A magical week is ahead of you
QD #55: Our Kickstarter launches in 24 hrs! + making the case for passionate social media unfriendly rambles.
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Written by Sam Furness and delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
Dear Questers,
It’s Sam here 👋 It’s the most magical week of the year. The seasons melting into one other. Nature changing it’s guard. The veil of living and otherworldly at it’s thinnest.
It’s also the eve of our debut book! The Quester’s Guide for Exploring Your World: through Magic - launches on Kickstarter in 24 hours time (6pm UK / 2pm EST)
Later this week you’ll receive a full run down of all the goodies we’ve created for this campaign which includes:
• The Quester’s Guide (100 page book)
• Magic Quest card deck
• A community book club
• Tarot readings
• Personalised Quest packs
• Early bird access to for our 2025 Quest programme!
💌 You’re invited to our launch party (tomorrow!)
🗓️ Tuesday 29 Oct
🕰️ 5.00 - 6.30pm UK / 1.00 - 2.30pm EST
📍 Zoom
💌 https://lu.ma/loiqa3lz
You can expect:
• Magical games & activities to enliven your day / week / month
• Countdown to launch (NYE style)
• A preview of the book’s content
• Connecting with the most curious people out there
Even if you can only attend for some of the event - I would love to see you there!
The unedited case for Questing
(and why you should have an unedited case for your beloved creations too)
Real talk my friends.
For all those reading this who are pouring their love, time, energy (and hard-earned money) into their ideas - in the knowing that the world will be a touch better for their being - you have my utter respect.
I hope that the journey from idea to reality feels fulfilling, reciprocal and your spirit is changed in beautiful ways by the process. This is the real alchemy of creativity.
Because then comes the next challenge: promotion 🥲
I know few people who enjoy it. Understandably so. Yet we do ourselves (and our ideas) a massive disservice by not telling the world why they matter.
It’s made all the trickier (and ickier) through squeezing the full spectrum of our creations into a 15 second reel. Ephemeral trending visual. Or lord forbid - some kind of dance.
All in the hope that a computer in a farm somewhere grants us access to peoples social media feeds.
Over the next 5 weeks - promotion will be inevitable and I’m ready for the challenge of showing up. But before that I wanted to give you a full unedited, soapbox, megaphone pitch for why I think Questing (and subsequently our book The Quester’s Guide) is a practice that can radically change your creative life.
For those who don’t know: Questing is a navigational practice for your creative life. It revolves around a simple structure:
➪ Choose a theme
➪ Set an amount of time (we think a month is great)
➪ Immerse your curiosity in this theme for the set amount of time: in search of new pathways, ideas and ways of living.
The feeling of Questing at its very least is a kind of gratifying fulfilment of not wasting precious time while alive on earth. It’s the joy of meeting new people and discovering parts of your world you never paid attention to or new existed.The feeling of Questing at its most potent is to be in open, flowing, surprising, colourful conversation with the world around you. It’s to feel like you’ve discovered another part of the infinite picture of being alive, and being human. It’s to feel inspiration so generous and so unexpected that all you can do is smile. It’s to become the world’s biggest nerd for a topic that one week earlier you hadn’t really ever thought about. It’s to feel expanded. And optimistic. And hungry. And humbled. And tuned in. It’s to fill your cup so much that you have no option but express yourself in some way.
In the last 8 years my understanding of the world has changed with each new theme I have immersed myself in. 30 themes so far. 12 of which have been in community.
Since these Quests became a communal affair I have experienced the generative magic of collective curiosity. I’ve found beauty in the minds of strangers. I have witnessed people’s opinions soften. I’ve seen through other peoples eyes.
It feels like I’ve travelled world.
Yet, I didn’t have to book a flight, quit my job (until it became my job) or go on a sabbatical - alternate worlds were right there - in plain sight all this time.
Each new Quest - is like visiting some new place. Refreshed perspective. Renewed enthusiasm.
Questing started as a sort of ‘creative cosplaying’ - being passionate about something new each month. I thought It might lead to finding a new hobby or something. P.s - I hate the word Hobby.
Through being curious about new things and stepping into what I perceived as ‘other peoples creativity & other peoples interests’ I learnt more about myself and my creativity than I could have ever done if i’d just kept going with what I knew.
It’s shown me that creativity and perception are both malleable substances that we all have the power to change within ourselves.
When I’m walking through the streets, with my Quester spirit fully emboldened, looking through the lens of whatever our theme happens to be at that time - I feel this malleable quality in me.
Ready to be shaped by the experiences & the conversations I have, the people I meet, the things I try.The world is your studio. Your spirit is the canvas.
In our new book The Quester’s Guide (Issue One: Magic) - I think we do an amazing job of sharing Questing in book form.
I hope you’ll join us on this campaign and hep enable hundreds (maybe thousands?) more Creative Quests to happen all around the world.
Including your own!
Thanks for indulging my long form, social media unfriendly case for Questing.
I would LOVE to read YOUR long form passionate rants about whatever it is you make / do / create. Make us feel it!
140 characters will never be enough.
Stay Playful…
We’ve started posting new Creative Missions to try each Friday over on our Instagram. Something simple and playful to add some exploration to your week. Big up Quester community member Allison Blair for curating them.
001: Surrealist Q&A
002: Colour Compass
Finally…
This book launch has been a long time coming and we know it’s going to take a village to make it happen.
Whether you’ve Quested with us since Day one. Day one thousand. Or you are just finding us now - we hope you’ll join us at the launch party and check out the campaign when it launches tomorrow!
❤️’s and comments make us feel good.
BIG LOVE!
Sam
Quest Guide / Founder
@saaamfurness
THE QUEST DIGEST by Creative Quests is a treasure chest of ideas & stories exploring what it means to live an illuminating, creative life. Delivered when inspiration and creativity strike. Subscribe to receive each issue or send to a friend in need of a creative boost.
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