As Maurice Merleau-Ponty observes, “The body is our general medium for having a world.” In the medium of writing, or whichever art you prefer, try out this week’s creative prompts, focused on what is most physical, most human. Let’s write about bodies and body language.
- Describe a moment of realization that a body—yours, someone else’s, that of a fictional character—has changed.
- Write a letter of gratitude to a bodily part or function that works well.
- Write an elegy for a bodily part or function that has ceased to work as well as it once did.
- Pick a few vehicular body parts and relate them in writing to your own body.
- Use your non-dominant hand to perform a 5-minute handwritten free-write about your earliest memory.
- From memory or your imagination, compose a scene in which someone’s body incites a strong reaction in someone else.
- Give your writing some legs to stand on: use a leg idiom (or a pair!) to inspire some writing.
- Find or have someone take a (non-selfie) picture of you, ideally in a natural and unposed state, and then describe your face in great physical detail, as literally or metaphorically as you like.
- Using a diagram, select a part of the brain to focus on in writing. You could write an ode to its function. You could write a persona piece in the voice of the body parts or capacity that brain area controls.
- Rather than reading your palm, read the inside of your arm at the wrist and below it. What do the lines and marks tell you about the future?
- Watch a short clip of someone who uses their body in an extraordinary way, such as an athlete, a ballet dancer, or a contortionist. Write about what you see in detail—how are they strong? How have they practiced? How are their bodies special?
Did you miss earlier prompts lists? Here they are. Try completing a writing exercise every day at the same time in order to cultivate a habit, or once a week (or once a month) if you just want to get back into the world of creating. Don’t limit yourself to writing fiction or non-fiction: you can write poetry or stream of consciousness, you can write lyrics or a song, you can paint or draw or do a dance. Just do it without hesitation or fear.
Like what you’ve written about body language? Put it away for a week, then revisit, and revise, revise, revise. When it’s ready to go, submit. If you have feedback, or ideas for prompts, please get in touch.
Image from “Repose” by Morgan Irons.