one for the road; A Look Back At "Unfiltered"
My thoughts on the recent stream of conscious challenge. I've written this in keeping with the spirit of it. By which, I mean: when my thoughts meandered, I've treated you to (tortured you with) a slight detour. This challenge has been a powerful reminder that side quests are important.
we're sitting on the sofa and he expresses surprise at the prime minister's salary. honestly I expected it to be more, too. I shrug. I say...
__
pay peanuts, get monkeys
pay millions of peanuts, get a lot more monkeys
i'd love to say, "not my circus"
but it is, isn't it?
it's all of ours
but we aren't in the ring; the ringleader doesn't even glance at us
it feels like we're in the gallery, watching
throwing (ha) peanuts
when the tent catches fire-
(maybe that burning hoop gets knocked by an angry tiger or a mad elephant; don't worry, all these creatures are metaphorical, no metaphorical animals were harmed in the making of this whatever-it-is; maybe I should imagine each politician as a lumbering beast; but then it would be a show full of walruses not doing as they're told and shitting all over everything and waggling their pompous mustaches... and I'm this way and that way on how entertaining that might be)
-we'll all burn
_
The Unfiltered Challenge has just closed, so here comes my usual.
Firstly, if you've been living in a cave recently, this is it: (the challenge, not the cave):
Thank You
Secondly, thank you to Vocal for this challenge. I know I say "thank you" a lot, and it might sound obligatory or corny. It's worthwhile saying why I'm grateful, then.
I gained a lot from it. I've got some story ideas out of it. Not all the seeds will germinate, but it's nice to have plenty of them.
I've worked stream of consciousness into my daily practise, which has spawned exponentially more ideas. I'm going to need a silo before long.
I think it's made me better. I get caught in a trap-
-of thinking about thinking, and I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
I also get stuck in rut of quotes. Live long enough, watch enough movies, sitcoms and sketch shows, listen to enough music, be bombarded with enough slogans... And occasionally a stream of consciousness will sound like a bunch of disconnected quotes and jingles. (I didn't publish those.) This challenge has been a valuable exercise in drilling down those superficial layers and fracking my own brain to get the goods out. In this case, the "goods" (or "bads") being: thoughts that are (somewhat, probably) my own.
"Yuge" thanks to everyone who has been supportive of my scribbles. You took time out of your day and made an effort to say something encouraging to an almost-total stranger. Who does that? Repeatedly? Fucking beautiful people, that's who. That's you.
My thoughts
Getting started
I found this one tricky to get started. No "empty page angst" on this one, at least not for me. I struggled for similar reasons to Rachel. Once I got going, it was okay, I think. That either means I did, in fact, do okay... or I completely misfired. Who knows!
Judging
Even if I've been successful at nailing a stream of consciousness to the page, I have no idea how on earth anyone can judge these things.
The problem is...
I think faster than I write. I'm pretty sure that's true of everyone. That means the stream of consciousness isn't "true", nor is it really unfiltered. I physically can't write or type fast enough. I just speaking and transcribing, by the way, and I can talk a dime a dozen but still... not fast enough.
Thoughts are lightning quick. Speed of light can go fuck itself; at least we can see light. This challenge has underlined to me that we usually miss most of our own thoughts. Not just because they're quicksy, tricksy little buggers, but there's so bleddy many of them. Even the most "unfiltered" piece submitted will have experienced a winnowing of sorts.
Nakeder every day
I tried, with varying success, to be more unfiltered every day. I got to a point I had no more clothes to peel off, and I was down to my skin. If the challenge had gone on much longer, you'd have been perving at my bones, like some kind of fucked up archeologist.
Flow
I found the pieces flowed very differently if I wrote them with a pen, rather than typed them on my laptop, or on my phone. The penned ones are weirder with more of a Noel Fielding flavour. Maybe you can spot which ones were inked, and which were typed...
My entries
I wrote eight pieces for this one. That's a lot for me. (I've submitted that many before, but I don't think I've ever submitted more than that to a single challenge.)
My entries vary a little, depending on my mood, my starting point, and my medium. (That's "what I'm writing with", not a spirit medium.) There's probably also a progression, because I feel like this did get easier (or I got better at it).
Here they are, first to last:
the moon, the page, and the papercuts that just.won't.bleed
this is my brain. this is my brain undressed. any questions?
horny kamikaze nuns howling on the football pitch
(aaaaand the one that I didn't submit in time is right at the top there.)
Shout outs
Please go and show these pieces a little love!
This oldie but goodie from Kristen Balyeat:
From Brenton F:
And this one, musings on the caveats on "unfiltered" from Sady Bayne:
+
Thank you for reading!
About the Creator
L.C. Schäfer
Book babies on Kindle Unlimited:
Summer Leaves (grab it while it's gorgeous)
Never so naked as I am on a page
Subscribe for n00dz
I'm not a writer! I've just had too much coffee!
Sometimes writes under S.E.Holz
Keep reading
More stories from L.C. Schäfer and writers in Writers and other communities.
Thou Shalt Not Set Fire to a Nunnery
"You're going to have to help me move the body." Julie stood in the doorway to my room, which was a cell really, and she was as close to breathless as I'd ever seen her. She looked dashing in the moonlight, and lit up with the glow of adventure.
By L.C. SchäferExclusive • 2 months ago
It's Winter
Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter — What If? Writing Exercise for Fiction Writers prompts The Exercise —Write a scene involving two characters. Have the point-of-view character presume something entirely different about the situation from what the other character's overt behavior seems to imply. For example, a landlord comes to visit, and the tenant suspects that it isn't a visit but an inspection. Make up several situations in which one character can fantasize or project or suspect or even fear what another character is thinking. The Objective - To show how your characters can use their imaginations to interpret the behavior and dialogue of other characters.
By Denise E Lindquist17 days ago in Writers
How 10 Minutes of Morning Yoga Changed My Energy Levels
When I Realized Something Was Wrong I’m not lazy. I like staying active. But my routine was inconsistent. Some days I would try a long workout, get sore, then quit for a week. Other days, I did nothing at all.
By Theworkouthaven.com7 days ago in Writers
Comments (10)
You definitely excelled at this challenge (and it scared me so much, I did not even attempt it). This was an insightful piece on the challenge at hand.
If you don’t place in this challenge, I’ll eat my own arm. Your work has been awesome.
When you were talking about revealing caves, I thought you were about to tell everyone where I live 😂 But seriously, it's been great reading through these pieces you've done! Interesting thought - the Brain uses Electricity... so thoughts "kinda" are at the speed of light!
I love that you write these. It’s like taking a peek behind the curtain to better observe the writing process! By the by, I laughed out loud at your political circus walruses. It is such a comic image (especially since they wore tu tu’s in my mind)!
Well, this triggered a whole new train of thought, but I missed it and there may not be another today. Seriously, I think "they" set both themselves and the Vocalists up for frustration on this one. One thing that stood out to me is the fact that "unfiltered stream of consciousness" and "poem" don't really play well together. It should be interesting to see the results and read their thoughts about the entries that place. A thought provoking and clever read, as always, L.C!
I’m totally with you, LC I have no idea how on earth they’re going to judge this one
Ha ha! Loved this; all the clever humour ‘n’ everything. But my most grateful thanks go for the line: ‘you'd have been perving at my bones, like some kind of fucked up archeologist’ 😂🤣
This was a fun challenge and I really liked all of your entries. Good luck.
What a fun and lovely way to write about this. And Thanks Soooo Much for the shoutout!!!!
Well, you do like to be naked on the page...Thanks for the shout out!