Recap of Parz's Livestream, 6 Apr 2025 (From Journaling Prompts to Stories)

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In the Planner section, I take journaling prompts and instead of answering them directly, I guide a writing process using the prompts as a basis for story.

In the Pantser section, I discuss the importance of recognizing that your creative mind is always active - trying to force it to actively work on a project can be frustrating, even detrimental. As Neil Young put it, if you aren't feeling it, go mow the lawn.

Recap of Parz's Livestream, 30 Mar 2025 (Image Prompt Writing)

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In the Planner section, we start with an image and then write in various ways and styles (haikus, limericks, short prose).

In the Pantser section, I talk about a couple of resources I'll be bringing into future Livestreams, with a notable mention of Merriam-Webster daily word subscription.

Recap of Parz's Livestream, 23 Mar 2025 (Grieving but Writing)

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The Planner section focused on the Moss Piglet May issue prompt of "musical instruments". Some ideas are bantered around before I write a tale of grief and hope from the point of view of the viola I used to play in school (including how I fell out of love with it).

The Pantser section focused on a couple of techniques my wife Aleesha and I used to help deal with the grief of losing our nearly 2-year old cat Rorie, including using Seed Word Germination as a way to identify painful memories and working through that pain.

Recap of Parz's Livestream, 9 Mar 2025 (Limericks, Starting My Longhand Journaling Journey)

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The Planner section covered Limericks. Turns out there is so much more to Limericks than There Once Was a Man from Nantucket!

The Pantser section was a discussion about the start of my journaling journey and my use of longhand as part of that experience.

Thanks for watching!

Recap of Parz's Livestream, 23 Feb 2025 (Seed Word Germination, The Power of Storytelling)

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And now for details:

In the Planner section we did a Seed Word Germination (aka starting with a single word we develop a list of prompts which is then turned into a story).

In the Pantser section I talk about the benefits of being (or learning how to be) a storyteller.

Recap of Parz's Livestream, 16 Feb 2025 (Prompt = "Westerns", Being Creative While Dealing with Life)

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And now for the details!

The Planner section dealt with Moss Piglet's (https://www.krazines.com/themes.html) April theme (with the submission deadline the first Wednesday of March) of Westerns. And how, since Westerns aren't my jam, how I was still able to use the prompt but using my own spins on it.

The Pantser section addressed my taking a couple of weeks off to give me space to deal with things both scheduled and not - life got very full there and so I gave myself space to work through it all. I also talked about one way of dealing with a very full life - using multiple notebooks to help keep track of To Do items, creative ideas, and notes for Livestream classes.

Recap of Parz's Livestream, 26 Jan 2025 (Haiku as Observation practice, The Joy of Doing Nothing)

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The Planner section of the video centred on using haiku as an exercise in observation (it being part of my creative process: observation, scribing, editing).

I first showed off my writing for 80 Degrees magazine (issue #13). (If there's an interest in learning more about this issue, click this link: https://www.readeighty.com/issue-13).

And then we used this image to explore ideas to write haiku:

Some ideas I came up with:

• A description of the overall image (this is usually the first haiku I write - it allows me to then focus on different details)
• the vivid colours of the grasshopper and the leaf
• the textures of the leaf and the woven fabric underneath
• the upright antanae
• is the insect real or is it a robot?
• the rippled edges of the leaf
• the blurred green background - why's it blurred
• is the grasshopper a pet? does it have a name?
• the leaf - food? furniture? a decorative piece?

And then I expanded on a few of these ideas:

I watch in wonder

at an insect's wonderment

we're all curious

wall hanging

or free-standing sculpture

upcycling

plant skeleton

grasshopper CPR

futile endeavour

Frank seems surprised

upraised insectoid eyebrows

or simply drawn on

In the Pantser section, we explored the joy of doing nothing. 

Remember that before the creative process where you observe, scribe, and edit, you first need to be present to do those things. If you aren't there, then maybe it's time to rest and allow yourself to be yourself. (Which harkens to the quote by Georgia O'Keefe - "I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again.")