Instead of a timed freewrite, I like to do a certain number of cardboard chunks or sheets of paper, regardless of how long it takes to fill them. For this piece, I used four bits of cut-up food boxes and a calligraphy pen (inappropriately)...and some metallic markers. One of the sheets is harder to read than the others because my granddaughter scribbled all over it with a pen! Ha!
It starts banal enough, but slides into EXISTENTIAL DREAD rather quickly. Enjoy! (If you can't read the words in the photos, I'll type the text out underneath!)
(1)
10 Feb 2021 - 4 page freewrite...
I have many cobwebs to dislodge... When I do a freewrite, I like to call it "blowing away the cobwebs..." I suspect that my brain is an old jalopy---the kind with a hand-crank for a starter... And it's been sitting, unstarted, for a while...
Today, however, I'm grabbing my aviator goggles and driving gloves and trying to crank that old engine into LIFE! (Is it working???)
Cynical... Smeg. Ich... Icky. Plow the ground---pushing aside old rocks and bones and broken pottery...
Luck is a thing. Or not a thing.
I'm not sure what my GOALS are anymore. I enjoy making images for people to look at and smile. I like making up stories for most folks not to[...]
(2)
[...]read. (The cynic is back... Ha!) I will often spend a LOOOONG time working on some goofy story---day or weeks---for said collection of words and ideas to get almost NO eyeballs... At that point, I have to wonder WHO I'm writing for. If it's ME, then we have no problems---CARRY ON!
If it's for ANYBODY ELSE... I may have to rethink my strategy... (Do I have a strategy???)
What if I tokenized my written work as an NFT?? (Wouldn't be hard.) Would that be too odd? It would fly on OpenSea (cuz they don't care), but would it corrupt the intent of NFT Showroom? (That's my favorite platform...)
Technically... (who gives a Flaming Moe???) The issue boils down to audience... Or DOES IT??? Maybe the ISSUE isn't the corn...(CORN?)...isn't the TRUE CONCERN...
(3)
MEGALON was defeated by a combination of technology and brute force... There has to be a lesson in there, somewhere.
I HAVE IRRATIONAL FEARS...
So what should I do? We all have limited time [on] this planet withwhich to expend our efforts. Certainly, enjoying the unknown quantity of time we have left is important. (Why waste time on horrible, unenjoyable things?) But WHICH of the enjoyable things should I be doing, say, right now??
Leave time for lizards!
(4)
GOODNESS! Those cobwebs are thick this time around. Still and all... I do enjoy THIS... Just writing. Translating brain impulses into hand movements---pigments smearing on some pulpy material---with cryptic symbols developing right before my eyes...
I like this game.
I like this game [in] THIS format---physically filling the (not truly) blank space (zoom in on the TEXTURE of this cardboard! It's already interesting! See?)
So I'll keep doing it. Keep writing. Keep drawing. Keep sharing my nonsense. Maybe nobody will read it...(A distinct possibility)...but I will have read it while I wrote it, and it gave me a chuckle... If YOU exist, and you found this bit...Thanks!!!
That's it! Fully transcribed---minus a description of the lizard drawing or the eyeball doodle... A few intriguing concepts to consider: What does it mean to waste time??? Who is an appropriate audience? How can we continue to defeat Megalon? Important topics worthy of our attention...
DISCUSS!!!
---Richard F. Yates (Holy Fool)