Digging for Ideas

Archeology of the Imagination for Writers

One of my interests is ancient history. For the most part, we know about what happened in the past by inferring a culture from their artifacts. For these exercises, you will be creating your own artifacts.

Digging Atlantis

I love to scour thrift shops for odd items that look like they belong in another place and time. I have old vases, chains, broken pottery, and even a necklace made out of little wooden pieces. Some things I don't even have a clue as to their use. When I need a quick idea starter, I pull a couple of items out of this bag and imagine the following scenario:

The lost continent of Atlantis has arisen from the ocean, and these artifacts emerged from the excavation. What could I deduce about the civilization of that land based on these artifacts? What were the people like? How did the Atlanteans use these objects? What meaning did they have for the people? I might even write a short story about someone using the item.

Future Archeology

In this variation, I pick an object in the room at random. I imagine that I'm an archeologist in the future, and the only thing that survived from the early 21st century is this object. How might that future archeologist interpret our society from that object? What might s/he get right? Wrong? Partially right? I then write a short lecture the archeologist might give about the object.

These are both fun activities that are adaptable for writing classes or individual writing warm-ups.

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