A picture is worth 1000 words.

I'm sure you've heard it said that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Do you believe it? Today's warm-up exercise is going to test that.

I'm not an artist, trust me, I've tried. To make up for my shortcoming in that area, I try to make my words come alive when I write. Generally my writing is a lot more description than anything else. That won't work with every story, and it can turn even the best story into a boring chore for the reader if used too often. Description is one of the key points to fiction though, and to create an image in the mind of the reader, you need some descriptive imagery. With that, here's the next "Warm-up" exercise.

My challenge, as you've probably guessed by now, is to find a picture and describe it in writing.

The number of words is up to you, for a challenge, aim at exactly 1,000 words. You can chose any picture you want, from a masterpiece painting to a picture of a rose. Once you have a picture, and you feel ready to start writing, decide what you're going to write about. Are you going to challenge the picture, and write a 1,000 word description? Are you going to prove that words are better than a picture by describing the smells, and sounds in the picture? The true test is showing somebody a handful of pictures, and seeing if they can identify which one you wrote about. This is a personal challenge, so you don't win any extra brownie points if you cheat, and give somebody 30 pictures of birds, and the one picture of a castle is the one you wrote about.

You might want to stretch this one out for a few days, if you feel uncomfortable with writing 1,000 words as a simple warm-up. Once again, feel free to post your work in the comments for other people to read. You can also add a link to the picture you used (Or a list of pictures). In my next post I'll show you my example.

Until next time, keep writing, and have fun!