Creative Prompt (neighbourhood intrigue series #1): Love Note

Nov 19, 2021Dec 29, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 3 Comments

One of the things I find myself doing when I’m out and about is puzzling about things that I see that seem a bit odd, or intriguing. For creatives I think there can be great benefits in trying to practice a kind of mindful curiosity where ever you are, no matter how mundane or suburban that place may seem. Seeing a hint of something when you will only ever know part, or indeed nothing of the actual situation can give a creative mind free reign to invent something new.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to publish a collection of creative prompts that are based on some of the tiny neighbourhood intrigues that I have noticed over the last few months.

I saw this note on the pavement in the street outside my house. I didn’t open it or read what was inside as I felt this would be an invasion of privacy, and so I do not know who it was for, or what is said. But I was very taken with the little hand drawn heart on the folded flap. Someone had taken care when making this note.

It made me wonder how it ended up on the pavement, looking like it has been casually discarded. Had it been dropped by mistake, or thrown away? Who had written the note? What does it say? Did the person it was written for ever read it? What did they say?

I’m not a huge fan of creative exercises, so it’s not my habit to tell people what to do with these prompts. There are lots of options – a scene, some flash fiction, a short story, an idea for a short film or a physical piece of art. If you do have a go with this one and would like to drop the result in the comments please do so. I would be very interested to see what people make of these.

Thank you for reading. I also write, make art and films. If you like these prompts and want to get a copy of a free short book of them I wrote, and to hear more about my writing projects please join my mailing list here. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Like my work but none of the above options appeal? You may want to consider a one off donation instead.

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£5.00

£10.00

£15.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Creative Prompt: Space Blanket

Nov 12, 2021Nov 12, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

One of our neighbours is having a loft conversion. The house is across the street from us and on a daily basis we can see the progress being made. I’m not exactly sure on the shape of the conversion, as the work is happening to the part of the roof that faces away from us, but we have amused by the rather casual approach to health and safety on the part of the builders in their day to day work.

A few weeks ago they filled a skip with old bits and pieces from the house as well as left over materials from their work on the conversion. As the level in the skip rose I didn’t see too much to interest me in there, although a couple of the other neighbours did have a poke about for useful left overs. Once the skip was full, they started piling things around and about it, I guess hoping that as other people took bits out, they would be able to fit more things in.

I saw this shiny material one day after it had rained quite a lot. I think it is some kind of insulation, although I am not entirely sure. It reminded me of some of the fabrics they used to use on episodes of Star Trek (I’m thinking Next Generation here, but the principle probably applies more broadly than that), where people would wrap themselves is improbably shiny blankets or wear outfits covered in sequins. It certainly has a space age feel to me, which made it stand out in our rather mundane suburban street.

Maybe the loft conversion is a cover, and someone is quietly building a rocket ship in our street?

Like my work but none of the above options appeal? You could consider a one off donation instead. I would really appreciate it.

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£5.00

£10.00

£15.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Creative prompt: Toaster on the street

Nov 5, 2021Nov 4, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

I saw this toaster near my local train station. We live in an area that seems to be particularly attractive to fly tippers, and I often see electrical items dumped on the street. Fridges seem to be particularly popular, although by the time I often see them they have been covered with all sorts of other rubbish and are less attractive to me for a photo.

It was relatively early in the morning, and there was bright sunshine streaming over the top of the toaster when I took this, giving it the feel of a new thing, even though it clearly isn’t. I quite like this kind of scene for its idea generating potential. You have something domestic, that really belongs inside a kitchen, sitting on the pavement outside. It is often the juxtaposition of a familiar thing or situation, set against an environment that is mismatched that can lead to the association of two thoughts that may not have gone together before. This can be a fruitful way of generating new story concepts.

What happens in the brain is that two areas of cortex that were previously not really associated with each other, are bought together briefly, and in that moment a new association can form. New ideas may spring from there. I’ve written a bit more about this in the resource I put together for my newsletter subscribers (which you can join here, should you want to).

Like my work but none of the above options appeal? You may want to consider a one off donation instead.

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£5.00

£10.00

£15.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Creative Prompt: Lost on the highway

Oct 30, 2021Dec 29, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

I’m sorry this week’s prompt is late. I’ve been quite unwell recently and seem to be struggling to recover completely. I took a day yesterday to try to relax a bit.

