Friday, June 5, 2009

Wreck This Journal - Week 1

I just got the book today. I’m ready to go! I’ve already decided that this is going to be a lot of fun.

Funny, before yesterday I had not even heard of this book but I had been intending to widen my circle of friends and interact with more creative people. Well, ask and it is given. I was visiting An Eager Soul's Journal and saw that she and her daughter were participating in this thing called The Next Chapter: Wreck This Journal. The name “Wreck This Journal” was enough to peak my curiosity so of course I had to go check it out and I’m glad I did.

First of all, the book looks really fun. The exercises are crazy, creative and carefree. Here is just a sampling of some of the things I have to look forward to as I wreck the journal.

* Find a way to wear the journal.

* Glue a photo of yourself that you don’t like to the journal page and then deface it - I’m looking forward to this one because pretty much any photo of me taken in the 80s could be used. (Not one of my better looking decades for sure)

* Bring this book into the shower with you.

* Chew on the page.

* There is also a page to collect the stickers you get off of bought fruit – this one is so silly I think I’ll do it first.

This book is also providing me a wonderful opportunity to interact with other deliberate creators. I’m widening my circle of friends, being creative and having fun all at the same time.

Now, off to collect my fruit stickers.

Ok, the first part of this post was written right after I got back to my office after buying the book. Here’s what happened as the afternoon progressed.

I decided to wait until I got home to start “wrecking” the book but then it occurred to me that this is my usual pattern. I’ll wait until… boy there’s one of my creativity killers. I’ll do it later - when I get home, when I have more money, etc.

I put the book beside me at my desk and every time I looked at it the book seemed to be taunting me to engage with it. I imagined it saying, come on, wreck me, I dare ya. So I did.

The first thing I did was draw a smiley face on the front of the journal to remind me that this is going to be a fun process then I opened the book to a random page that instructed me to poke holes in it with a pencil. I had a funny reaction to this page.

The page had some small circles drawn on it and I didn’t like it. At first look I took that to mean that the book was telling me where to poke the holes and what instrument to use. I don’t like being told what to do or how to do it because that feels limiting to me but I poked the holes anyway with a pencil. Then I purposely started poking holes all across the page with all kinds of different items – a toothpick, a letter opener, different colored pens, etc. After I had my fill of poking holes I took a fresh look at the page. I laughed out loud when I realized that there was nothing in the instructions that said I had to poke the circles that were drawn or that I could only use a pencil. The only way I was limited in my creative expression was in my thinking.

Now, onward to my fruit stickers!

Day 1: Poked holes, realized that “I’ll wait until…” is a creativity killer for me and that I can only be limited in my thinking. Guess I poked some holes not only on the page but also in my limited thinking.

15 comments:

Jamie Ridler said...

What a great start! Not only did you have that "aha!" about waiting but you bust right through it by not waiting!

This is definitely going to be fun :)

Genie Sea said...

What an awesome way to embody the reason for this book and this challenge! You poked the bull by the holes! Okay. I love mixed metaphors :)

Gina said...

oooohhh...sounds like fun! I've already figured out this is a year of big change for me...I think this just might help me define it even more!

Unknown said...

Great! I love it that you are already discovering things about yourself! I do that too, waiting for the perfect moment, but as you proved, the perfect moment is now!

Lesley Myrick said...

Collecting pretty fruit stickers is so much fun! I also stuck in a big sticker I got on a sandwich at Starbucks...it's not a fruit sticker, but it's neat and very journal-worthy. Good luck with your adventure! :)

Juliann said...

So true about the "waiting" word. When I took my book out of the box I thought, when will I begin and of course very quickly decided RIGHT THIS MINUTE!

Lori Archibald said...

I'm so glad to get acquainted with so many creative women bloggers.

Jaime - thanks for providing this "wrecking" opportunity for us.

Genie Sea - poked the bull by the horns, you're funny!

Gina - It is fun. Glad you are joining us. Happy wrecking!

B and Juliann - you are so right, the perfect moment is now. I am going to have to remind myself of this truth many times during this process.

Lesley - I've started adding veggie stickers to my page as well. The fruit stickers were starting to all look the same. I like variety!

nadia said...

kewl to hear that you too stumbled across this at the right time. love the poked holes post! I wrecked a little today in a acrylic techniques class. ciao!

Melanie Margaret said...

Lori,
What a great post! I am excited to be on this journey with you!
Jamie has lots of other great collaborative projects on her blog. Next is the Full Moon dreamboard. They are great fun to create. I think you will like it!

Annie said...

Lori, thanks for coming to my blog and sending good thoughts. I love this idea! I may do it myself, or perhaps I will apply it to my life in general :-), I wonder what that would look like? xoxo

Tabitha the KnittingJourneyman said...

I so got ticked at the poke holes page too...the only issue was I was on a call w a client so I had to be quiet and all I had was a pencil...and there was nothing else around....I started poking holes all over the place except where I was "supposed" to poke them...I loved that though--I think you handled it MUCH better.

Lori Archibald said...

Nadia - I love that everything shows up exactly when it is supposed to. This is going to be fun.

Melba - Full Moon dreamboard. I will definitely be participating! I'll have to check out Jaime's blog site.

Annie - I hope you join us, even if you don't want to blog about it. Things always have a way of showing up in our lives at just the right time.

Knitting - I love it. Here's to all of us who don't like playing by the rules.

gma said...

Hi Lori
I'm a bit late commenting. Yes This is going to be FUN! Just wanted to let you know I read some posts on your other blog. Sending you good vibes!

Melita said...

can't wait to see you "wreck" :)

Barbara Martin @Reptitude said...

That page made me go root around and find the one hole punch and use it. Don't tell me what to do!!! But then I came back later and made some auxillary holes. With a pencil and then some other stuff too. It's not done yet, tho, there's still more paper than holes. :)