How To Rekindle The Element of Play in Your Writing in One Easy Step
Sometimes We All Need a Backdoor Into Our Creative Flow.
Writing may well be at the core of me, but it’s not always easy.
A lot of the time there are sneaky mean voices in my head telling me I’m not good enough. They whisper to me that I have nothing new or interesting to say, and I spend half my time agreeing with them and the other half practicing my finely-honed avoidance skills.
For the times when words of my own just aren’t coming and I’m starting to feel like the dry spell is turning into a drought, I like to play with other peoples. It’s like a side door into being creative in which the stakes are permanently low… if they are not my words, it’s only a game.
It’s called found poetry and you should try it.
Take any book off your shelves (or from the piles on the floor in any room if you’re in my house), open to a random page, photocopy and grab yourself a pencil. Let the words jump out at you from the page, the weird ones, the juicy ones, whichever catch your attention. Circle them and see if they make a sentence or give a new meaning that makes sense to you.
Can you find the poetry hidden in the text?