I saw this toy pony in the road while I was on may way somewhere. It had been left right in the middle of the road and was amongst a pile of other bits of rubbish. I normally wouldn’t try to take a photo of something in the middle of the road, but it was early in the morning and there were no cars about so I darted across for a quick snap.

There is something about the shock of the coloured hair against the damp grey of the tarmac that I find interesting. When I was a child this brand of toys were chunkier and less colourful. I did not have many because I was more interested in making things than playing with the kind of toys people seemed to design for girls back then. Things haven’t changed much to be honest!

I am wondering how it got there? Is this a lost little toy, dropped by a passing child, or has it been abandoned during a clear out or house move? Maybe this brave little pony has set out on an adventure of its own?

Like my work but none of the above options appeal? You could consider a one off donation instead. I would really appreciate it.Make a one-time donation

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£5.00

£10.00

£15.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Creative Prompt: Offerings #3

Oct 1, 2021Dec 29, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

I saw these coins while I was on the way to taking my son to nursery. Someone had left them on a bollard on a traffic island in the middle of a busy road. I managed to get this photo on the way back. It’s not the best photograph. The traffic island is quite narrow, and I didn’t want to hang around with the pram as it was a bit of a precarious position to stand in.

But I did want to get the photograph because it sparked an idea for me. Someone had left coins in the middle of a crossing, reminding me of the many myths of the crossings people needed to make from this life into the underworld. For example in Greek mythology the soul of a person would need to pay the ferry man Charon a coin for passage across the River Styx.

The sight of these coins at the crossing made me wonder. What could the person who left these be paying passage for?

Like my work but none of the above options appeal? You could consider a one off donation instead. I would really appreciate it.

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£5.00

£10.00

£15.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Anxiety and creativity as a refuge

Sep 30, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 2 Comments

Last week I was off work with stress and anxiety. I’m back in now, but it was a bit of a shock to crash out with a panic attack on a not particularly difficult Monday morning, and find myself unable to return for a few days after that. While I’ve struggled anxiety for quite a long, I don’t normally find myself needing to take time off work with it, but that’s how things go sometimes, isn’t it?

During my time off I was feeling really tired and had that kind of brain fog that makes it a bit difficult to think things through properly. From a creative point of view, I wasn’t been able to write much either, which is my normal creative weapon of choice. When my mental health slips this way my instinct is to retreat into making pictures. I find something therapeutic in the physical activity involved in drawing, cutting paper and working out which other materials may work for that particular design.

There are a few theories about around why creative activities are helpful to mental health, including (not an exhaustive list);
1. That it provides a nice distraction from difficult feelings or circumstances
2. That it may provide a route into a state of ‘Flow’. This is a psychological term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and which describes a positive state of mind where a person is fully involved in and focused on a particular activity (for more information you can read his book on the subject here (affiliate link)).
3. A route for self expression or catharsis, allowing people to express, and more clearly understand their own feelings or thoughts on a difficult situation.

Over time I have probably found all three of these aspects of creativity helpful to my own mental health, and am grateful that it is something I feel able to do. One of the benefits of building some form of creative practice into my everyday life is that when things feel a bit difficult, I have something productive to withdraw into, like this last week.

And I made a picture of a cat that I’m pleased with too.

Thank you you for reading. I also write, make art and films. If you like these prompts and want to get a copy of a free short book of them I wrote, and to hear more about my writing projects please join my mailing list here. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see I also have a Patreon Page here.

Creative Prompt: Offerings #2

Sep 24, 2021Dec 29, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 5 Comments

I saw these jugs early in one morning, while I was taking Baby Magpie off to nursery. I stopped to take the picture on the way home, and by the evening they were gone. In my post last week I wrote about the offerings members of my local community make to each other. When I saw these jugs I felt that this could be an offering of a different kind. I remember my aunt making wine in jugs like these when I was a child, and have watched the bubbles rise and collect in the top of the jug as various kinds of fruit fermented.

For me these jugs felt much more like an offering of a mystical or spiritual kind. Perhaps these jugs held an offering of wine for the local street gods who reside over our community, or an offering of mead to the ancient spirits of the land that lies below the streets tarmacked pavements. It makes me wonder what those street gods, or those ancient spirits may be like, and what they may think of us.

Like my work but none of the above options appeal? You could consider a one off donation instead. I would really appreciate it.

