Brickstorming: Creative Writing Exercise

What would you write on your legacy brick?

By Chris Dunmire

After creatively crafting a playful message on a brick for a Celebration Garden, I wondered how challenging it might be for others to write a legacy brick message of their own using the same limitations I had from the brick engraving company. The message had to be contained within 3 lines with 14 characters each (spaces and punctuation counted). As you can see from the image above, here's what I wrote on my brick:

1 BRICK FROM
THE TON THAT
HIT ME — C:D

What would you write on your own legacy brick if you had the chance? Want to give it a try? Read on for my creative writing exercise and get ready to brainstorm, er, brickstorm.

Creative Writing Brickstorming Exercise (Hypothetical)

A world museum is creating an exhibit of “wisdom bricks” featuring unique quotes and bits of wisdom from 1,000 people from all over the world. You’ve been chosen as one of the people to participate in this legacy-making exhibit — you get to make your mark! What will you impart to future generations?

The brick engraving company has some parameters: Your message must be contained within 3 lines with 14 characters each (spaces and punctuation count). Using the template below (download and print), write your legacy brick.

Brickstorming Template

Download Now: Print the
Brickstorming Template (PDF 120KB)

Creativity Tips:

Less is more? More is less? Do you have to use all the spaces? What about limiting yourself to one or two lines instead of three? Can you do something fun with your initials like I did in my "1 BRICK FROM THE TON THAT HIT ME — C:D" example above? (I made a two-way emoticon smiley face by putting a colon in between the C and D.)

What You'll Learn:

Sometimes set parameters or limitations in our creative projects can provide us with some surprising results. What did you notice about yourself when you worked with the challenge of crafting a meaningful message with limited characters and spaces? How can this translate into a writing project with a specific word count? An art project on a small canvas? A craft project for tiny hands?

The NEXT Creative Step...

What else can you do with engraved messages on bricks? With emoticons and letters? Write / blog about it with visuals and send me a link with the subject: "Brickstorming." •

About the Author | More by Chris Dunmire
Chris Dunmire is an artist, humorist, Kaizen-Muse creativity coach, and the driving force behind the popular Creativity Portal Web site. Chris inspires people of all ages with creativity articles, printable playbooks, and fun projects such as her world-famous Dollar Bill Origami Money Plant gift project plan e-book, now available for Amazon Kindle.

Please respect the creator's copyright by not duplicating this article on your Web site, blog, electronic or print publication.

7/15/09

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