A Creative Challenge for 2026
I am starting the year with less planning and more observing. Here is the podcast where I talk about my idea of a challenge where we would document scenes and moments of our lives so that later on they could serve as inspiration for scripts, romances or whatever you are creating.
Here is the challenge:
write down (or record a voice note) directly after watching/smelling/hearing something that caught your attention
revisit this material on a regular basis, weekly or monthly to read / listen or watch and then get inspired
use this ideas and inspirations for many projects as once - or keep just one in mind
start to see patterns in this scenes, put them together in your story (or music or any other creative project)
is not just WHAT is the scene or a matter of copying the scenes of life to your story, but HOW you write, perceive things after this whole process, it is about how you will filter them, put them together, let them transform you and inspire you to create from that on your own
take your time with this process, it can take a month or even - in my case - a whole year
More than a journal this practice so far - two months already for me - has given me the experience of putting myself out there, exploding my bubble of the introvert I am and by watching more, paying more attention, leaving my headphones whenever I go outside and taking the longer ways to go to places. For example, I am using my phone for taking notes and after weeks this has made my app of notes much more interesting than other apps.
A journal is a place for eventually writing down scenes of my day, what I have done, what I want to do, but honestly is a egoistic practice much more personal and for my interior world, for deep reflexions and self centered thoughts - which is great, by I never realized how that was exhausting me as well. There is nothing visual in my diary, not a scene but feelings, symbols and my own ideas. The thing about this exercise is that it allows us - introverts and creatives that already journal - to go harder and deeper into analysing the real world, the other and not so much the self. Not inventing or thinking or imagining, just describing, observing and being present. Learning actually more about myself once I turn my sense into outside. Realizing that what caught my attention is already filtered by my perspective and values.
I invite you to try this challenge and if you want let me know how it went for you!
