Today I read a blog post on Twitter by another writer Jenny Quintana but originally forgot to save a link to it.
The theme of the blog was what to do to get inspiration for writing. The writer had 3 tips which she found useful to share.
As I write this I will try to remember what they were and how they helped.
Some of them I have unconsciously used myself
1 listen to a piece of music. This may stimulate a word that causes a trickle of others to follow.
I have done this a lot. Often when sitting in the car you suddenly hear the words differently and the song may generate an alternative story or even just promote a calmness from the maddening world around.
I have listened to musicians playing at an open mic and the atmosphere just caused the words to flow. What I wrote was nothing to do with what was happening around me.
2 look at a picture or piece of artwork and imagine where it is, what feelings it generates or describe the colours and properties which you feel others can’t see.
As per above I have allowed my imagination to run wild just clanging words here and there.
3 read a book and take a random words from 10 pages
I have also used a version of this by getting a CD cover and using the track listings as the words.
This created a powerful list which I turned into a poem.
4 this is one of my own
Just sit in silence and listen to what is happening around you.
Look at the sky and visualise the clouds and create a story around them.
I was amazed at what I heard as I sat in my garden. I heard the motorway, a train (don’t live close to a station) but then I heard water in a neighbour’s pond.
Picking up the sound can sometimes provide either the inspiration or allow you to think without distractions
Having looked much closer at my notifications I managed to find the link
Her 3 tips were
Art and Music
Reading and using real experiences for example from newspapers to flesh out scenes
Doing something completely different
Joe the poet 