Hi there!
Welcome to April’s edition of Methods and Madness, a newsletter of creative morsels for busy people.
I have a bunch of stuff for you mull over plus some (what I think is exciting) news about Substack Chat.
So, without further ado, here are this month’s…
Creative prompt(s)
Today’s email contains a bumper crop of creative prompts, thanks to the Brisbane Writers Festival which is happening 10-14 May. Leading up to this year’s event, the Festival has been sharing prompts to inspire story writing and encourage local Brisbanites to enter a short story competition. Thus, the prompts are Brisbane-centric, but I have adapted some of them so that they suit any location.
So, here are some creative prompts for you to respond to – write, draw, improvise, make ice-sculptures or Tik Tok videos. Or, if you’re too busy to do any of that stuff, then just play with them inside your mind on your next long commute.
1. Create a myth about what happens when people move to your town.
2. Come up with a character – either create an original one or choose your favourite character from history or fiction – and imagine what their most embarrassing moment has been and explore that.
3. Write a haiku about your town’s nightlife.
4. Compose a love letter to a place where you live.
5. Write a poem or create an artwork about your region’s weather.
6. Observe a random passer-by and imagine a scene from their day.
7. Finish this story – “It was a regular night at the local bar when…”
8. Compose a sonnet or make an artwork about your area’s wildlife.
9. Create a scene about a character returning to your town after many year’s away.
Let me know how you get on.
Ephemera of the month
I was searching for a good Brisbane picture to illustrate the creative prompts listed above when I stumbled across this image from the archives of the State Library of Queensland (the state of which Brisbane is capital) and decided to include it instead.
It is a French embroidered silk postcard sent from an Australian soldier, Lance Corporal James Alexander Walsh, to his Aunt sometime during the First World War. It bears the message:
“Dear Aunt, Just to say that I am still alive & kicking. There is plenty of rain here. I suppose it will clear up some day or other. This is all, good luck, best of health & all sorts of good things. Jim Walsh 2nd Pioneer Batt. 2nd Aus Div. AIF [At top] Next time you go to Dunwich call upon the carpenter’s wife Mrs Kelly & tell her, her son is keeping well & he is a mate of mine.”
Sadly, Walsh was killed on the 21st October 1917 and never made it home.
Resource of the month
Prompt number 4 above – “Compose a love letter to a place where you live” – reminded me of a workshop I did with the Re.Imaginary collective a couple of years ago in which they actually got us to write a love letter to a place. It was a highly effective way of loosening up our thinking and generating ideas about how we related to the places where we lived and what we wanted them to be in the future.
So, as April’s ‘resource of the month’ I’m going to share the:
Re.Imaginary website
… which has heaps of ideas and activities that can be used to inspire collective imagination. As a facilitator I find this to be an excellent resource; any of you who work with groups might like to check it out.
Word of the month
‘Delire.’
A rare word, to delire is to let your mind wander.
Something I do often. In fact, I make damned sure that, every day, I allow time for this to happen. It’s part of my creative process.
Delire, unsurprisingly, shares etymology with ‘delirium’ or ‘delirious’. While these are negative words, I don’t think allowing myself to delire is a bad thing.
So, I hope you find many happy moments to delire in the coming month.
“Walk on air against your better judgement.” – Seamus Heaney
What’s going on in Methods and Madness Chat?
You may be aware that Substack now has a Chat thing which basically allows us to engage in dialogue outside of this monthly email, although you are always welcome to:
But I thought I’d use Chat to start posting creative events and opportunities again (I stopped doing this in these monthly emails because I thought they were distorting the layout of the email). These are happenings drawn from the world of the arts, humanities, futures literacy, collective imagination, and transformation. Apart from providing some of you with possibly concrete opportunities, I like posting them because, as real life examples of what other folks are doing with their creative energies, they’re inspiring.
So, you can check out the thread for April and May’s events HERE.
And you can check out the thread for April and May’s opportunities HERE.
And please add your own events and opportunities – big or small, online or face-to-face – to each thread. I would love it if you did that.
I am also starting a thread for us all to post a link to our latest creative offerings. I will leave links to some of my blogs (most of which mostly are about creativity, creative identity, and creative process). Please feel free to post links to your own Substacks, blogs, online shops, videos, podcasts, whatever you want to promote. You can find that thread HERE.
I’m going to see how I go with this, but I anticipate starting a fresh thread every month. Please use these as opportunities to promote your work, share the work of others, and connect to other subscribers.
Upcoming event
Join me for The Etymology Game.
Creative, reflective, interesting, and just little nerdy.
31 May 2023, 6pm AEST / 10am CEST. (If these times don’t suit your time zone, then let me know. I might schedule another session if I get enough requests).
Every booking gets a free copy of my latest e-zine, Experiri.
All subscribers to this Substack can attend this event for free.
Bookings can be made HERE.
That’s all for this month. Thanks for subscribing and reading. If you want extra creative prompts or reflections, why not sign up as a paid subscriber – I’ll send you a creative prompt every second Friday.
Otherwise, see you next month.
I enjoy the creative prompts you've shared Meredith, particularly the one about writing a letter to the place you live.
Anyway, this comment is mainly to share a game (shocking from me, I know!) that resonates with these creative prompts, particularly the last one 'Create a scene about a character returning to your town after many year’s away.'
A friend and excellent game designer Aaron Lim is the creator of 'An Altogether Different River', a game about home, those who leave and those who remain. He wrote it, and a few other games about home comings, in the midst of returning to Malaysia after living in Australia for several years.
I've played it a number of times and it's great fun. Light on rules, high on creativity! Find it here: https://ehronlime.itch.io/an-altogether-different-river
Fantastic prompts ... and a dreamy Seamus Heaney quote. Thank you