Ekphrasis: It’s More Than Just Pictures
By Marisca Pichette
Notes, quotes, and anecdotes are all well and good to kick off a story. But what happens when your paper and word inspirations run dry, or if you’re just not feeling any of the story seeds lovingly laid down for later? Enter ekphrasis: the writer’s secret weapon.
Ekphrastic writing can take many forms. Likely your initial connotation is writing from a picture. You can search up a Van Gogh, Monet, or abstract work of art on Google and position it beside your Word document. Maybe you turn to Pinterest instead for a curated approach to inspiration. Or maybe still you make the journey to a museum and sit pensively in front of some sculpture or ancient artifact. All these are excellent uses of ekphrasis. But they’re not the subject of this column.
Have you ever painted a still life? More to the point, have you written one? Let’s try.
Ekphrasis One: Inventory
Right now, you might be at your desk. Or relaxing on the couch. Or the porch. Wherever you are as you read this, take a moment to catalogue the objects around you. Mug, glass, lamp. Pillow, rug, window. Suncatcher and framed photograph, snack and crocheted blanket. Got it?
Now, I want you to describe them. Take your keyboard or notebook and write how light plays over the surface of each object. Sketch their shapes and functions in words. Consider the order in which you list them. Do you do the glass then the bowl? Or the bowl and then the glass? This exercise can be as simple or artistic as you like. It’s really just a warm up, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Give us what you see.
When you’ve finished, sit back and look at the objects again. They’re different, aren’t they? A bit crisper, a bit more mysterious. You described their appearance, but now you might be wondering: what else do they symbolize? Here, there might be a story brewing. Or maybe just a setting. But something stirs.
Time to set the exercise aside. It served its purpose of encouraging you to consider that even the mundane can be something wondrous and worthy of close observation.
Ekphrasis Two: Atmosphere
This next exercise requires movement. Take your laptop or journal and step outside. It’s helpful to go to a specific destination–such as a park, meadow, town square, or similar space that affords observation of the natural or urban environment. Being outside is key, because you pick up on more details than if you’re closeted in a building.
Once you’ve reached your destination, get comfortable. Array your writing tools and settle on a rock or bench or just the humble ground. First things first: close your eyes.
Explore the finer senses. Smell the air, parsing diesel fumes or floral scents. When you identify each distinct odor, note it on the page. Your goal is to build a simple list of sensations. Once you’ve identified at least five scents, move to sounds, then to the feel of the ground/rock/bench, the air, the sun, and whatever else touches your skin.
For each sense, list at least five points. You’re of course welcome to challenge yourself up to ten or more! When you’ve finished smell, sound, and touch, it’s time to focus on the most dynamic–and traditionally ekphrastic–sense: sight.
Like you did before, scan your surroundings. Instead of making a list, though, this time I want you to weave a story. Say you see a bumblebee bumping from flower to flower. Describe it, and then add more. What is it thinking? Where has it been and where is it bound? What does the world look like to a bumblebee? Be sure to incorporate some of the scents, sounds, and feelings you noted before.
Another example: watching a person cross the street and enter a cafe, you might describe their clothing and then extrapolate their occupation or origin. Expand on their day, imagining breakfast and a commute and a goal before sunset. You can write mini stories for multiple people, plants, animals, and even inanimate objects from your chosen perch. Anything goes, so long as you incorporate those finer details of sensation.
Write like this for ten minutes, an hour, or the whole afternoon. If a larger story grows out of this exercise, with dragons stirring in the alley and soldiers marching through the hills, by all means grasp it! An exercise can be writing practice, if you wish.
Ekphrasis Three: Divination
The previous two exercises are mainly to get you thinking about setting and sensation. While you can easily turn them into a full story–or poem–they are just as comfortable flexing your writing muscles.
But let’s say your objective is to Write Something Now. You’ve consulted your notes and story seeds without success. You’ve knocked at the muse’s door, but she appears to be out on another errand. It seems it’s time for some ekphrastic magic.
There are many writing exercises designed to help in situations like this. You can try any number of online plot generators or prompt lists. I have always favored an escape from the screen, though.
You may have heard about cartomancy. Rather than predicting the future, you can put such cards to work to stitch yourself a story. The best cards for this purpose are tarot, but cards from a game like Magic, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, or even Apples to Apples or regular playing cards can also do the trick.
I won’t spend long on this tactic, as it’s fairly self-explanatory. I’ll offer just two methods of divination. First: take 3-5 cards at random from the deck and array them before you. Using the values or characters, write a story.
The second method is more nuanced. Fan the deck and pull cards deliberately, either based on interest or correlating themes. I recommend this second method if your goal is to produce anything beyond a practice work, as it will likely require less revision down the line.
You may be thinking at this point–what was the point of the earlier exercises, if you can just turn to run-of-the-mill cartomancy after all? This is where I offer you another divinatory tactic that puts those earlier skills to work.
Set down your notebook. If you have a glimmer of an idea in mind already, I encourage you to follow your gut for the next step. If you’re still at a total loss, follow along.
Tour your house. Walk from room to room, taking in your possessions and decorations, but leave everything as-is for now. Once you’ve completed a full circuit, retrace your steps with the disposition of a magpie.
Collect items from their proper places. Picture, vase, placemat. Pen, letter opener, plant. Whatever catches your attention, grab it and carry it back to your writing space. Array the items you’ve gathered, then take a final tour. Did you miss anything? Add final objects to your pile. When you’re finally satisfied with your haul, settle yourself with your journal or laptop.
You might’ve guessed the next part of this. Close your eyes and repeat the second ekphrasis, noting all you feel, hear, and smell. When you have a list for each sense, return to the physical inspiration.
Now, divine a story. Do these objects have meaning to your main character? Do they adorn their house, or are they objects the character needs to acquire? Maybe you find yourself in a market or auction. Maybe you’re digging a grave. As you weave your story, insert sensations and things to flesh it out. And make sure to describe each in detail.
It’s likely that much of this will be pruned away in revision, and that’s fine. The goal is to put words on the page and add depth to your work. Even when you remove something, that depth will remain. And your story will feel real.
I hope this brief journey into the fantastical world of ekphrasis spurs you to consider how the mundane can be bent into something wondrous! Imagination is all well and good, but it thrives best on patient observation. Together, they make a story.
AUTHOR BIO
Marisca Pichette is a queer author based in Massachusetts, on Pocumtuck and Abenaki land. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, Clarkesworld, Vastarien, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantasy Magazine, Asimov’s, Nightmare Magazine, and others. Her poetry collection, Rivers in Your Skin, Sirens in Your Hair, was a finalist for the Bram Stoker and Elgin Awards. Her cli-fi novella, Every Dark Cloud, is out now from Ghost Orchid Press.
Angry Gable Press 