The Community Garden Collective

Co-Creating Utopia Writing Project

A Living Guide to Reclaiming Queer Futurities and Queer Imaginations

Introduction

Hello, traveller! Are you feeling weary of this world but only have 60-120 minutes to create a world you can escape to? Perhaps you’ve encountered roleplaying games before, but find it intimidating—perhaps you just want to exist and not play a role at all. Perhaps you’re not really sure where to go to begin with—perhaps anywhere but here is good enough.

So, let’s create together!

In this guide, we can create worlds with our communities. Whether that is one other person or fifteen others, escaping is always better with friends. Where the original Co-Creating Utopia (guide coming soon) was meant to be long-term, slow, and asynchronous, this single-session is designed to condense the experience into one to two days.

Are you running a class? Working with youth? Looking for something fun to do while hanging out with grandma on Saturday? Or maybe all your friends are simply too busy. This is the utopia-making process for you! And, hey, if this is fun, maybe people would want to stay in this world for long-term creation too.

Gather around the table, travellers. Have a notebook handy and a nice, warm cup of tea. Whether you’re a writer, a painter, a human with lots of opinions, or you’re just here to vibe, you’re all welcome here.

Community Agreement

Below are a few rules of engagement in order to cultivate a space that aligns with our mission and our ethics. Please remember that this is a shared and living document, as such, folx are welcome to engage in the evolution of these agreements by suggesting additions as they come up for you.

Questions, comments, constructive feedback? You can reach me at florenceng@protonmail.com.

Overview

This process of creation will occur in three parts, with prompts and opportunities to pause throughout. Artists can engage at every level as much or as little as they like. There may be ideas flowing throughout, with different parts shifting and evolving alongside each other. The structure is a suggestion, and tailoring the activity to your group is key.

Note: In between each of the parts, there is an opportunity to wrap up and carry on the process another time—a natural save point, if you will. To do so, simply gather your materials into one place (either digital or analog), and designate a memory keeper. The memory keeper will note down key shared ideas for the next session (such as the universe, public spaces, etc.)—pick more than one memory keeper if there is a lot of information to retain! Individual travellers should have some sense of their corner of the universe. If parts are forgotten, we can always recreate them!

Note 2: If multiple sessions must occur and individuals want to expand or create in their own time, encourage this! There is room for as much play as the group desires. If one person’s corner of the world is too complex and developed, perhaps invite them to create a new corner. Multiple versions of this universe can also exist if folx wish to expand on their own—when collaborating, however, please make sure all voices are heard and respected and no one traveller is imposing ideas onto the group without consent. Check in with each other 🙂

The Process

And now, travellers, it’s time to step up to the portal and enter a new world together! During this journey, you may experience some discomfort, some sense of confusion, lost in the void of creation. In those moments, grab a friend, raise your questions to the group.

Each section contains a series of prompts and activities to guide you through the process. Please feel free to skip steps or recreate them, and check in on each other—take breaks whenever it feels right. Just remember: co-creation is beautiful, however it looks. One person trying to do it all—that’s tyranny, and even the most benevolent of dictators can’t have all the answers alone.

Part 1: Brainstorm

Here, we are zooming in slowly to reach our desired universe. We are starting with big ideas, then narrowing in on a specific sandbox we’d like to play in.

  1. Identifying inspiration
    • Give each person a slip of paper, or simply have everyone think of a genre they’d like to work in. For example, contemporary, fantasy, or science fiction.
    • Share out and tally what the group likes. If there is a tie, perhaps think about combining different genres. Speculative fiction, for example, takes many inspirations.
  2. Identifying a plane of existence
    • Like before, give time for individuals to brainstorm the larger setting they’d like to work with. This setting should allow space for subsettings to occur. For example: a town where individuals could create businesses/homes, a hotel where individuals can create rooms, or a colony where individuals live/work/play in different domes. You do not have to figure out the specifics of the subsetting right now! You need only to make space for expanding the world within.
    • Share out ideas and pick one to run with (or combine to create a larger map). If folks get stuck, ask the group this:
      • Which setting sounds the most fun?
      • Which setting has the most potential for play?
      • Which setting would folx most like to live in?
    • If further disagreement occurs, give each setting a number and roll a die.
  3. Check in with each other
    • Questions and/or concerns?
    • Lingering unease over the process?
    • Break?

Part 2: Setting

Now that you have the sandbox, let’s start painting in a few details of this world.

