the creative minimalist
A short exploration of Easter Saturday, weaving a narrative and basking in the ifs of who and what takes place between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The site needs a bit of a refresh, so as they used to say it is under construction. As such things might not look right, work right, or even feel right. But only until everything is new and shiny. After that… who knows.
This month has been productive despite global chaos, and I have noticed the importance of maintaining a positive and intentional creative practice.
This week’s creative field notes include how I am keeping up with February Album Writing Month and coming up with a few other creative ideas.
January has been a difficult month for this creative minimalist. However, the festival of Imbolc is as good a time as any to make a creative new start. This week’s vlog explores recent creative highs and lows.
As we begin the new year of 2025, I’m excited to share my collection of journals with you in this week’s vlog. I have a new daily planner, as well as music and fiction journals, and various vocabulary notebooks.
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox
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Welcome to this week’s complete creative prompt. We begin with a single creative prompt word and expand it to inspire fiction writing, journaling, and a host of other creative activities. These creative prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.
I admit I like science fiction. I read it, I watch it and I have an interest, if not the understanding, of the physics often involved. Likewise, I am fascinated by the thinking and arguments for and against the existence of life beyond our little blue world. It seems like every day, there is an announcement concerning the discovery of another planet beyond our solar system. What are these planets like? What life could they contain? Therefore, this week’s creative prompt is:
Alien — belonging to a foreign country: an alien culture (of a plant or animal species) introduced from another country and later naturalised
this is a general definition, and of course there is the popular definition; supposedly from another world; extraterrestrial
Despite my preoccupation with little green men, the word alien has a much broader definition. And, as I discovered, it is derived from the Latin alienus, which means belonging to another.
Let the prompt ‘alien’ inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested in:
Let’s expand the word a little further…
The Fiction Writing Prompt aims to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.
I stepped through the airlock and surveyed the alien world around me.
Talking about climate change means we are more aware of the environment. Subtle differences in temperatures and chemical composition affect our environment. Remove an apex predator from the food chain, and the former prey can run amok. Can you think about all these things and create an alien environment?
This prompt is all about using your imagination to build a unique, exciting, and awe-inspiring world.
The reason for this visit to an alien planet is down to you. You could be terraforming or exploring. Or have you been sent to this planet against your will; is it some form of exile, or did you crash-land? The choice is yours, the only rule is to have fun and let your imagination run free. Write as you walk out onto an alien landscape.
If you’d like to explore some remarkable alien world-building, I highly recommend The Spatterjay Series by Neal Asher and Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (affiliate links).
Journaling allows us to hold conversations on paper. From private diaries to creative art journals, we pour out our deepest thoughts. Although I’ve so far focused on the extraterrestrial nature of ‘alien’, it is often used to refer to and illustrate not belonging. Feelings of alienation can affect us deeply, and like all strong feelings and emotions, exploring them in our journal is a great way to work them out.
Questions to answer, thoughts to explore, or images to create in your journal:
I now have ‘alien’ written on the board above my computer. I am confident it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Feelings of alienation have often featured in my poetry and lyrics. I don’t think I am in that place currently, but being able to draw on my memories is a vital creative tool. And, just glancing up at the sky and seeing the stars and galaxies illustrates the infinite creative possibilities available. As I look, I wonder if some other creative, on a distant planet, is looking back at me and thinking the same, although alien, thoughts.
Let ‘alien’ inspire your music, photography, and painting this week.
As always, these creative prompts are optional and entirely open to your interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story, something a little more grandiose.
This isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below, or tag me #thecreativeminimalist on any social platform.
Original planet image by JCK5D from Pixabay
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox
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The sunlight was shining on my Cafetiére and I loved the colour, so I took a photo.
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox
If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.
Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest
Welcome to this week’s creative prompt. We begin with a single word, a creative prompt, and expand it to inspire fiction writing, journaling, and a host of other creative activities. These creative prompts, are to give me, and anyone else who wants to join in, some focus to our creative work.