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£5.00

£10.00

£15.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Creative Prompt: Offerings #1

Sep 17, 2021Dec 29, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 3 Comments

In the area we live in there is a tradition of people leaving things they no longer need outside of their houses, on the pavement, in the hope that they will find new homes. Baby Magpie and I were walking to the swimming pool when we saw these twin chests of draws, and the tantalisingly open bag of toys on the top. We stopped for a moment to pick a toy and then went on our way, leaving the rest for some other lucky soul.

I like the spirit behind this tradition, in which people offer things to each other in a relatively anonymous way. Of course it is a convenient way to get rid of things, but there is also a generosity to it. The person offering the gift cannot always know who will receive it, friend or foe.

It feels like a silent form of communication within a community. ‘I no longer need this thing, but maybe you do. We would like for this object, which has been useful to us, to be useful to someone else now. We will not waste its potential and send it to landfill.’ It stands in contrast to the silence communications of the fly tippers (of which unfortunately we also have a strong local tradition), which feels much more to me to be ‘we don’t need this junk anymore, someone else can deal with it.’

When I see these objects I sometimes wonder if they may be the start of a story, or a relationship between two people. Perhaps someone else, seeing that bag of toys, would have lingered long enough to meet the person who made this offering as they dashed to the shops, and said hello.

Like my work but none of the above options appeal? You could consider a one off donation instead. I would really appreciate it.

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£5.00

£10.00

£15.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly

Writing prompts from street photography: Broken Strings

Sep 10, 2021Nov 11, 2022 / The Magpie at Midnight / 3 Comments

I walked past this broken tennis racket a number of times, and each time I thought ‘that’s not what I’m looking for’. But I began to feel more and more intrigued as I noticed the racket had moved each time I saw it. The first time I saw it, it was in a dark corner under an overhanging building where I would not have been able to get a good shot. But slowly it seemed it inch more and more out onto the pavement, as if creeping into the light, maybe wanting to be seen.

When I finally decided to stop and take a photo, it had manged to move several hundred meters down the street, and was almost in the middle of the pavement, right in my path. I felt as is it was asking me to take the photo, so I did stop and get out my phone.

The way the strings curve and wind against each other, and the way the frame, although broken, still sits in almost it’s original form is both beautiful and sad to me, as if the shape of it tries to suggest better days that are now past.

Once I had taken my photo, I did not see the racket again, as if satisfied, it melted away. Of course it is just a broken old object laying on the pavement, and someone has probably thrown it in the bin. But there was something about this episode that spoke to me, as if the racket wanted to be seen, and to be documented, to say ‘I existed’. I think there is something in this sentiment that we as humans can relate to.

Thank you for reading. I also write, make art and films. You can read my short fantasy stories here on Simily. If you like these prompts and want to get a copy of a free short book of them I wrote, and to hear more about my writing projects please join my mailing list here. You can see my films at my YouTube channel here. You can see things with my designs on at my shop here. Could even treat yourself if you wanted to. Just saying. If buying art is not your thing, but you would like to support what you see you could buy me a KoFi, and I also have a Patreon Page.

Creative Prompt: The missed shot

Aug 13, 2021Dec 28, 2021 / The Magpie at Midnight / 1 Comment

This year I’ve been experimenting with creating creative prompts for other creative folks by taking photographs of strange or quirky things that I see when I am out and about. My general format is then to post the photo along with the story of the picture, or some thoughts that the picture provokes in me. In last week’s creative prompt I briefly mentioned the sometimes transient nature of creativity, and this weeks photo is a really good example of that.

I first saw this broken pair of sunglasses on the road a day before I took the photo. My initial response was that they weren’t that interesting to me, but then when I found myself thinking about them a bit later in the evening knew that they had caught my attention after all. When I went looking for them the next day I was relieved that they were still there, but they were not arranged as I remembered.

When I first saw them one of the lenses was still in place in it’s frame. While I like this shot with the strip of yellow running through the photo, it’s not as good as that first glimpse. Basically I missed the shot because I didn’t take advantage of the moment.

I’m sure I’m not the only creative with experiences like these, and would like to hear about other similar experiences in the comments below. What was your best (worst!) ‘missed shot’?

Like my work but none of the above options appeal? You could consider a one off donation instead. I would really appreciate it.

Make a monthly donation

Make a yearly donation

Choose an amount

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£2.00

£5.00

£10.00

£5.00

£10.00

£15.00

Or enter a custom amount

Your contribution is appreciated.

Donate Donate monthly Donate yearly