Sources of Inspiration

Six bits of advice: 1. Write. Do it as much as you can, about anything. Experiment. Muck about. 2. Don't treat every piece of writing like it's your last. Whatever you write, it doesn't have to be the best thing you've ever done, or have to include every idea you've ever had. You will always write something next. 3. Read. Writing is a skill and a craft, and you can't learn it in isolation. Luckily, it's easy to read a huge range of different things that people have written. They're all over the place waiting for you to pick them up. Try to understand why something works and why it doesn't. Once you've understood, you'll have learned a technique that you can experiment with in your won writing. Any writer who tells you that they don't read, is either lying or, more often, a crap writer. 4. Listen to what people say about your writing. When people give you feedback on your work, they will usually do so with the best possible intention. They will do so in a way that is meant to encourage you to get better. If someone says that they don't like a piece of your writing, ask them why. Don't make the mistake of thinking that they don't like YOU writing. Any writer who says they don't listen to feedback is lying, or more often, a crap writer. Find people who write. Ask their advice and listen when they give it, if you don't understand their criticism ask them to clarify. Beware the ego massage of only showing your work to people who go 'it's lovely'. Good feedback can hurt, but it's the learning of painful lessons that makes you better. 5. Write the next thing. And the next. 6. Never stop learning.

do what you're doing - get out there! Out and about! Lap it all up. get inspired. Talk, listen, daydream, dance naked in a thunderstorm. Sample every variety of life you can. Keep your eyes WIDE open! Practice now. Really open them wide and then stare about - moving only your head and neck. Good luck, friend!! When the power of love overcomes the love of power, we'll find peace. - Jimi Hendrix

Don't be awestruck by your favourite writers. They all started out the same as you. Read and re-read their stuff and work out what you like about it and how they did it.

then live.. When the power of love overcomes the love of power, we'll find peace. - Jimi Hendrix

Hi Adampick. All I can say is as an ex-musician, well I wasn't really a musician I was a drummer, I used to whack my fourskins on a regular basis. Har de! When I first began to learn to play drums, I was shit. But with any art form it takes a lot of practise to master. Not that I mastered it but I became pretty damned good. Recorded for Hot Chocolate, (shite) had that record played on Radio 1, (shite) recorded a few tracks that were put out on The Jimmy Young Show on Radio 2, (double shite) and ended up backing a number 1 singer (Carl Douglas - Kung Fu Fighting, treble shite) As we like to say in AA - and that's not the breakdown service - um - actually it is a breakdown service. 'Beware of what you pray for - you just might get it.' I remember sitting on the edge of the stage of a prestigious gig in London, where we'd played a blinder, doing encore after encore. (That was not with any of the aforementioned bands.) I was just kicking the edge of the stage with my heels, fending off incredibly good looking women, who only wanted to shag me! The cheek of it! Couldn't they see that I was a thinking feeling human being, who only wanted to be wrapped in a warm blanket, and fed jam rolls and sweet tea by Archergirl? In all seriousness, the stuff I was writing 30 years ago, I'm glad got burned in a mysterious fire that I set, when I realised that what I was writing was shite. But I persevered, and what I write today is not as bad. You just have to practise. And read. And remember the old dictum, 'good writers borrow, great writers steal.'

... and Jeffrey Archer gets caught.

Hey. thanks for the feedback :) I rather enjoyed reading this, fairly tongue in cheek, which is good.I work night shift these days, so am not always concious enough to post or reply, but i appreciate your responses, and i am reading when i am wake, though the writing has all but dissapeared due to aforementioned night shift activity. thanks again, Adam

Enjoy yourself! Writing is one thing. Performing poetry is something else. With the performing, having nice people around you makes one hell of a difference. I've performed with cliquey gits who spend time making rude remarks and trying to out-do each other. And I've performed with really nice people who help each other on stage during live events. Have fun. The rest comes. My webpage is at: http://www.bookscape.co.uk

what a lovely thread! i am sure i don't read enough prose, which is why i don't write much prose. ..The advice on reading is so true - *pops novel way too optimistically into beach bag* - poetry comes from whatever inspiration, better poetry comes from reading/listening to other poets, their poems and crit, for sure. But it is all about writing - daily if possible, more often if possible - it can take less than a minute to write something - and it be the poem most enjoyed by others - write write write, some for the page, some imagined for performance - write little and often and it soon becomes a habit, (ok..obsession..;) and out of such wee scribbles, poems and prose grow - it's all fodder, all digging and planting, and sometimes boooootiful flowers appear - ahh! aint writing great? Also posting whatever you write that you think may have even just a little something going for it, is a good idea - I am still surprised by what is picked up and thought 'good' of mine, which means I am not the one who should spend much time 'judging' it – leave that to others and get on with the next inspiration - just write it – and enjoy!

Art needs to be seen or heard.

Hi Adam, and welcome. I would say, don't try to guage yourself by others, just be your own marker. Try and make everything you write better than the last thing. I was illiterate when I started writing a few years ago and I can string a sentence together now. Also I don't think you should try to write what people want to read. Write only for yourself, if it makes you happy and you're pleased with it, then you've suceeded. If other people like it too then that's just a bonus. Go on, post soemthing. Ask for feedback and mark it as a first piece. Oh, and keep in mind that it takes five positives to cancel out a negative. You can give a piece four standing ovations, tell somebody how great it is and that you really like this that and that and then say, "But I'm not sure that so and so would have done that." and you can guarante that the poster will focus on the one negative comment rather than the four positive ones. It's good to remember that the people who are giving advice have probably written some crap in their time. Take everything that you're given, decide which points that you agree with, make the changes that you want to and disregard the rest. Enjoy.

Write as if no one is reading! I'm sure that sounds like something else... :-/ pe ps oid Blogs! "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"