A Picture is Worth a Thousand Stories
Here’s a prompt for Veterans’ Day drawn by Norman Rockwell in 1943. How many stories are here?
Where is she? (Check what is around her.) Where is her family? What is her prayer? Where is the soldier who owned the mess kit, the jacket? (It has a First Sergeant’s rank. He is the highest-ranking enlisted man in a company of about 100 men.) Has she ever eaten whatever is in the mess kit? What is the soldier eating? Does she speak the soldier’s language? How did they meet?
The artist is giving you hints as to his story about the picture. Do you see the broken chains? What do columns like that represent to you? She may be hungry, but what is more important to her?
Maybe the story you write is about the artist. Maybe Norman Rockwell, but maybe an older woman you invent. Or maybe an older woman who finds a much older artist and…
Sometimes the military has to do horrible things to do wonderful things. I wonder how they feel about that dichotomy.
Do you know a veteran you should thank today?
Do you know one you should write about?
