Category: writing

Recently, I did a WITS writing class (I wrote this story there). We did a few mini activities, one of them being world-building writing prompts based on artwork around the Rice University campus. World-building activities help you create a brand new world and develop it. It’s a common exercise writers use to be more creative. These are the questions asked and what answers I gave based off of the artwork.

Questions:

1. Imagine that the artwork is deeply important to people on an alien land. Why? What do they use it for? What significance does it have?
2. Imagine you are the size of an ant and the artwork is as tall as a skyscraper. What goes on inside of it?
3. Imagine the art is small enough to fit in your hand. Why would you give it to someone and what for?
4. Imagine the artwork could talk. What would it say? Would it be happy with its location?

The Questioning Column:

1. This is where rainbows come from. Colors are churned, releasing their vividness and making rainbows brighter. This is how the colors seem to blend together as well.
2. You can slightly see the churning of the rope-like strands of colors, twisting and turning together, eventually falling into place and forming a bright and colorful rainbow.
3. If you need something to cheer you up, you can create rainbows with the small rainbow maker. It’s easy to give as a gift and can help anyone perk up.
4. There are many Rainbow Makers around the world, some small, some big. They are all stationed in areas with desperate need of color and they do their job quite well. They would most likely be happy where they are.

Movement at the Edge of the Land:

1. These aren’t just piles of dirt. They help the government. Piles of dirt and holes in the ground can easily track movements around an area the way that normal cameras could never do.
2. You can’t see any action. The government made sure that the tracking was discreet. They couldn’t let anyone know what they were up to.
3. The government gifted these piles of dirt to anyone who they though was suspicious, tracking them as they wished. No one ever realized what the piles were actually used for.
4. The government would never let the dirt talk. If they even tried, they would be silenced forever right away. If they could talk, they would say that they hate their job.

James Turrell Skyspace:

1. This is a hangout for astronomers, meteorologists, and others who use the sky and space for their line of work. Though the government doesn’t trust their kind and has banned them, some still meet here day and night to practice their work. At night it is lit up to resemble a party, so the government doesn’t get very suspicious. In the day, there is a special forcefield surrounding it. It is a sign of resistance and perseverance.
2. Inside, astronomers and more scurry around, trying and succeeding to practice their art. It can be messy and dangerous sometimes, but it’s a safe space for the “sky lookers”
3. It wouldn’t be given as a gift, but as a signal from worker to worker signaling a meetup in the skyspace. They are usually very small, to avoid drawing attention.
4. The skylight would be pleased for being used in such a noble manner, though sometimes it wishes that its job wasn’t so dangerous and life-risking.

Barn Raising:

1. These ribbons are a festivity, or at least, that’s what most people think. As soon as you step into the forest, you’ll doubt yourself. Something about the rustling of the ribbons sneaks up on you and makes you wonder if you made the right choice (spoiler alert- you didn’t). Slowly, without the ribbons doing anything, you’ll start to lose your mind. You mind will turn against you- starting with self-doubt and ending with complete insanity.
2. The ribbons blow with the wind. Something about the way they move so gently, but with a ferocious demeaner is frightening to people. In the end, not many know that the ribbons are the villains in this story.
3. Only true villains who know the power of the ribbons gift it to others. Though it’s smaller, it works in the same ways.
4. The ribbons would just laugh gently, with a slightly horrifying edge. They don’t have and conscience and therefore don’t care.

How would you build a new world?