Greetings!

Some among you may remember the series of challenges which I began earlier this year, tasking writers to employ a different literary motif or technique in the writing of a story with genre and content of their choice.

With this challenge I revive that series, this time tasking you with the inclusion of ‘defamiliarisation’ in a story.

‘Defamiliarization of that which is or has become familiar or taken for granted, hence automatically perceived, is the basic function of all devices.’ – Viktor Shklovksy.

In short, write a piece, either prose or poetic, that forces the reader to see common things in an unfamiliar or strange way – be it to create a sense of wonderment over something typically mundane, or to enhance perception of the fundamentally familiar.

10 days. 1 literary motif. Go!