For some of us, blogging is personal. Others are trying to educate or entertain; many more are hybrids. Yet we’re…
For some of us, blogging is personal. Others are trying to educate or entertain; many more are hybrids. Yet we’re all storytellers. Creative Writing Challenges help you to push your writing boundaries, show off your blogging chops, and, hopefully, spark more post ideas.
To participate, tag your post with DPchallenge or leave a link to it in the comments. (It would also be great if you could link to this post to encourage people to take part – the more the merrier!) Your post should be specifically written in response to this challenge. We’ll keep an eye on the tag and highlight some of our favorite posts on Freshly Pressed on Friday.
Once upon a time the web was a text-only medium. And to this day, a lot of people seem to harbor the illusion that it still, kinda, is. In today’s writing challenge we pull said illusion from its horse and devour it like a pack of brain-hungry zombies. Yes, it’s time to get visual again. Here’s the barebones version of this week’s challenge:
Detail a three to five step story or process, and illustrate each of the steps with something visual.
Here’s the slightly longer version if simplicity capsizes your mind:
Detail a three to five step story or process—anything from a how-to, to turning points in your life so far, to a story with a beginning, middle, and end—and break up the parts with eye-catching, attention-grabbing images.
At this point some of you may be panicking. “I’m not an artist, I’m a writer,” you might be saying, as you simultaneously jiggle your legs, bite your nails, and order another double espresso. And that’s ok. We’re here for you. Whether you’re an interweb Da Vinci or someone with all of the artistic mojo of a flock of drunken buzzards covered in paint, there’s a solution to this problem. Here are a few ideas:
Things you can do with images
Depending on the angle you’re taking, images can serve a number of functions. Here are a few:
- Arrest attention: Sure you’re writing yet another post about the antioxidant merits of green tea, but do the others have naked people, painted blue, drinking green tea from uncomfortable-looking medical apparati? I don’t think so.

Damien Hirst’s diamond-studded skull. by Aaron Weber, CC-BY-2.0.
- Provide a counterpoint: Whether you decide to serve up a slab of visual irony, drive your hard hitting point home with this-could-happen-to-you in the manner of an anti-ANYTHING ad campaign, or you decide to provide a subtly unnerving pastoral scene in counterpoint to the circus of terror and woe that is your post, images can be used to creatively oppose your content.

Anti-Tobacco Poster by Amy Guth, CC-BY-2.0.
- Elucidate a point: From infographics that make facts and figures easier to make sense of, to cross sections of eyeballs; from pastel illustrations of criminals being sent down to life, to complex electronic schemata; images can clarify and make sense of complex ideas.

Infographic: RoboSigning and the Housing Recovery by Ken Shuman, CC-BY-2.0.
- Brand! If your blog has a distinct visual style or brand, how could you use “on-brand” visuals in your posts to reinforce the design aesthetic that appears in your header, sidebar, or background?

Logo – Manu Cutillas ver1 by Manuel Cutillas Garcia, CC-BY-2.0.
- Divide and conquer: In the battle against dwindling attention spans, simple illustrations, section breaks or other visuals can help “chunk” your post in such a way as to make it feel easier to read, or, erm, scan.

Roses Chapter Header by Sue Clark, CC-BY-2.0.
- Comics: Trying to tell a three-frame story? Why not make a three-panel comic?

Cigarro Haikai by Marcel Trindade, CC-BY-2.0.
Approaches you can take with images
Ok, so not all of us have a fine knack with paintbrush, pencil or wacom. That’s ok, there’s more than one way to skin a cat:
- Photographic: Run out there and take some photos with your camera, or phone, or… cameraphone. Or else, scour Flickr for Creative Commons images you can use with attribution, or stump up for stock photos.

Beautiful Camera by Evil Erin, CC-BY-2.0.
- Sketchy: For years artists have been disguising their complete lack of draftsmanship by scribbling down inane, childish scrawls of images. You can do the same. We’ll call it art.

I will kill you and eat you and then I will do a big sh**” by @DavidShrigley by Duncan Hull, CC-BY-2.0.
- Typographic: Typefaces and fonts can be beautiful. Take a leaf from Mallarmé, Dadaism, and, erm, Wordle, and use letterforms to illustrate your post.

