Fool's Note #1 - The List 100
A powerful creative tool to imagine possibility, on and off the page.
Fool’s Notes are short essays about things discovered along life's long winding road.
The human mind is a powerful tool capable of infinite wonders. Great works of art. Buildings and bridges. Medical miracles.
But sometimes the human mind gets stuck. Can you think of a time you’ve hit a block and all the sudden a brilliant idea fizzles out. Confusion, vagueness, and doubt set in. A to-do list that keeps you doing so much, except the one thing you actually need to do?
This mental stuckness is a natural part of the human condition.
I’ve had many a day where I felt stuck, helpless, hopeless, and frustrated. Nothing has helped me more than getting a notebook and a pen and doing a “list 100”
What is List 100?
Introduced to me by screenwriter and writing coach, Jenny Klieman, List 100 is a stuck-shattering brainstorm. How it works is so simple, it's in the name. Write out 100 items as fast as you can--first thing that comes to mind.
This can work for film scripts: "what happens next?" But it also works for the plot of your life. Questions like, "How can I earn more money?" How do I find a therapist?" "What do I need to do to move to a new city?" They all work for a List 100
100? Really?
Yes! The power is in seeing that your mind is capable of endless solutions. The challenge is letting go of needing it look one, specific way. It builds the muscle of imagining possibility, which strengthens our problem solving skills.
I rarely get to 100 in one sitting. Sometimes 20, sometimes 50. But doing the List 100 exhausts my mind of any looping thoughts and reveals outside the box answers.
Once I get as far as I can do, I pick one item on the list to focus on and say goodbye to the rest, for now. After all, you can only do 1 thing at any given moment.
I pick the one thing by asking myself what on this list feels doable that I am willing to do right now. Then I scan the page until one draws my eyes that feels aligned. Then I take the next smallest possible action step towards doing it.
Here’s an example:
Question: How can expand in my various crafts this season
Apply for a performance residency
Reach out to 10 former tarot clients
read a highly recommended book
Book a weekend upstate
Schedule a hike for early june in cold springs
Go to a new restaurant
Check out the nonbinarian
Call a collaborator from a past project
take a nap
Buy chairs to make your living room a performance space
Listen to a podcast episode about craft
Edit an old project
Ask for feedback on a project
Reach out to a peer and ask how they got their work made
Announce a fundraiser
Break plates and scream until you lose your voice
Take a nap
GO out dancing
Delete your email account
Answer at least 1 email from a theater space
Send follow up email to a potential tarot client
Send a letter of gratitude to someone
Sign up for dance class
Sign up for drawing class
See about submitting work to Judson
Find a movement coach for The Tower
Film a reel for tarot page
Finish Velvet Rage audiobook
Submit one of your short films to a festival
Submit one of your short plays to a festival
Buy the rest of your wedding outfit
Write a proposal for a new piece
Post my out of date no longer relevant website
Text a friend to talk about a script
Cold email a production company
Make tres leches cake again
Dance in my living room
Pray on it
Do morning pages
Have an artist date to buy postcards
Go to a museum
Arrange a think tank gathering around it
Go over my finances
Email blasher a date to devise a new piece
Email juggling club about attending
Clean out expired things from the fridge
Learn how to hold snakes properly
Join a beekeeping commune
Read my old journals
Buy a film camera
Invite a clown to follow me for 3 months and make a piece based on my life
Move to a place in the mountains
Learn how to tie rope 10 different ways
Attend karaoke every night this week
Audition for a play
Finish this article
Follow someone on LinkedIn
Call a collaborator from a past project and ask what they need support on
Record a reel for my tarot social media page
Book studio time to dance
Go to the library and research films from the 1940s
Follow a soufflé recipe
Rent a car and take a weekend road trip
Make a playlist
DM an artistic idol
Buy chairs for my living room
Livestream
Empty my storage unit
Contact a copywriter lawyer for a consult
Drink water
Go bowling
Learn how to fish
Plant seeds in the park
Brush my teeth
Scrub my bathroom tiles
Do laundry
Learn how to assemble a firearm
Jumprope
Mail a letter to yourself
Sent outreach to theater institutions about calls for scripts
Edit a short story
Change your headshots on social media
Learn how to box
Hire a therapist
Hire an assistant
Hire an accountant
Visit a place of worship and ask for guidance
Ask the family psychic for guidance
List 100 all your skills, talents, and gifts
Give someone an unsolicited gift
Plan a birthday party
Play a board game
Call your dad
Make a paper airplane, travel to Mt. Beacon, and throw the paper airplane off of the top of the fire tower
Mend a shirt
Mend my broken jewelry
Take a metal working class
Memorize a monologue
Write a poem
Feed the neighborhood stray cats
As you can see, themes and patterns emerged through this list. I seem to want to learn a new skill. Take a nap. Get help on projects in progress. Number 94 feels the most specific. Numbers 60, 71 stood out to me. As I wrote number 96, I knew exactly how I could fix a necklace that has been busted for over a year.
I did 55 in one sitting, 45 in a second sitting a couple days later. The second round flowed a bit more freely. (Brainstorming before bed while tired and more open to creative ideas.)
The first 15 and the last 15 were easiest, when the excitement was fresh and when the finish line was in sight. In this way, the List 100 mirrors any creative work where the beginning and end might come easier. The juiciest ideas came somewhere in the middle.
If you find yourself stuck or blocked, whether in art or in life, try it out and see how close to 100 you can get!