QuickWrite of the Day #12: Windows

"Writing can be used as a vehicle to express ourselves as we negotiate the journey through our lives” (Gallagher, 2011: p. 24)

Today’s QuickWrite of the Day:

Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once reflected that when she feels uninspired, she does two things: she reads a book or she watches the world.

At this present time, a wonderful way to watch the word is to look out your windows.

What sights do you see from your window? What snippets of conversation can you hear? What stories —past and present—does the view from your window tell? Whose stories are told —human stories, or stories from the perspectives of animals, insects or objects? Could you tell the story of a bear or a rainbow in another window? Have you seen anything funny or out of the ordinary from your window?

Just the other day, I happened to look out my window and was graced with this out-of-the-ordinary sight: a person dressed in a dinosaur costume.

When I looked outside my window last weekend, this was my view: A person walking down the street in a dinosaur costume! It made my day!

There are so many possibilities to sketch or write about here. For inspiration, check out Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s reflections on what she has seen from her window in Lagos:

“I strain to listen to their conversations. Once I saw two of the mechanics in a raging but brief fight. Once I saw a couple walk past holding hands, not at all a common sight. Once, a young girl in a blue school uniform, hair neatly plaited, looked up and saw me, a complete stranger, and said, “Good morning, ma,” curtsying in the traditional Yoruba way, and it filled me with gladness. The metal bars on the window — burglary-proof, as we call it — sometimes give the street the air of a puzzle, jagged pieces waiting to be fit together and form a whole.”

(Adichie & Pericoli, 2010 New York Times ‘Windows on the World’ series)

Want more QuickWrite topics? Check out the slide deck here, or see it in presentation mode on our Resources page.

Happy writing!