Tag Archives: creative writing
Dear fellow blogger,
When I set out to do the post a day challenge I started to panic after a week as to what I had committed my time to. Some days I had no idea what I would write about but I found it amazing how something can come out of nothing. Just begin. That’s part of my mediocre advice.
One exercise that I found useful was to sit down with a pen and paper to come up with a list of 50 blog topics. I gave myself 10 minutes. You can come up with 50 topics in 10 minutes. If your blog is random, the topics won’t matter. My theme was “the profound to the profane” so that was my focus. If your focus is Jennifer Lopez then I say two things: Really? Jennifer Lopez? That is what you choose to invest your time on? Really? You do realize that you don’t get that time back and will die at potentially any moment from now until whenever that moment is right?
The other thing I have to say if your focus is Jennifer Lopez is to write her name as a title then brainstorm 50 topics around your title. Dresses. Boyfriends. Husbands. Childhood. Recent diamond purchases.
You get the point.
Have fun writing. It is a process of creativity, discover and improvement.
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1 comment | tags: bloggers, blogging, creative writing, jennifer lopez | posted in Art
He awoke to find himself with the need to blog again. ”Oh no, what if I’m addicted to it?” he thought. He was no longer under his own tyrannical fist but couldn’t help himself. He asked himself, “why the fuck am I speaking in the third person?”
Regardless, No answer could sufficiently explain this phenomena…
Why would anyone desire Laundromat Pizza?
“Our culture is doomed” he thought as he waited for his clothes to dry, alone and naked with cheese in his teeth.
A single tear fell from his eye.
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2 comments | tags: blogging, bunty's laundromat pizza, creative writing, speaking in the third person, third person, washing clothes | posted in Art
This is post 365 which means that I have successfully completed the post a day for a year challenge.
This year has been transformational to say the least. It has been a year of getting myself back. I won’t get into all of the details but my life was basically turned upside down for a while. It was necessary though. For years I had been struggling with an issue that I wasn’t enough. I was somehow lacking as a human and had to prove my self to the world. I cared so much about what everyone else thought that this became my identity. I wasn’t happy. Change needed to happen.
Over the past year, I have let go of a lot. That psychological nonsense still tries to creep in but I’ve hired guards. In letting go of everything, the irony is that I gained so much more than I let go of. One of the traits that I required to succeed was discipline. My dad often spoke about a bunch of ideas that he never did anything with, so I was determined to make something, anything happen. I started this blog. Honestly, it probably would have just become another fucking project that I start and don’t finish if it wasn’t for the challenge that I imposed upon myself. This has been a lesson in discipline, self-control, creativity and finishing. Remember this: The point of starting anything, is to finish. Otherwise don’t. You will end up drowning in incomplete projects that inevitably leave you with the sense that it is YOU who is not complete.
I almost gave up twice. That is it. One was out of pure laziness and the other was because I was struggling with being on Earth, so the whole blog thing didn’t seem that important. Regardless, I persisted. You can actually read the points in my life last year where I was struggling with myself or some circumstance. This blog has been like a reflecting pond for me that others get to gaze into and post comments on or ‘like’.
Many people have been so supportive during this time. In no particular order:
Reid: It was you who inspired me to do this. I believe you called it blog therapy. Indeed it proved positive. Your friendship means the world to me. We are spiritual allies and we both found our audience.
Megan: Your constant encouragement has reminded me of something so important. Love, above all else is what matters and without honest communication we are all lost. Thank you. Life without you would seem pointless.
Dave: My brain functions better while interacting with your brain. You have shown me what discipline is and have offered a shining example of what it takes to step up as a man and a father. Oscar is one lucky kid.
Mom: You are the reason that I love so much. Thank for everything (including putting up with my shit and me posting about your shit). Unconditional love is my inheritance. You showed me that love is not something to be earned. Love is a gift.
Something very cool happened this year that I wasn’t really expecting. To date I have 74 subscribers and average over 100 hits per day. That may not be a big deal in the larger scheme of things but it means a lot to me. I now have ‘virtual’ friends in India, England, the States, Europe and the Philippines. I sincerely appreciate every one of you. Your comments, emails and encouragement reminds me that there are many of us all over the world that see through the pop media’s perpetual death chant and get what life is about.
Love. Perspective. Communication. Experience. Laughter.
I will continue to write. It is just that the self induced pressure is off now.
Thank you for accompanying me on this journey!
With Love,
Chris:)
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6 comments | tags: appreciation, art love, canadian writers, completion of a goal, creative writing, death chant, England, europe, friends, global community, gratitude, how to accomplish goals, how to appreciate people, journaling, london, love, love art, media, post a day challenge, the philippines, The United States, virtual friends, what is life about? | posted in Love
I must say that part of me is relieved and another part of me is concerned. Starting with this post, I have only five posts left to complete my commitment of doing a post a day for a year. I challenge anyone to do this exercise. Your creative writing skills will improve dramatically and you will be surprised with what you can pull out of your ass at the last-minute.