Dada steht aufseiten des revolutionären proletariats ! by Marc Wathieu, CC-BY-2.0.
- Infographic: As hideous as a PowerPoint graph, or as personal as a hand-drawn, watercoloured derivé through the history of a city, infographics needn’t require artistic mastery to pull off.

Arizona Unemployment & Recovery // 7 Recessions by Raquel Baranow, CC-BY-2.0.
- Collage: Can’t draw? Why not stick other people’s pictures together in arresting and wondrous ways? Problem solved. Why not also make sure that you attribute the source images. That would be nice.

Bad News by Joana Coccarelli, CC-BY-2.0.
- Geometry: You’d be amazed at what can happen when you stick some lines, squares, circles, triangles, and stars together. Ask the modernists.

Vassily Kandinsky – Auf Weiss II by RMH40, CC-BY-2.0.
Hopefully that’s given you some ideas. Now stop procrastinating and hit up that challenge. We’ll look forward to seeing your text/image hybrid goodness in the comments.
This will be a very interesting challenge, I try to include photographs or either catchy images in my posts for ‘boosting it up’. This will be fun in doing, great idea 🙂
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Here’s our response to your challenge: http://peachfarmstudio.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/tools-of-the-trade-a-b-c-d-e/ Cheers!
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Beautifully simple and clear. Love the typography and the approach you took there both, and the image totally justifies its existence.
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I use images in every post. In fact I have made several posts about why others should use them, how to use them in a post, and how to use them for SEO as well as generating traffic via Pinterest and image searches etc. Great DP!!
If anyone needs help with using images see: “5 Ways Images Make Your Blog Better”, “How to Use Images In Your Blog” (this one includes step-by-step screenshots), “10 Reasons to Get Pinterested”, and “The State of Your WordPress Stats” on my blog Cheri Speak.
Good luck! I cannot wait to see all the other posts using images. Yay!!
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Thanks for offering this! I was about to post: It would be nice to know HOW to do these things! 🙂
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You are very welcome. I wrote the posts because people ask me how and why all of the time. I didn’t want to spam the DP post with my links so was hoping those in need of help can find the articles by the titles.
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Well done, Cheri! You’re a star 😀
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Awww thank you Di!!!
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Thanks for sharing!
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You’re welcome.
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Great work and helpful references, keep it up!
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When I think of image vs. text I think of the process of advertising and getting the point across to potential buyers.
http://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/weekly-writing-challenge-image-vs-text-viagra-advertisement/
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A most creative solution 🙂
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good,like,
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Where do I submit my photo for the challenge?
Thanks
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I found it.Thanks
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It’s short and sweet 🙂 http://starvingactivist.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/dpchallenge-say-it-with-picchers/
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Nice. Sometimes the words already exist out there that express exactly what we had in mind.
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This should be an interesting subject to tackle… 🙂 TY!
E
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Interesting challenge this week! Here’s my perspective –
http://mihirkamat.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/why-youd-probably-never-find-your-soul-mate/
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I love how your images help to let each point breathe, and draw the eye down them one at a time.
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Thank you for the feedback – appreciate it.
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Reblogged this on day3of and commented:
I know I won’t be attempting this one. My car’s broke down. My sister’s in town. I might be taking in an invalid, and what’s bad, is I’ve been putting off extending my student loan deferment (due to phobia-induced panic attacks). But, I love the suggestions here on how to employ visuals to add interest to your blog.
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I don’t know if this is what you want, but it seems on the right track to me. Pretty, anyhow!
http://teepee12.com/2012/10/28/where-do-the-swans-go/
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Beautiful images, and I loved the short, poetic pairings you made with your writing.
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My weekend: The Cartoon Version. Yay!
http://soiwentundercover.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/the-sleepless-superheroine-and-the-sick-child/
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Loved the style, and while I did laugh, I laughed with recognition having been in a similar place. Hope you feel better.
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Oh! I was lucky enough not to get sick! Thank Heaven because the wheels around this house would have come right off if I had been sick. 😛 Thanks for reading! 🙂
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educational
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Here’s my entry
http://wp.me/p2ddEF-156
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Looks delicious. There’s nothing like seeing the end result to inspire us to try out the recipe.
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Hi Michael
It is delicious and nutritious and very easy to make. The three spices blend beautifully!!
