Words, words, words. That's what we're made of. Herewith some of my thoughts on what we're doing with them.

Here's a challenge for all you writers: use these pictures to write a script, a short story, a poem, or a Guide Entry. (Okay, the Guide Entry will require, er, research.)

You think writers don't do this? Bah! Even Nobel Prizewinners have done it. The great Thomas Mann had a huge vertical file of these things. You know his short story, 'Gladius Dei'? (Of course you do, you read heavy-duty Germans all the time.) Mann based his main character on a famous figure from history. He had the picture in his vertical file, where it was discovered by his bibliographer. Sometimes visual aids help stimulate the imagination.

So here's your challenge: pick a photo below. Write something that is inspired by that photo. Leave us a note, so we can read it, too. We'll publish.

Have fun!

Prompt: Does this look like the one in Athens? What in the world is the Parthenon doing in this Gay Nineties setting? What do you think the people are saying about it? Note the umbrellas. Do you think the Parthenon is used to this much rain? Can you imagine a Greek person looking at this? What might they say?

Prompt: From the poster, Hardeen (Theodore Weisz) inherited his brother Houdini's magician's secrets. What do you think happened? Can you imagine a startling discovery he might have made when going through his brother's trunks?

Prompt: To help you with this one, we quote the Library of Congress description of this 1911 photo from Alabama:

Millie (about seven yrs. old) and Mary John (with the baby) eight years old. Both shuck oysters at the Alabama Canning Co. This is Mary's second year. She said, "I shucks six pots if I don't got the baby; two pots if I got him." (Many of the little ones, too young to work all the time, tend the baby when not working.) Location: Bayou La Batre, Alabama.

Now make a story or poem out of that. Sinclair Lewis would have.

Here's the last suggestion, and it's a dilly:

Prompt: Not much action here? Think again. That picture was taken aboard Apollo 13, and it saved the lives of the astronauts. Here's NASA's description:

Inflight photo of the device constructed by the crew from duct tape, maps and other materials they had on hand as per instructions provided by Houston. This device allowed use of box-shaped Command Module lithium hydroxide canisters in conjunction with the LM Environmental Control system, which is the large white unit that fills most of the frame. The LM LiOH canisters were cylindrical in shape and fit into the receptacles at the lower left.

Wow. You can 'boldly go' with that one.

So, how about it? Take up the challenge: Find a photo. Think: could I build a short story out of that? Do I want to make up a short radio play? What are the people in the picture, or the people implied by the picture, doing, saying, feeling? Does this picture make me want to go out and research a Guide Entry, share the information? Do I get an emotion so overwhelming, it's just got to come out in a poem?

Send us what you get. Get writing!

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Dmitri Gheorgheni

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