#freewrite challenge

May 20, 2023

(Author's note, this is unedited and I am not the narrator. This is a writing exercise and not to be taken seriously.)

How to write a “how to” guide

Pick a topic to write the guide about

You should pick something you know about -- think about WHY you are qualified to write about this

Something that is interesting to others is good -- WHO are you writing this guide for

Research! Look at different methods of doing this

Even if you’re the expert, there are other opinions out there

Times change. Maybe you’re out of date.

Lay out a list of steps that you take

Clarify what to do in each step

Make sure you include things that seem common sense to you -- not everyone has your level of experience!

Add tips

Little helpful bits to help people get it right

Consider adding pictures

Some people work best visually!

Ask someone with familiarity with the task to look over it

They may catch things you missed

They might also know a better way

Ask someone with no familiarity with the task to try

They can find things you missed

If it doesn’t make sense to them, fix what they find

Repeat 7 until you’re confident that it won’t be misinterpreted

Make sure wording and pictures are clear

If people with different learning styles are getting it, it’s likely good!

Publish guide

Internet can be good

I’ve never done this so I don’t know how you found this list

Be prepared to answer the barrage of questions that come when the guide is, inevitably, misinterpreted

May 19, 2023

… 

I realize, now, that when I have been writing in this journal I have been addressing it to some ambiguous “reader”. I suppose that is why I am so honest, despite knowing that whatever I write here is at the mercy of the scientists to edit, destroy, alter, and otherwise twist to suit whatever it is they wish, according to their whims. They did warn me that they would see everything I record here. I even signed the disclosure form saying that they had my express permission to record it and even make it available to the public in the case of my death. And seeing as it seems they are pushing me further and further in that direction, I fear the publication of this diary may be sooner than I ever thought before this, and without the integrity I originally thought it would hold. 

Strange, how a record of my mind’s destruction will remain on after they have destroyed me. Almost like parts of me will live on -- assuming they find it acceptable to make a record of their actions available without interference. If they don’t, I don’t think it will be anywhere close to my record, or accompanied by notes wrongly accusing me of delusions… I realize this may not be the wisest place to discuss my realizations. But for some reason I feel some sort of duty to this record. To my honesty to you, whoever you may be, reader. 

May 18, 2023

May 17, 2023

Is there magic in the paper or magic in the ink? Or does it just feel that way?

There’s a little spark in someone’s brain, they say, a little thing that lights up. The driving force behind creation, imagination, it exists inside the mind, inside the heart, some even say it comes from the soul.

Yet for some reason -- am I broken? Is there something wrong inside my mind? -- I do not feel this anymore. Not without the paper. Not without the ink. 

I don’t know what it is. It could be the blank of the page. An empty canvas waiting to be filled, a wall waiting to have its colour put on. The entire realm of possibility -- is it like clay, to my mind? Ready to be shaped into my own fantasies?

Or is it the power of the ink? Running like blood through a pen (or dipped like paint, if the pen is made to be dipped, though painting in blood is less poetic than the blood flowing through the pen, through its core, its heart, and spilling out onto the page), leaving a permanent mark, marring the white beneath it. 

May 6, 2023

The strips of fabric hold your soul into your body. Your soul is loose because… because. 

Toothbrushes are ok, but if you touch them for too long they become imbued with a little bit too much of you in them to be safe around magic. You should burn them when you are done using them completely.

Be careful about your pillowcase when you sleep. Something protective will keep something else from coming into your body when your mind leaves, and you don’t want a homeless mind.

May 5, 2023

It’s so funny how everything can fall apart at a touch. The world is a stack of cards or a block tower in the same room as a toddler. What you think is the correct isn’t, it’s just how it is.

How would you like to see this? You know, we could do something. Something great or terrible or even just something. You said you wanted to make a difference in the world, didn’t you? A change, you said. Do something that will last, affect generations to come.

Feb 11, 2023

It was, it wasn’t, just so long as a short time lasted. No one knew and everyone did, but even so, the odd ones were the best at the worst. As the skill rose in the fall of incompetency, some felt and others were numb to the effects of the menace, the blessing, that came on them and went on its way leaving them different. 

Feb 10, 2023

It’s bright today. I can see the sun on the snow, shining and reflecting, bouncing off smooth dunes of snow until I have to squint to keep my eyes from burning. The sky is as blue as the petals of a cornflower in June, without as much as a single whisp of cloud.