Mary Emma’s Writing Tips – Many Ideas from a Photo

As I was preparing writing lessons for a group of homeschoolers, I pulled out some childhood photos for inspiration.  I’ll have the young writers use photos of events in their lives.  However, as an example, I’ll take photos from my childhood and incorporate them in similar projects.

I looked at a photo of my family (Father, Mother, my sister, brothers and me) seated on a rock with the Cape Neddick “Nubble Lighthouse” in the background.  This brought back memories of trips from our home in New York State to visit relatives in Maine and our picnic suppers at the lighthouse view.

How can I use my photo from childhood as a springboard for writing?  How can you with one of your photos?

• Write a poem
• Research the history of the Nubble Light and write about it.
• Delve into how lighthouses work and how they’re different today from yesterday.
• Write a fiction story about living in or visiting a lighthouse.
• Pretend you’re interviewing a lighthouse keeper.
• Write about your feelings if you’ve ever visited a lighthouse

You can use these ideas for any place you’ve visited and want to write about.

Additional Information:

Sentinel of the Sea – Nubble Light: a History of Cape Neddick Light Station by Rose Labrie.  (Finding a listing at Amazon of this book brought back writing memories.  I knew Rose Labrie years ago when we both belonged to the Seacoast Writers Group of Maine, NH and Massachusetts.)

(AllPosters.com image at Amazon)