Colour isn’t just for setting scenes and dressing characters. We as writers can utilise a full palate to add vibrancy and texture to the stories we tell, from start to finish. After all, colours run through all our lives and highlight its variety.
“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.” – Wassily Kandinksy, Russian-born French Expressionist painter, 1866-1944
“All colours arouse specific associative ideas…” – Yves Klein (1928–1962) was a French artist
“Soon it got dusk, a grapy dusk, a purple dusk over tangerine groves and long melon fields; the sun the color of pressed grapes, slashed with burgandy red, the fields the color of love and Spanish mysteries.” Jack Kerouac, On the Road
“People observe the colors of a day only at its beginnings and its ends, but to me it’s quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. Waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. Murky darknesses. In my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.”
Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
Workshop
Activity 1
1) List all the colours you can think of – common ones (red, blue) and less common (mauve, vermilion)
2) List all the expressions you can think of that go with any of those colours – e.g. ‘seeing red’, ‘in the red’, ‘red tape’ ‘mauve is pink trying to be purple’ etc.
Activity 2
Write a poem, short story, notes ……. which utilises colour, for example:
• Base a story on a colour quote – Who/what was feeling blue? Who was caught red-handed?
• Base a story on a situation where colour coding is used (dress code, traffic signals, paperwork)
• Use colour in the description of a scene or set the story in a very colourful place – e.g. a theatre, a garden in full bloom a fashion show etc.
“Rainbow colour” by @Doug88888 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Vivien Teasdale – May 2026
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