Eclectic #3: Time and Tide

Starting on March 31st, 2026, NGNVNF will be introducing a rolling series of writing prompts suitable for all levels of writer across multiple formats. There will be a chance to share your work starting in May, 2026. Watch this space.

We did a couple of L1 Warmups last week: short, simple prompts where there was nothing more than a couple of words to guide us. This week, knowing at least one person who a) found the L1 workouts beneficial and b) extracted some value from within them, we move forward. It is time to level up, and start combining words and pictures as our inspiration into larger thematic processes.

The great benefit of online blogging these days is, undoubtedly, convenience. In a land of practical web-based applications, that allows me to be ultra-specific with how I search for pictures to illustrate my writing. It's also one of the many benefits of having so much royalty-free stock imagery on demand: you're obliged as a photographer to pre-tag your work for search engines. Convenience is king.

When people like me search for specific terms, that's what we should get.

To prove to myself that Unsplash is a decently-indexed repository of images (which it is), today's Prompt is as basic as they get. The image would make a great L1 starting point, but we are looking for something more. So, I find myself asking a question that always accompanies a first look at an image. In the modern world, so much of imagery is staged or directed to make specific points.

Ask the question: if the point of the picture is the sign (and it obviously is) what else is here that I could be missing? Is there an escaped convict hiding in secret in one of those moored yachts? Is there a crime scene just out of shot, waiting to be discovered? What is happening behind where the picture is being taken? Most crucially, what are the photographer's motivations for being here?

L2 prompts are here to teach how to harness the power of 'creation'.

So, I do what is often the case when faced with a prompt that gives me a lot to work on and I'm not sure where to begin as a response. I use the title of the prompt (Time and Tide) then let the picture provide me with both motivation and narrative: I decide I never had need to use this road in my imaginary scenario, but it mattered because it became a metaphor for my own inability to alter.

I imagine I am taking this picture as I leave the water and the boats to start a life fresh, somewhere else. I think what that might feel like, what has made me want to move, and how it is important to use experience as a guide to how things can improve in life. It then becomes a symbol of optimism and change: as each tide comes and goes, things are washed away and the land resets anew, as am I.

If you look at the stanzas in my first draft above you'll also see I set a task for myself to begin each of the first three with the same four words, before finishing with a reflective conclusion. As a reminder: what I find useful and helpful may make YOU uncomfortable or cause distress. We are all different. Therefore, you are reminded today to treat this prompt in a way that helps YOU in the most effectively. Set imagination into this photograph and see what emerges.

If you found this prompt useful, please let me know.