  1. Individual creation
    • Every traveller will take some time to build their space within the sandbox. This can be done through descriptive writing, drawings, webs, whatever helps you express your ideas. During this process, feel free to ask for help! Bounce ideas off others, share bits and pieces, and have fun with it!
    • If you feel stuck, ask yourself:
      • What’s the name of the space you’re creating?
      • What is its purpose?
      • What does it look like on the outside? Inside?
      • Are there specific connotations involved? What do folx think about this place when walking by it?
      • Where/what is your space in relation to others’?
  2. Group illustration
    • Each traveller will take turns explaining their space while others listen. It might be helpful to write down questions for the presenter. Make space for each person to share their full idea before jumping in with suggestions.
    • If there are any shy travellers on board who do not want to present, that’s okay! Another could present on their behalf with their consent, or we can simply add details. Perhaps your space is one only you know—a world within a world within a world.
    • (Optional) If there are any savvy artists or speedy notetakers, illustrate a map as each traveller speaks or work together to fill out a map at the very end. Maps are political objects—what does yours say about your group?
  3. Public spaces
    • Now that each person has their core space, let’s talk about public spaces. As a group, identify what types of public spaces you’d like to include. Examples might include parks, common rooms, or third spaces like community centres. Maybe it’s a futuristic racetrack where everyone gathers once a week for space-town track meets.
    • As a group, come up with a few different types of public spaces. Suggestions include:
      • Each person takes a type and details one more more of that type. For example, if one person wants to only write about the parks of a small town, they may illustrate a garden in front of the school, a particularly lush centre of a roundabout, and/or the manicured edge of the woodlands at the end of town.
      • Each person contributes a detail for each type that the group identifies. For example, if the group wants to create a park, an indoor third space, and a community garden, each traveller will write one detail for each one. One person may contribute a particularly unique park bench, a small library, and a neglected bed of flowers.
      • Do it as a group! If you have access to a shared document, a white board, or a flip chart, list out the types of public spaces in your sandbox and toss ideas out popcorn style.
  4. Check in with each other
    • Questions/concerns?
    • Last minute wild and wonderful ideas?
    • Break? Wrap up and continue another day?

Part 3: Characters

Now that we’ve created a sandbox, let’s fill it with inhabitants. Here, each person will create one main character that will experience this world. Together, we can populate the town with a few extra recurring characters that might add some flavour to the world.

Recurring townsfolk characters
Recurring background characters are designed with a shared pool of stock characters in mind. Here are a few suggestions on how to populate your setting.

Main character profiles
Each participant will create a protagonist to explore the world and the stories within it. Below is a template to help bring this character to life.

Part 4: Ethnographic Inquiries

This section is heavily influenced by the work of Dr. Roisin Seifert and A.E. Osworth and their Writing Queer Utopias event, including direct prompts that were shared by both.The goal is to build up the larger environment of the world we have created, and discuss aspects of our world that could influence our characters.

Here is a short list of considerations with examples:

Here, we want to dig a little deeper on how our characters engage with the society we’ve created. The structure below was created for the asynchronous, longform version of this guide. In this single session version, add a time limit to the single prompt.

Step 1-2: Prompts Pick a prompt and complete it. 20-30 minutes is average for writing prompts, but encourage folks to dig a little deeper after the event if more time is needed (and is not available). If time continues to be an issue, #3 contains an example for scaffolding prompts.

Writing prompts

  1. Describe the first hour of your character’s day with as much detail as you can. Try to keep the tone neutral, as if this is an excerpt from a long-term observation journal of your character.
  2. Describe how your community grieves/deals with loss. With your existing character or another (perhaps affiliated to the setting or not), describe a significant loss that the character has experienced. This could be the death of a loved one or an event painful in other ways. You do not have to describe the loss if you don’t want to.
  3. Guided Q&A: Write a few short sentences describing the following prompts.
    1. Fill in the blank: In these lands, we celebrate above all ______
    2. Do you celebrate alone? Do you celebrate together?
    3. How do characters feel after celebrations?
  4. Describe a gathering of characters. Why are they there? How did they hear about the gathering? What do they do there?
  5. Write an ode to a major character in this setting. This major character could be an elder, a celebrity, a storyteller, or an arrowhead (like Katniss Everdeen).
  6. Write a conversation between old folks. What do they complain about? Is there a difficult adjustment between now and “back in my day!”?

Non-writing prompts

  1. Each player will design a poster for a major event in their setting.
  2. Write a recipe for a popular dish in your setting. Try to create it! Consider: where do ingredients come from? What substitutions can be made? What is the cultural significance of your dish?
  3. Draw a map of the setting—who drew this map? What is the intention? What possible biases are there?
  4. Describe or design a schematic for an object. What is it? How is it used? How might it be used differently between different characters?
  5. Design a fashion line for this world—who can afford these clothes (if there is currency)? Is there greater symbolism for these clothes?
  6. Design a social media profile (or a dating profile) for one or more characters in your setting. What does it revealed about what is valued in this setting?

Multiplayer prompts

  1. Role play: a character is about to give birth. Each player will create a role for themselves and take turns discussing how they are a part of the process
  2. Writing and illustrating: create a children’s book that captures an important lesson for children in this setting.
  3. Group Dragon’s Den: players take turns being the dragons and the presenters. Each presenter will showcase an invention, idea, or product that could enhance the quality of life in this setting. Currency does not have to be involved!
  4. Co-designing a vision board: with at least one other player, pick a character in your setting and design a mood/vision board for that character’s home. You can add a floor plan or use a Sims game to help visualize. Beyond the aesthetic, what do characters need? How do each character different? This space can be individual or communal.

Step 3-4: Share and Check-In As a large group, or with small groups, folks will take turns sharing their creations and their experiences.

After each person has shared, check in with your group:

Part 5: Reflection

(Under construction)