Welcome to this week’s creative prompt. We begin with a single word, a creative prompt, and expand it to inspire fiction writing, journaling, and a host of other creative activities. These creative prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.

For thousands of years, language and writing, have passed on information. Often this information describes something. However, language can be limiting. It is a truism that a picture paints a thousand words. We are multi-sensory beings, and so we’re going to attempt to step beyond words. Therefore, this week’s creative prompt is:

Texture — the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or substance

this is one definition, I also want to point out that the word can be used to describe less tangible ‘things’ like art and music

Let the prompt ‘texture’ inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:

• writing fiction
• journaling
• art journaling
• songwriting
• photography
• painting
• composing
• blog posts
• art therapy
• anything that could use a little nudge to begin

Let’s expand the word a little further…

Fiction Writing Prompt

This Fiction Writing Prompt, exploring the word texture, aims to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.

I couldn’t see, but I could touch and feel. The texture told me everything.

Writing Prompt Expanded

Words can be limiting. The spoken word is augmented by tone and mannerisms. Someone can say something, yet their expression can change the meaning of their words completely. We’re going to step away from what we hear and what we see, yet still, convey meaning.

This prompt is all about using the sense of touch to describe what is happening. It is time to close our eyes and ears and feel what we write.

• How do you visualise the item you are touching?
• What differences are there when you use your fingertips and your whole hand?
• Can you hear the texture as you feel it with your hands?

The writing perspective is once again in the first person. This should make it easier to explore what the character is touching. But you are welcome to change that. The setting and everything else are also open to your imagination. Why can’t the character see anything? What is the item they are touching, and what secrets are revealed in its texture?

There are no rules, simply write and have fun.

Journal prompt

Journaling allows us to hold conversations on paper. From private diaries to creative art journals, we pour out our deepest thoughts. We often decorate our traditional diary-type journal pages with art or sometimes turn them into full-blown mixed-media illustrations. Texture plays a big part in mixed media. There are so many ways to add texture to a page. From layering and collage to using stencils and paste and other liquid mediums, a page can become so much more than a flat image.

Questions to answer, thoughts to explore or images to create in your journal:

• How do you use texture in your journal?
• What new medium could you use to create a mixed media page?
• Listen to some music and describe its texture, and can you do that without using words in your art journal?

Theory of General Creativity

I now have ‘texture’ written on the board above my computer. I am confident it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Furthermore, I have previously mentioned working on a piece of music called ‘emerge’. As I compose this piece, I am very much aware that its texture should convey the emergence of a butterfly from its cocoon. The texture of butterflies wings is also in my mind as I compose. And as I walk around this week, I will be looking out for interesting textures that I can photograph. There is so much inspiration around us, it is time to feel it.

Let ‘texture’ inspire your music, photography, and painting this week.

Finally…

As always, these creative prompts are optional and entirely open to your interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story, something a little more grandiose, or to help you work through a creative block.

As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me @darrenrhill or #thecreativeminimalist on any social platform.

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Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox

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