Fitting In: Another Ekphrastic Prompt

Plus Some Photos from My Morning Run

As I continue with my 30-drafts-in-30-days April challenge, I continue also to look for unique nudges of inspiration. Below I offer another ekphrastic prompt from the book A Treasury of American Prints (1939), edited by Thomas Craven. (If you missed my two previous ekphrastic prompts, you can find them here and here.)

Prompt: Fitting In

Below is Wanda Gag’s Siesta. From Wanda Gag (pronounced Gaag) via A Treasury of American Prints: “Siesta shows a family of cats basking in the warmth of an early autumn fire. I am always amused at the natural tendency of cats to fit themselves into and over all sorts of places and spaces…. I felt the room as a space in which cylinders (stove, wood), cubes (box, bench), flat surfaces (floors, walls), and the more pliable forms of the cats all had their place.”

Siesta by Wanda Gag, from the book A Treasury of American Prints (1939), edited by Thomas Craven.

I am especially drawn to this idea of living beings fitting “into and over all sorts of places and spaces” and love how comfortable and cozy the cats look in Siesta.

Prompt: Write a story in which a character (or characters) feel(s) at home in some sort of odd place or space.

Considerations/Complications: To create tension, you might consider sociological norms and how that affects where the character(s) make their home. For example, what if a character wants to sleep in a laundry basket, but “society” is telling them that they can’t? Or what if a character knows—innately—where they feel most at home, but can’t find where that place is. Like looking for the perfect pair of pants—you can imagine them, know every detail, but they don’t seem to exist anywhere.

If you need extra inspiration, check out my tiny story “Fitting In,” which was published in Gooseberry Pie in January 2024.

Inspired by Art and Inspired by Surroundings

You may recall that my guiding word for 2026 is immersion. Well, that word came to mind over and over again this morning as I did a 6.3-mile training run in which I stopped periodically to snap some photos (below) of images that “grabbed” me.

I have always been enamored with stripes. (I used to wear striped shirts all the time!) Perhaps it’s their structural neatness, something that I’m drawn to in both writing and art as well. On my walks/runs, I’m regularly finding “stripes” that please me visually.

An organized and satisfying shadow.

I’m also drawn to other kinds of satisfying shadows.

“Caution Flood Prone Area” sign and shadow.

I was reminded of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem”: “There is a crack, a crack in everything / That’s how the light gets in.” (Another ekphrastic prompt perhaps?)

Lines while waiting at the crosswalk.

And, finally, the “proof” (from my Strava app) that I actually did the run I said I did 😉:

I’m not a particularly fast runner, but as I do with my writing, I work to regularly challenge myself. Today I did the same run route as last Saturday, but managed to be five minutes faster. This felt notable to me, particularly since I turned 50 last month. I’m not out to set any records as a runner; I’m merely working to “own” age 50 😉.

And that’s what immersion is all about for me this year.

And Speaking of Prompts…

We are a month away from my two-hour generative prompt session, Fuel Up! A Prompt Intensive. Learn more here. Cost is $99 and includes a 30-minute 1:1 coaching/feedback session.