Day 05 Writing Workout

Welcome to DAY 5, and congratulations for committing to working out your writing muscles a bit at a time.

Today is a combination of days one through four. In your SCALES journal (day one), we’re going to use a phrase that you find (ekphrasis, day two) in a bit of the analysis you did (days three and four).

Let me show you what happened when I put this into practice myself…

From the Picoult excerpt I shared, I chose the phrase “force it out.” When I GOOGLED that phrase, it led me to a Facebook post the graffiti street artist BANKSY had made on December 5th, 2024. Here’s a piece of it:

To leave home in the middle of the night, stomach knotted, mouth dry, bowed head full of plans gone over fifty times. To weave between the drunk, the suspicious and the underpaid. Ever mindful of the thousands of beady eyes on poles, with a story ready for the police.

To come up to a wall with pre-shaked cans, a clangy ladder dampened with a towel. To press the cap and know as the first spit of paint hits the wall that it’s too late to turn back.

What I immediately noticed is that this artist can write creatively also, yes? His description of what it’s like to pull out a can of spray paint in a public space to send a message through art is impactful.

But that also sent me to the WIDE variety of images of his artwork online. I know it will be an extensive source of inspiration for me and my scales journal, and one of them in particular gave me an idea for my scales journal today AND a piece of a story I want to develop further.

And you? Your turn. Find a phrase you love from a passage you found on day three or day four, Google it, and see where it leads you. If you like, do an IMAGE search to find visuals for EKPHRASIS possibilities. If you add a word like “photo” or “painting” or “sculpture” to your search, you should come up with a variety of possible starting points.

Play with what you find in your scales journal today and join me tomorrow for workout #6: Markets to Motivate!

Continue to follow this workout here, or find the abbreviated version on my Instagram @acebaker99 !