This blog has been such a part of my journey for the year. It is kind of like a journal but it is aimed at others to more of a degree. This is the first venture that I’ve done where I didn’t have the illusion of making millions. My only intention was to just do it for the sake of doing it.
I will be going into more detail about this process in post 365. In the meantime, here are two pictures that I created 13 years ago. I called them ‘beginnings’ and ‘endings’.
I’m happy to share it with you…
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1 comment | tags: all things that rise must converge, ascension, blogosphere, completing a goal, creative writing, creativity, how to be a better writer, how to create and innovate, how to make goals, journalling, life is great, post a day challenge, sharing, the final countdown | posted in Love
Years ago I had a strange vision during alpha state. That is what I call the moment right before we fall asleep and this state can bring about some interesting occurrences.
In this particular case, I was a fly caught in a spider’s web. The more I struggled to get out, the more entangled I became. I saw the spider crawl out of the web hole rushing toward me, twisting me in a silky substance, spinning and spinning until I could no longer move. I stopped struggling.
And then I felt it.
It was like a large sharpened steel needle piercing the top of my head and shooting down my spine electrifying me. Suddenly, I felt my consciousness liquefy as I was drained out into the body of the thirsty spider.
It was black and quiet for a moment.
I felt satisfied as I retreated back to my web hole.
***
What do I gather that experience was about? I’m not entirely sure but it made me look at life cycles in a new way. I used to think that predator and prey were opposites. I suppose the appearance of separate bodies lends to that illusion but life is life and all life is one life.
The predator and the prey are one. Sustenance and challenge is what they offer one another.
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Leave a comment | tags: alpha brain wave state, animal speak, canadian writers, creative writing, flies, fun stories, meditation, psychology, shapeshifting, spider and flies, spiders, strange occurrences, tranformations, winnipeg writers | posted in Art
This is a special day. This is my post 300 which means that I can pull ideas out of my ass for 300 days successfully. It also means that I am almost at the end of this year-long challenge. When I have completed this body of work, I will be taking a month off in order to assess what to do next.
I have a request…
If you enjoy something specific that I write about or present as a subscriber could you please drop me an email letting me know so that I have your input as I mull things over during that month off?
My email is: shout@chrisscholl.com
Part of the fun of this challenge is that it affirms that every day is a blank piece of paper to create on. That and overcoming the urge to quit or become distracted with shiny things as someone like myself with A.D.D. tends to do. Thank you again for reading and I look forward to hearing from you.
Chris:)
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2 comments | tags: bloggers, blogging, creative writing, creativity, freelance writers, post a day challenge, winnipeg writers, writers in winnipeg | posted in Art
Again I find myself sitting here staring down the barrel of a blank page with no inspiration to write anything. ”It has to be real and from the heart” my brain echos to itself. I’ve looked up “blog topics” on the internet and have two articles in the draft folder that I currently think are shit. What to do?
I’m taking my own advice. Just start writing. Don’t wait for some magic moment. GO!!!! So here I am writing about not being able to write. I have always believed these posts to be some of the best because they are honest. Not that my other posts are not but, there is something very honest about admitting that I get stuck and stumble. We’re human after all. What a strange sentiment; “I’m only human and I make mistakes”. It’s like we have this built-in mechanism that establishes our rank to a God of perfection. I wonder if animals every say “I’m only animal and I fling feces at others”? What an interesting experience we humans are in. Between Gods and Beasts.
What was I saying? Oh yeah… I don’t have anything to write about.
Maybe it’s the pressure of the final stretch. I’m just shy of 300 posts for my post a day for a year challenge and I’m starting to think in terms of quantity. That’s a bad move because it shuts down my creativity and establishes my mental accountant. Bean counters shouldn’t run the creative department. I admit that I thought “oh, only 69 posts left til 365. If I do 7 posts a day for the next 10 days and program them, I will be finished.” How lame is that? Definitely NOT inspiring. That’s a production line.
I do believe that when it comes to creativity we have the ability to shut ourselves down. ”I’m not a creative person”, “I can’t write”, “I’m going to get it over with by treating my creativity like a production line” are phrases that I have heard and the last one is what I thought. After reading this, I’m reminded that this is us being creative. By saying “I’m not creative” we are using our creativity to create and enforce that circumstance in our life.
I entitled this post “blocked” because that is how I felt today. Then I remembered my rule…
Just write. Just paint. Just start.
… because the walls are not real. They are perceived.
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2 comments | tags: art love, canadian writers, creative writing, evolution, how to be a better writer, love art, the love of art, the love of writing, winnipeg writers, writers block, writers in winnipeg | posted in Art
1. Never tell a joke twice at a party:
A) Everyone heard you the first time.
