. Would it be okay to use some of the photos to go with your text for next week?

      Like

      1. Of course. I’d be pleased. Thank you.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Thank you 😊

        Liked by 1 person

  4. A really cute photograph of your dad. I’ll give the prompt some thought.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. I have photos in photo albums and stored in boxes but I also have a lot o photos hanging on my walls, as I feel photos should be displayed and not hidden away

    Liked by 4 people

    1. It’s good to have them around the house for sure.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. I have many photo boxes full of real hold-in-your-hand pictures of my kids as they grew. I need to make photo albums or scrapbooks someday.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. A scrapbook is a great idea!

      Liked by 2 people

  7. Great prompt. I love photos. Mine are all unavailable right now in their final forms. My recent photos go back to 2009 and there aren’t too many of them. I have lots of throw away photos, but I love nature photos. Once in a while I capture a great picture of people, but they are not people I know, just ones I see out and about. One was a young heavy-set girl sitting on a blanket at the July 3rd Blast celebration in Woodlake. She had on a hat, and her hair perfectly framed her face, which was beautiful. She let me take several pictures of her and I love them. Sadly, I can’t find it easily on my blog or the pictures in my iPhotos file on my HP computer.

    Thanks for the great prompt. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    1. Thank you for joining in, Marsha. That’s so interesting about the photos of people. They’re so interesting and so different and it’s great when you can capture an angle of them on the camera 😊

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Photos are fun and fabulous. Kids today are accustomed to being photographed constantly. They will take the phone out of your hands at a very young age so they can see themselves. Videos are especially interesting to them.

        Liked by 3 people

  8. My precious photos are of and with my hubby. Sometimes I sit and cry, sometimes I laugh at silly memories. Photographs captured that moment when we walked across a stream. When we returned hours later the tide had come in and the stream was a deep salt water channel. I lost my bike pump into the water and when I got it out to use again it had gone rusty. Photos can be like that. They can fade. And memory fades too, so photos make it easier not to forget.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. They certainly do 💗

      Liked by 2 people

  9. squirreljan Avatar
    squirreljan

    My sister and I are going through the hundreds of photos of our parents, us growing up, us now. Our whole lives are in those pictures and the fun and love we all had for each other from the very beginning.

    Memories such as helping Dad clear snow, reading with Mum, skipping, playing two balls, being taken to all sorts of places in London (both Mum and Dad were from South London and wanted to ensure we understood our heritage). One photo we all have in our homes was of me and Sally looking like two little urchins at Petticoat Lane market in around 1968. We are holding three monkeys! We loved it.

    Losing Dad recently has made these photos even more nostalgic and precious. As kids in the sixties, when Dad took and developed his own photos, I remember him having a sheet hanging up to give him a dark room. I had a Brownie camera when I was about seven and I am still obsessed with taking photos – although these are now on the phone.

    One thing this whole sad situation has really brought home to me is that photos just don’t mean the same when viewed on a phone. How special is it to open an album or scrapbook and relive sometimes forgotten times with your family and friends? Incredibly special because it’s not just the photo, but also the ability to touch, stroke, and feel. That doesn’t happen on a phone – view, scroll, move on! The world is too fast!

    Luckily, I have a tendency to print photobooks of special times, and surround myself with photos in my writing room. The last book I did was a themed one on Malvern skies that I’d taken over the past seventeen years. I’m now going to do more of these books. The hard thing will be choosing which photos to include.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You’re so right, Janice. Looking at photos on a phone just isn’t the same at all. I know it’ll be hard going through the photos but I hope you can enjoy those special memories too 💗

      Like

      1. squirreljan Avatar
        squirreljan

        It’s strangely therapeutic, Esther, and your prompt came at just the right time! Thank you.

        Liked by 1 person

  10. […] Esther Chilton’s writing prompt this week is photographs. I sweated for this poem, but when it came, it came fully formed. You can join in this prompt here: https://estherchilton.co.uk/2025/01/29/writing-prompts-50/ […]

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so much for sharing that poem. It’s so poignant.

      Liked by 1 person

  11. […] for Esther’s Writing Prompts #50where the prompt word is “photographs”.This is my family’s true […]

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you so much for writing on the prompt. I really enjoyed it 😊

      Liked by 1 person

  12. That’s wonderful Esther! Thank you.
    I always enjoy participating in your prompts.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. […] Esther Chilton “Two very different poems in terms of style and message. Robbie’s really struck a chord with me. I’ve seen many homeless people on the streets and they really do seem invisible to passersby. It’s very well-written and stays with the reader for some time. Doug’s is thought-provoking and I read it several times, taking more meaning from it with each reading. That last line is so profound.” […]

    Liked by 1 person

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