This week, i want you to consider the ‘write what you know’ adage, and turn it on it’s head. Make your protagonist someone as unalike you as possible.

Consider the scene above. I took that photo in Buñol, Valencia, on a particularly peaceful day, when not a single tomato waited to be thrown. The only life I saw there was a scattering of old folks dressed in black sitting together and chattering, observing the hours passing.

I challenge you to write about this graffiti from the viewpoint of one of these old people. Are they saddened, enraged or stirred in some other way? What does it remind them of from their own youth? How does it make them feel about the youth of their village today?

Alternatively, write it from the point of view of the young person who did it. What were they feeling? What motivated them? How did they feel afterwards? Scared? Proud? Ashamed?

And in your writing, don’t forget that Buñol is a very small village, which means that this old person and this young person almost certainly know each other, may even be related to one another. How does this heighten or soften their response?

If you write something prompted by this, please let me know by sending an email to Judy(at)socket creative.com. With your permission, I’d love to publish it on SkyLightRain.com.