WRITING PROMPTS TO BENEFIT CHILDREN IN GAZA
UNICEF reports that in Gaza, “hundreds of thousands of children and families are caught in a catastrophic situation” and that, as of November 14th 2023, over 4200 children have been killed and more than 7000 have been injured “due to unrelenting attacks”, while over 1350 others are missing, presumed dead. Outlining the charity’s Appeal for Children in Gaza, UNICEF spokesman James Elder explains: “Gaza has become a graveyard for thousands of children. It’s a living hell for everyone else.” Elder has also called for “children held hostage in Gaza [to] be immediately reunited with their families and loved ones”. Recent updates state that “hundreds of thousands of children … remain trapped in a war zone with little or no access to food, water, electricity, medicine or medical care”.
For the duration of NaNoWriMo, we will be posting a writing prompt every day and in doing so, we are hoping to encourage our community to donate to charities providing medical aid to children in desperate need in this unprecedented crisis.
These prompts have been created by writers from Wales or with a connection to Wales and its magazines and presses. The prompts are on all kinds of subjects, but many are related to anti-violence and the work of empathy, and they are offered with the simple hope that they might encourage people to donate in support of medical aid in Gaza. We include a list of suggested charities to donate to below, highlighting the Appeal to Children in Gaza.
UNICEF “continues to call for an immediate ceasefire as 1.1 million people — nearly half of them children — in northern Gaza have been warned to move out of the way of a widescale military assault, but with nowhere safe for them to go”. Elder concludes: “The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion – and international law – must prevail.”
DAY 19: ANGELA GRAHAM
Building
Just the word is an inspiration! Building – constructing, assembling, creating; with materials – marble, brick, leaves…; or fashioning something intangible, such as a relationship, with the tools of engagement and nurturing.
To focus the process of imagination, why not begin with a single building, real or imagined? Envisage the building, from outside and inside. Enter it. Move around the building, noting what takes your attention. Respond, in writing, to some part of the building which draws you.
If there is an element repeated in the building, such as door, corner, floor, hearth, ceiling, stairs, signage, lighting… you can write your way around the building, one door, say, after another. There is a great depth and wealth of imagery associated with human constructions and you may well find that ancient associations spring up in your personal setting, which you will forge into something unique.
I have done this practice with the house in which I spent my childhood. As a way into writing about the life I lived in the house, I chose to write about every window in the building. I discovered, or recovered, incidents and insights associated with each one. Frost on a window in winter; the birds-nest perspective from the attic skylight; what I (or others) could see through a window, right out as far as the whole of my society. I also considered people, such as those I saw through a window or reflected in one. (I’ve always loved the etymology of window, wind + eye. Old Norse vindr (wind) and auga (eye). It can be fun to look into this aspect of what you are focusing on).
The imaginative, poetic exploration of a building which is a dwelling, i.e. a home, a sheltered place in which to live (of whatever kind and no matter how permanent or temporary) can be particularly fruitful.
An extension of this suggestion could be to envisage the reversal of a building, i.e. its destruction or re-construction; and, further, the building’s relationship to other buildings, like or unlike itself, because building can be a very communal thing or embody isolation.
Happy writing!
Please consider donating to a charity providing medical aid in Gaza. We recommend UNICEF’s Appeal for Children in Gaza, but other charities include:
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