I think fairly often about how thoroughly-documented my kids’ lives are in comparison to mine, or my mother’s. (My mom jokes that, as the third daughter, in contrast to her older sisters’ beautiful baby books, all she got was an envelope of miscellaneous photos.) But no matter how many photos I have of making cookies, or going for walks, or cuddling to read, or whatever other ordinary wonderful thing I’ve tried to preserve, there’s always more going on outside the frame.
Today’s exercise asks you to think about what’s happening beyond the frame of a memory.
today’s exercise
Start with an image. It could be a photograph - either a particularly special one, or just one you find on your phone or in an old photo album - or an image you hold in your mind. Now try to zoom out. What’s just outside that photograph? What didn’t make it into the frame? What got cropped out?
When you’ve got your image, click play on the Lynda Barry video below, and begin your spiral in that image. (I talked about Lynda Barry and the rationale for freewriting in the April 2 exercise. Credit again goes to Erinn Batykefer for the prompt and the Lynda Barry connection.)
How is your writing going? I’d love to hear from you. You can always reply to this email, comment below, or find me on twitter (@nancy_reddy) and instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).