Using the picture, write a scene set in a poor household in Victorian times.
You can either:
Write a scene from a wider story about the characters in the picture, or
Write an article for a newspaper which describes the scene and is about the living conditions of poor people in Victorian society
You are writing as someone living in Victorian times, so you will belong to contemporary society. It is unlikely you, as the writer, will be poor but you can decide if your tone will be as one looking on from the outside, or as one who is there to fight for the poor and to help them get a better life.
If you find this difficult to start, try imagining the life of the people in the picture. Once you can think about, and describe, not only their living conditions but also the way they feel, how insecure their lives might be, how hard it must be to live from day to day with so little, then you will find it easier to describe them as the writer of your story or article.
For further background you might want to look into Charles Dickens' work to help the poor in society, and the work of other Victorian writers to bring to light the conditions suffered by people at the time.
...You can either:
Write a scene from a wider story about the characters in the picture, or
Write an article for a newspaper which describes the scene and is about the living conditions of poor people in Victorian society
You are writing as someone living in Victorian times, so you will belong to contemporary society. It is unlikely you, as the writer, will be poor but you can decide if your tone will be as one looking on from the outside, or as one who is there to fight for the poor and to help them get a better life.
If you find this difficult to start, try imagining the life of the people in the picture. Once you can think about, and describe, not only their living conditions but also the way they feel, how insecure their lives might be, how hard it must be to live from day to day with so little, then you will find it easier to describe them as the writer of your story or article.
For further background you might want to look into Charles Dickens' work to help the poor in society, and the work of other Victorian writers to bring to light the conditions suffered by people at the time.
For more challenging creative writing ideas and projects, check out my book, A Crash Course in Creative Writing
© Amanda J Harrington 2020