For thousands of years, language and writing, have passed on information. Often this information describes something. However, language can be limiting. It is a truism that a picture paints a thousand words. We are multi-sensory beings, and so we’re going to attempt to step beyond words. Therefore, this week’s creative prompt is:
Texture — the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or substance
this is one definition, I also want to point out that the word can be used to describe less tangible ‘things’ like art and music
Let the prompt ‘texture’ inspire you in any area of creativity that you are interested:
Let’s expand the word a little further…
This Fiction Writing Prompt, exploring the word texture, aims to stretch the literary muscles. No rules. No word counts. Simply write and explore.
I couldn’t see, but I could touch and feel. The texture told me everything.
Words can be limiting. The spoken word is augmented by tone and mannerisms. Someone can say something, yet their expression can change the meaning of their words completely. We’re going to step away from what we hear and what we see, yet still, convey meaning.
This prompt is all about using the sense of touch to describe what is happening. It is time to close our eyes and ears and feel what we write.
The writing perspective is once again in the first person. This should make it easier to explore what the character is touching. But you are welcome to change that. The setting and everything else are also open to your imagination. Why can’t the character see anything? What is the item they are touching, and what secrets are revealed in its texture?
There are no rules, simply write and have fun.
Journaling allows us to hold conversations on paper. From private diaries to creative art journals, we pour out our deepest thoughts. We often decorate our traditional diary-type journal pages with art or sometimes turn them into full-blown mixed-media illustrations. Texture plays a big part in mixed media. There are so many ways to add texture to a page. From layering and collage to using stencils and paste and other liquid mediums, a page can become so much more than a flat image.
Questions to answer, thoughts to explore or images to create in your journal:
I now have ‘texture’ written on the board above my computer. I am confident it will inspire me on my creative journey this week. Furthermore, I have previously mentioned working on a piece of music called ‘emerge’. As I compose this piece, I am very much aware that its texture should convey the emergence of a butterfly from its cocoon. The texture of butterflies wings is also in my mind as I compose. And as I walk around this week, I will be looking out for interesting textures that I can photograph. There is so much inspiration around us, it is time to feel it.
Let ‘texture’ inspire your music, photography, and painting this week.
As always, these creative prompts are optional and entirely open to your interpretation. Use them as a starting point for a short story, something a little more grandiose, or to help you work through a creative block.
As mentioned before, this isn’t a ‘challenge’ but the prompts can be used that way if you want. If you do create anything using them, I would love to see or hear about it. Leave a link in the comments below or tag me @darrenrhill or #thecreativeminimalist on any social platform.
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox
If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.
Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest
My week has been very creative, although it feels like I haven’t achieved much. I suppose that’s down to not having completed things. These creative field notes are very much concerning works in progress. But that is the idea behind posting this each week.
I’m still working on the tracks that, I hope, will become a new album in the near future. I have a working list of ten tracks in various stages of (de)composition.
There’s also a soundtrack being composed inspired by the word emerge… it’s all butterflies and stuff… what do butterflies sound like, and what is the sound of them emerging from their cocoon? I’m doing a video series about that process, and the first video in the playlist is here.
Did an ink splat to tie in with this week’s creative prompt. That’s fig 1 at the top of the page.
Did a little page for my art/thoughts/meme journal, I don’t have a real name for this journal. It is a part image, part word journal, and I am using my Iconic journal.
When it comes to text, blog posts and marketing have been in the work/freelance pile this week. I’d love to spend more time writing fiction… but my desire is obviously not enough at the moment to actually do anything about it.
Currently reading:
The Saints of Salvation by Peter F Hamilton. This is the final book in his recent Salvation Sequence Trilogy. I am thoroughly enjoying these. And my favourite line this week, which also gives a glimpse at what the content is…
We just don’t have the psychology to deal with Armageddon
The Saints of Salvation Peter F Hamilton
Currently listening:
The Moon is blue by Future Islands
From Bills & Aches & Blues (40 years of 4AD). This is a compilation album celebrating 40 years of 4AD. And that makes me feel even older, seeing as I have a few very early 4AD recordings on original vinyl. I love Future Islands and I love Colourbox, who originally recorded The moon is blue. And this is a pretty good cover version.
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox
If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.
Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest
Thank you for reading this post. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
namaste
d
xox
If you enjoyed this post please support my writing by making a donation of any amount.
Sign up for my (ir)regular newsletter to keep up to date with my creative adventures, including special offers, and join me on Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | Pinterest