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Reblogged this on Living and Lovin.
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Hey guys. Here’s my entry. Hope you like it. 🙂
http://calliopeslyre.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/anna/
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Great choice of image that hints at the key imagery playing through your verse and sets the tone before we even begin.
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Thank you Michael. 🙂
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Wow, this took a lot longer to write than usual. Finding the right images takes time!
http://wp.me/p1mFL1-3e
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Love how you turned the concept on its head, and also how the images nicely influence the shape and flow of the layout with your alternating alignment.
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Just needed a prompt to come up with ‘Chicago.’
Thanks.
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Reblogged this on Aquí también, "nosotros los pueblos".
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I agree with Sammy…took a lot longer to write. Yet…I am sooo happy with the finished product! Thank you so much for this challenge! I feel a great sense of accomplishment that I completed this entry.
To Love Online or To Love Face-To-Face
http://peeksi.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/daily-writing-challenge-image-vs-textto-love-online-or-to-love-face-to-face/
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Thank you for taking part! I can see how much thought you put into finding strong images that underline and inflect the written part of your post.
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Thank you, Michael =). It was a great challenge! Normally, I get going too late in the day to participate in the daily challenges, so my favs are the ever-so creative weekly ones. I really appreciate how each one forces you to step up to the next level than at which you are currently writing.
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Here is a step by step story I complied a while ago. Ihttp://motocookster.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/fatigue-fracture-fix/
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Great visual examples that make a huge difference. Really like the hand-written/drawn overlays.
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Thanks Michael I always think graphic example is the best means of explanation.
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Hi there! my words and pictures: http://reerc.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/542/
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http://reerc.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/542/ – A Smorgasbord of Visual Delights!
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Great photos, I’m very jealous of your trip.
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aww, thank you for checking out my pics. Karlskrona is a hidden gem!
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More pics in than usual! Here’s my first month anniversary post! Hope you guys like it. 😀
http://calliopeslyre.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/first-month-anniversary-post-the-answer-to-the-juggalo/
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That’s a powerful image. Congratulations on your one month anniversary post!
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Thank you so much! Really, it feels like just now and forever all at the same time! 🙂
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Took a bit of a whimsical angle this time:
http://kingdomofsharks.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/wwc-how-to-write-a-novel-without-having-a-breakdown/
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I like how your images alternate and help us navigate the points of your post. I’d say they “break down” the post, but then I’d have to duck for cover from the terrible pun police.
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Reblogged this on Artistic Anarchy.
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Reblogged this on thekreativecorner and commented:
I enjoy these challenges – don’t miss out.
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I’ve used my recipe- and food-based artwork for my challenge entry: The art of food: http://carondann.com/2013/02/19/the-art-of-food/
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Wow, what a fascinating concept. That you see, “taste” and recreate the ingredients with your mind and art before you put them together as meals to be enjoyed. A truly multi-sensory experience.
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Yes, indeed! But sometimes I eat my subject before the painting’s done, so I have to buy new ingredients!
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Far from the yellow brick road 🙂
http://wordswewomenwrite.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/kakashi-field-of-bad-dreams/
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What a fascinating post. I love how the Japanese scarecrows’ faces use Henohenomoheji/へのへのもへじ).
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I loved this challenge. Here’s my contribution to the discussion
http://artifactsandfictions.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/writing-challenge-image-vs-text/
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What a great way to visualize the world of your story.
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Here’s mine. It’s not just a cat toy.
http://lynnsimon.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/its-not-just-a-cat-toy/
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Love the illustration of your creative process, one layer at a time.
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http://tmichellejacobspoeticlife.wordpress.com/
I always post a picture as well as writing.
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It really helps bring posts to life to someone that’s just arrived, thanks for sharing.
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