B) The joke was not funny and…
C) now you really look stupid.
2. ”Open Mike” night at a gay bar is waaaaaaaaaay different from “open mic” night at a straight bar.
3. What was Jesus’s yearly income?
4. No matter what language we speak; A E I O U can be blended together by singing and should probably done on a regular basis by all of us.
5. I think that a funny alias would be AKA or Also known as. That way people would have to say “Chris, also known as also known as”.
6. The entire stock market is a psychological trick founded on the idea that some other idiot will pay more for the same fake intangible idea that you just bought into.
7. Beaver or Polar Bear? This is the great Canadian debate right now. Wow! No wonder we are seen as the global retard. At least we are on the front lines of what is truly important.
8. I’m a big fan of the beaver myself.
9. One of my favorite and harshest Japanese insults is “may you become enlightened in a day”. I will never say this to anyone however. I personally know that this is a nightmare from a bad acid experience 15 years ago that took me about two years to revover from. Trust me, you do not want to know everything at once! Our bodies and psyches are not meant to handle that and I thank God every single day that I didn’t wind up with a big dirty beard screaming about the government to people trying to enjoy their lunch break downtown.
10. Two random food product ideas: Cookies in the shape of ancient Egyptian mummies called “yummy mummies” and rooster shaped suckers. Think about that last one.
11. If life gives you lemons then ask yourself the following question: Did I order lemons? Because I will tell you this; if you ordered lemonade and a waiter brings you a bunch of lemons; and attempts to tell you some bullshit chiche about making lemonade, then send them back. Why do you have to “make lemonade” when he obviously fucked up your order?
12. There is absolutely no forseeable reason for a horn on a car other than to be an asshole. Worst case scenario; you are about to run over someone and you honk your horn. All you will do is alert that person that you are about to run over them. If I’m at a traffic light and don’t notice that it is green for 5 seconds and you honk… you are an asshole.
13. I love the number 13. It is a number of mystery and has this really interesting irregularity to it.
14. Western culture is absurd in that fact that people living on a “14th” floor somehow believe that they are safer because they don’t call it the 13th floor due to bad luck. I’m pretty sure that a low flying, out of control airplane has no prejudice between the number 13 & 14. Chinese culture at least believes the number 13 to be a good luck number. Then again, the wealthiest Chinese couples pay top dollar for Cuban fishermen to cut off the fins of sharks. They eat this in order to increase their vitality. I wonder if the dying, finless shark thought about the number 13 as she wriggled toward the ocean floor?
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Leave a comment | tags: 13, 13 and chinese culture, 13 and western culture, art in winnipeg, bad luck, bad luck 13, canadian writers, creative writing, cultural absurdity, do tags matter?, great canadian writers, life is good and who cares?, social commentary, superstition, the number thirteen, winnipeg writers, writing lessons | posted in Art
This is my 265th post. I only have 99 to go to fulfill my personal commitment to do a blog post a day for a year. Weird. I’ve grown accustomed to doing this. It doesn’t make me money and not too many people would care if I gave up but I don’t care about that. This has been a fantastic exercise in creative development and discipline.
I’m not sure what I will do after I have completed this process but if you know me you’d know that it is difficult to shut me up.
I have already started another blog called www.lovewineandfood.com with my friend Serge. It’s just in the beginning stages but it will be the central hub for all things love, all things wine and all things food. Or perhaps some Angel investor will read about the recreational music making/community development activities that I do with seniors, kids, refugees and people with special needs and kick in some cash to the cause. Who knows?
I also thought it would be neat and easy to compile the 365 posts of love, art & fear into a book or two or three. I’m not sure yet but it does feel fucking great to have these options available:)
So far, I’ve over-come some fears, made some friends in the States, the UK and India and have learned that it is absolutely okay to express yourself without restraint or censorship.
Thank you for reading.
Chris
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1 comment | tags: art fear, blogging, censorship, challenging oneself, creative writing, fear art, friends, gratitude, learning new things, love and fear, love fear, post a day for a year challenge | posted in Love
1. My only rule for LSD was simple: If I suddenly believe I can fly, I have to start from the ground. If I can make it off of the ground then I just have to learn to land and can control the test. This is way better than dying from a 100 foot fall.
2. I bet Halloween would suck for people who were raped by someone wearing a pumpkin costume.
3. My favorite spelling rule is this; “i before e, except after c”. The following words are reasons why I love this rule: weird, weight, their, heist, heights and reign.
4. Nothing great has ever occurred by NOT breaking the rules.
5. Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day. Unless, he is deathly allergic to fish, goes into anaphylactic shock and dies. Then you’ll have fed him for a lifetime.
6. Space. You wouldn’t know this but I’ve been sitting here staring at the word ‘space’ on this fucking computer for 30 minutes with nothing to write. What a waste of time.
