Today, we began by looking at the three week Creative Writing Brief. The aim is to create a chapbook, this is a small cheap book that was popular through the 17th to 19th centuries. These books could be poetry, prose, factual, manifestos, fairy stories and dark tales. The National Library of Scotland states; 'The subject matter of chapbooks was quite broad — sermons of covenanting ministers, prophecies, last words of murderers, songs and poems by Robert Burns and Allan Ramsay, and biographies of famous people such as Wallace, Napoleon and Nelson. There were romances and legends, not to mention manuals of instruction and almanacs.' (National Library of Scotland, 2025) They were popular with children and were passed around. They tended to be made on cheap paper and were highly valued and enjoyed by those who read them and them passed them on.
Chapbooks
'gradually disappeared from the 1860s onwards.This was not only because of the explosion in the amount of cheap printed matter available, but also due to strong competition from religious tract societies such as the Stirling Tract Enterprise which regarded many chapbook publications as 'ungodly'. (National Library of Scotland, 2025) However, there has been a revival in the 20th and 21st century and people now produce these small cheap books. These are sold online and often are handmade and self-published. There are also examples of online versions of these small books an e-book is a cheap book in our contemporary society.
Initial Ideas: My Own Chapbook
On my mind recently has been change. Many years can go by and suddenly you realise you are in a kind of Groundhog Day. Things stay the same and they stagnate. Once you start thinking on this, often the reaction is to talk yourself out of change as it will be a real hassle, it will be hard work, it might change your financial situation, home situation, work situation. Change is basically fairly terrifying whereas staying in the comfort zone, the status quo everything can carry on and no boat has been rocked! Change is hard and almost alarming, this is perhaps why I am drawn to writing a story with this kind of theme. Many books use a sudden change as the catalyst for the story, so I wonder how I might do this and, be interesting and have an original story to tell?
I began thinking about other authors who use this technique and 'Yes Man' (2005) By Danny Wallace is a good example. The story begins with Wallace saying no to everything, his girlfriend has left him, he is depressed, he doesn't want to do anything, go out with his friends and his job is unsatisfying - he just keeps saying 'No' to things. Then one day, Wallace chooses to only say 'yes' and the rules are that he must say 'yes' to everything no matter what and he draws up a contract with his friends and there is some kind of forfeit if he breaks the rules. The book is a bit silly, it is like a bunch of boys who think up silly challenges for each other however it is entirely positive, Zoe Williams writes of the book; 'you have a high tolerance for inanity, and that's where brilliant ideas happen, in a rainforest of daft ideas, not in a desert of someone saying things are daft and going back to bed. He [Wallace] once spent some time - entirely for his own amusement, he insists - making up the worst joke in the world, then sending it to comedians.' (Williams, 2005)
This book is a bit of silliness and was made into a film with Jim Carey, however, there is a bravery to it which I do think it easier when you are young, before you have a family/children/responsibilities. It is a bravery though that admire and perhaps I should take something from this bravery...
This idea about positivity leads me to think of Maslow - they use Maslow in Teaching Training however they don't tell you his most interesting studies, these I found through the writing of Colin Wilson who was also an advocate for the positive for higher experience and for not spending your life sleeping (or as he called it the robot). Geoff Ward states; 'Crucially, Wilson recognised ‘the robot’ – his term for how our consciousness operates on ‘auto-pilot’, narrowing our perception so as to enable us to handle everyday life – and the need to get beyond it in order to evolve.' (Ward, 2016) Below Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs' which shows that basic needs have to be fulfilled to reach higher levels psychologically and this brings love/belonging, esteem and then self-actualisation which is where it gets really interesting with Maslow as Maslow got sick of treating sick people and wanted to see what happened when he treated healthy people and he discovered that the more the healthy people talked and shared the more they started having 'moments of clarity' or even ecstasy; 'A moment of clarity is a powerful cognitive experience where someone suddenly gains deep understanding about themselves, their life, or a specific situation. These insights can range from recognizing personal capabilities to understanding life purpose, often feeling profound and meaningful to the individual experiencing them.' (Bridges-Ruiz, 2025)
Why I am writing about Maslow and Wilson is I began with change and with change can open the door to new experiences, a new understanding of the self and those around you and get you out of circular and perhaps in self-destructive thinking. So where do I go from here in terms of my ideas for writing my own chapbook?
Form
If the theme is change, I now need to consider the form that my book will take. For this project, I think I would like to write prose, a story - previously I have done this and written three chapters of a longer story and I could do the same here as I enjoy the fact that the story can go one and often I have various subplots at play for development. Or I could just stick to a short story and really contain this and be very precise in the story development to ensure that the story will work a short story/novella form. I lean towards the three chapters of a larger book simply as I find the containment of the novella a little restrictive (not that boundaries are bad, boundaries do help to avoid getting lost out there!). I have just found one of my old books and I created this in diary form. I enjoyed this as it really gave an insight into the life of the character and his daily thoughts, anxieties and annoying everyday problems! I will see where this takes me once I have explored some story ideas on this theme.
Story Ideas
Story of a woman, happy, alone but stuck in a rut. Needs change and this comes in the form of finding a diary in a café. The diary belongs to a professor of something important in a midlands university. The story will take the woman out of her stasis and bring new opportunities that she never expected.
Story of an old man nearing the end of life who wants to take a last journey to fix something he did wrong a long time ago. The journey will be across Canada and will take the old man on a road much less travelled and to unexpected places
A series of letters between an artist and photographer creating a conversation between images and words
These are just a few ideas I would like to meditate on, they all take different forms but stick with the theme of change. I will choose one and see where it takes me...
References
Bridges-Ruiz, V. (2025). >> The Power of Moments of Clarity. [online] Unbreakable Bonds. Available at: https://unbreakablebonds101.wordpress.com/2025/01/03/the-power-of-moments-of-clarity/ [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].
National Library of Scotland (2025). Chapbooks. [online] National Library of Scotland. Available at: https://www.nls.uk/collections/rare-books/collections/chapbooks/ [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].
Ward, G. (2016). BEYOND THE ROBOT | colin-wilson-world. [online] colin-wilson-world. Available at: https://www.colinwilsonworld.net/beyond-the-robot [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].
Williams, Z. (2005). The opposite of toxic. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/jul/02/biography.features [Accessed 4 Feb. 2025].
