Welcome to Elephant Words!

Every Sunday we post an image, and for the next six days we take turns to write something inspired by that image. There’s an open invite for you to take the challenge yourself – let the image inspire you to write something, and post it either to your own website, or the forum here.

This page has been set up to showcase a typical week at Elephant Words. We hope you enjoy what you see, and decide to look around some more.

On 18/01/09, we posted this image:

Muse Sick by Nicolas Papaconstantinou

This image inspired six very different pieces of writing. Excerpts of each follow, and you can read each post in full by clicking on its excerpt. Once you have, you can leave a comment on the post or in the forum, or navigate to the next or last piece using the calendar or the links at the top and bottom of each post.

“Contagion” by Bridgeen Gillespie

“I can’t believe this thing is back again. It must have just been lying dormant”. There was a real buzz among the locals, and I’d never heard it talked about that way. Like an illness, a contagion. I couldn’t quite believe it. But this all feeds into it. Its spread by talking about it you know? Hype, media attention, sensationalism. It tells the kids that it’s ok to do it. That they will gain the love and attention that they so craved in life.

“My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms” by Ian Sharman

I let the crimson tide of inspiration wash over me, a baptism in pain and suffering that would inspire a million songs of teenage heartache and depression. The muse would visit me like this in my darkest moments, promising me everything; her supple, dead body speaking of pleasures never fulfilled, but ultimately all she delivered was emptiness.

“Background Levels” by Matthew Hartwell

“Roll down the windows,” I say. He hesitates, but that’s why we’re here.

It’s quiet, sure, but not too quiet. It would be alright if it was too quiet. It’s half-measures. No engines, but a guy yells. No brakes or beeps, but conversations play out on the sidewalk.

There’s no hard edge, the loop doesn’t dip, it just crossfades into itself and starts from the beginning.

I pull the microphone out of my bag, and hook it up to the deck.

“Scary Girl In The Shop” by David Baillie

‘Danny, our grandson, he came in the back and he was so excited. “She’s back, Grandma,” he said, “the Scary Girl.” He’s always been an imaginative kid, stories about monsters beneath the bed, that sort of thing, but this Scary Girl was a new thing. I was knitting, but we only get to see him about once a month, so I like to keep him entertained. I followed him into the shop, and, and, I didn’t believe it at first. But. There she was.’

“Growing Pains” by Suzi Rose

She sat on the floor of her bedroom, her pink Hello Kitty bedroom that had meant to be an ironic statement but now just looked vaguely silly. She sat there and stared at the guitar by her knees. ‘Play me,’ it seemed to say. ‘Play me.’ It implored her to pick it up and start strumming – she felt it, but still she sat there, motionless.

“If We Leave Right Now, It’ll Always Be A Party” by Nicolas Papaconstantinou

She was still beautiful, the last time I saw her, though you could see where it was straining – the points on her skin where the bad things inside her would most likely break through first. She looked like she looked good for her age, if her age was ten years older.

I remember that the last time we really spoke properly, about a month before I saw her last, she still had the charm, but her eyes moved that little bit too fast, and her speech that bit too slow. Like she was out of synch with herself.

As you can see, a week at Elephant Words can feature any sort of writing, telling any sort of story, or even not telling a story at all!

Why not give it a try yourself? We’d love to see what you come up with!

Either tell us what you’ve been up to in the comments of the relevant image post, or post it up in the forum! Remember, it can be any sort of writing, in any style and genre… The only rule is that you have fun writing it!

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