7. Time. I’ve decided to just start writing. The key to these post has zero to do with thinking and everything to do with just moving to see what comes out. Time doesn’t really exist so therefore it wasn’t a waste after all. Time is just the appearance of moving parts within space.
8. Space again. We often say “space travel” when talking about travelling to visit other planets but that is ridiculous because the last time I checked we were already in space travelling at an amazing speed.
9. Technically, the room that I perceive myself in and this body are made of the exact same substances. Those substances are made of sub-atomic happenings that are approximately 1% of the reality. The remaining 99% is empty space which all phenomena arises and only tends to exist. What do I think this means? We are space. Einstein said “what do the fish know of the water in which they swim”. Refer to number 7.
10. Imagine being a fish and acting on the impulse to chomp down on a worm only to be yanked out of the water by a hook in your mouth. I’m really happy that extraterrestrials only use electromagnetic technology to catch us. My appearance is important and I don’t need some unsightly scar on my lip because some redneck E.T. was teaching his stupid son how to fish for humans.
11. I think that we should take everyone who has ever been on dancing with the stars, put them in a capsule that perpetually shakes and shoot them off into what we call “space”. Then I might watch the show and the name “Dancing with the Stars” would be more accurate. Stars? Chastity Bono wasn’t a star when she had an innie, so how does giving her an outtie and transforming her into a fat trucker shoot her to stardom?
12. Forget everything you just read, go into the world today and be kind to each other.
13. Nothing is random.
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Leave a comment | tags: all hallows eve, art love, chas bono, chastity bono, chaz bono, comedy, creative writing, dancing with the stars, e.t., einstein, extra-terrestrial, famous kids, halloween, love art, philosophy, pumpkins, random thoughts, randomness, space, space capsule, space travel, spacetime, spelling and grammar rules, spelling rules, stardom, time capsule, timespace | posted in Art
Ran Dumb Thoughts
1. Never tell a joke twice at a party:
A) Everyone heard you the first time.
B) The joke was not funny and…
C) now you really look stupid.
2. ”Open Mike” night at a gay bar is waaaaaaaaaay different from “open mic” night at a straight bar.
3. What was Jesus’s yearly income?
4. No matter what language we speak; A E I O U can be blended together by singing and should probably done on a regular basis by all of us.
5. I think that a funny alias would be AKA or Also known as. That way people would have to say “Chris, also known as also known as”.
6. The entire stock market is a psychological trick founded on the idea that some other idiot will pay more for the same fake intangible idea that you just bought into.
7. Beaver or Polar Bear? This is the great Canadian debate right now. Wow! No wonder we are seen as the global retard. At least we are on the front lines of what is truly important.
8. I’m a big fan of the beaver myself.
9. One of my favorite and harshest Japanese insults is “may you become enlightened in a day”. I will never say this to anyone however. I personally know that this is a nightmare from a bad acid experience 15 years ago that took me about two years to revover from. Trust me, you do not want to know everything at once! Our bodies and psyches are not meant to handle that and I thank God every single day that I didn’t wind up with a big dirty beard screaming about the government to people trying to enjoy their lunch break downtown.
10. Two random food product ideas: Cookies in the shape of ancient Egyptian mummies called “yummy mummies” and rooster shaped suckers. Think about that last one.
11. If life gives you lemons then ask yourself the following question: Did I order lemons? Because I will tell you this; if you ordered lemonade and a waiter brings you a bunch of lemons; and attempts to tell you some bullshit chiche about making lemonade, then send them back. Why do you have to “make lemonade” when he obviously fucked up your order?
12. There is absolutely no forseeable reason for a horn on a car other than to be an asshole. Worst case scenario; you are about to run over someone and you honk your horn. All you will do is alert that person that you are about to run over them. If I’m at a traffic light and don’t notice that it is green for 5 seconds and you honk… you are an asshole.
13. I love the number 13. It is a number of mystery and has this really interesting irregularity to it.
14. Western culture is absurd in that fact that people living on a “14th” floor somehow believe that they are safer because they don’t call it the 13th floor due to bad luck. I’m pretty sure that a low flying, out of control airplane has no prejudice between the number 13 & 14. Chinese culture at least believes the number 13 to be a good luck number. Then again, the wealthiest Chinese couples pay top dollar for Cuban fishermen to cut off the fins of sharks. They eat this in order to increase their vitality. I wonder if the dying, finless shark thought about the number 13 as she wriggled toward the ocean floor?
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Leave a comment | tags: 13, 13 and chinese culture, 13 and western culture, art in winnipeg, bad luck, bad luck 13, canadian writers, creative writing, cultural absurdity, do tags matter?, great canadian writers, life is good and who cares?, social commentary, superstition, the number thirteen, winnipeg writers, writing lessons | posted in Art