Writing Journal Worksheet – Snapshots (PDF)

This week’s worksheet is for recording the small, easy-to-miss, descriptive details of everyday life. Like:

From upstairs came the muffled squeak of a clean-sheet-laden clothes horse toppling over…

We passed a factory that poked out of the landscape like a pile of broken spider legs.

She always left a telltale trail of water droplets from the sink straight to the wet door handle.

What’s something you notice that no one else does?

This is a simple exercise, but just like a photographic snapshot, it may take some time to refine a deceptively natural image.

But once you’ve put in the work, you can paste your snapshots straight into a story scene.

Or you can keep this worksheet to record snapshots you come across in your reading. Some writers can use a metaphor or simile or just pure descriptive force to make something old, new, and something new, real.

“To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, all in one.” – John Ruskin

Last week’s worksheet: The Page of Things Left Behind…