Creative Writing
← See All TopicsUrban Memory
A city’s memories are constituted not only of the memories of its individual habitants, but also the collective memories of the people who lived there in the past. Infrastructure designs adapt to natural disasters; graffiti can reflect societal issues; monuments showcase historical aesthetics; street can be named after important figures. A city’s history is a part of its memory. The space and shape of a city becomes representations of the passage of time.
Writing Prompt 1
Write a story set in the past, ideally during a time when the city was very different from what it is now. You can use a real historical figure as your main character or create a new one.
Writing Prompt 2
Go on a walk around your neighbourhood and look out for physical traces of the past. These can be natural (e.g trees, decay) or artificial (e.g buildings, street signs). Try to identify what time these material remnants date back to. How many different time periods do you identify? Write a story of a character from fifty years in the future, who finds a memory fragment from today. What would it be? Where do they find it? Who left it there?
Writing Prompt 3
Identify a myth associated with the city or neighbourhood you live in. Write a story centred around that myth.