Here’s something made just for you Chapter by Chapter Readers.
Free fun. No nickels needed. Pick a song and play!
Music, especially unfamiliar music, can spark creativity in so many ways.
How about a creativity boost for all of us?
You, me, anyone who stumbles across this. Nothing too demanding, just a five or ten-minute respite from our daily duties.
What’s that? . . No, don’t give me, “I’m not creative.” We are all creative. It’s called fun, recreation, amusement. . . refreshment for your soul.
And you don’t have to be a writer to benefit from creative refreshment. You can be bumping up against any kind of mental challenge. A creative break can put just enough space between you and a problem to break through a mental block and find a solution.
How does The Creativity Jukebox work?
I get the most creativity boost from music that’s relatively new to me, or that I haven’t heard for a long time, so I made a long playlist with some music I thought most of you would not be too familiar with. I’ll continue to add to this list, so please feel free to send me recommendations.
For the week’s choices, I put the list on shuffle and just let a few play. These songs will be removed from the list so that they will never repeat.
You can pick one, two, or use all three.
If you don’t like what the Jukebox picked this week, use whatever song(s) you want, but please tell me what the song was. I may want to add it to the list.
Take a moment to play along and have some fun with me.
Set #4
Son of Dave
Olu Dara
Rumbo Tumba
These can probably be found on most any music service, but click the link in song’s name to find them on YouTube or use the Spotify link below.
3 Ways to play
Get a blank piece of paper and some crayons, or a pen, or a pencil.
Draw whatever the music inspires. It doesn’t have to be a picture of anything. It could be a pattern, or a color, a doodle, or a design. Don’t work at it, just take the Beatles advice and let it be.
Want to share? You don’t have to share, but if you want to. . .Take a picture of whatever you drew or scribbled. Or describe what you drew or what you felt afterward. Put it in the Chat if you’re comfortable, or in the Comments below, or reply to this email and no one will see it but me.
Get up and dance or move in some way to the music, chair dance, or hand dance over your keyboard. Move in any way that feels right—just move.
Want to share? Describe how you felt after dancing. Put it in Comments below, in the Chat, or reply to this email.
Write anything that comes to mind, stream-of-consciousness—let that train run right off the tracks!
Want to share? If you wrote in a notebook, take a picture, if you typed it into a device, copy it into the Chat, or simply describe what you wrote and how it made you feel in the Comments below, or in an emailed reply to me, where no one else will see it.
Possible side effects: May lead to a story, a piece of art . . . Or a new dance move.
One rule.
No editing. That’s it. Just play!
You can use this creativity prompt any time. No limits.
If you’re a subscriber, you can share your results in the comments below, in the Subscriber Chat, or simply reply to this email. I’ll share my own results in the Chat next week.
Now coming to you every Wednesday, because we all need a boost at least once a week. I’ll include a new set and open a corresponding chat every week.
Here’s my result for #4. I listened to all three songs this morning. The result: A 300-word microfiction (horror?) story!
The murky water glinted in Octavia’s eye. A fish splashed, another jumped. She was ready to jump. Jump into the swampy river, make her escape. That’s it. Boom. Splash.
Soon it could all be over. An alligator would grab her leg, pull her under. Maybe the world would spin and go dark quickly before she was tucked under a tree root never to be seen again. There she could rest and soften. She didn’t realize she was swaying back and forth staring out to the tangled banks until Darla tapped her on the knee. “Octavia. Honey. Octavia.”
Octavia moved her head to shake herself back to the surface. “I brought my Auntie here once.”
“Your what?”
“My Auntie.” Octavia’s Auntie June was her favorite. She pictured her panicked face as it turned purple, the eyes rolled white into her skull, and thought of the rubbery breakfast sausage simmering in her cast iron skillet that morning.
“You call her Auntie?”
Octavia’s stare moved to her toes in their orthopedic sandals. “Is that not normal?” Her toes looked like the sausage that lodged in Auntie’s throat.
“How old are you?”
Octavia tried to smile. “I don’t have to answer that.”
The tour guide slowed the motor to a swashy stop and grinned. “You see that there. That’s a rare wild American Croc.”
Octavia’s heart skipped as she imagined summoning a moment of strength to leap from the boat and meet the toothy beast. But that was no reptile bobbing in the water, no crocodile—not even a small alligator. It was nothing but a green camouflaged sandal, no doubt tied to a fishing line and held to the swamp’s bottom by a rock or a brick. Her eyes moved the back of Darla’s head, giving her another idea.
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Hope you had fun too!