Often in my writing class, students complain (about me mostly but also they complain) about having nothing to write about. It does not help to tell them to write about the one thing they care about the most.
This woman to the left demonstrates the look most students have after I tell them this.
"What would that be ?" they ask me, as if I knew the answer to the internal workings of them. After many attempts, I have given up asking them to find out what they want to write about. I think most students have been programmed to do what the teacher tells them to do and when the teacher tells them to think for themselves and put their feelings on paper - they draw a blank. And suprisingly, this effect is demonstrated by people of all ages. Including me.
I am at the point of no subject right now at this very moment. No, not here in this blog but trying to concieve of subject matter for my poem of the day. What I am thinking about doing is an old technique for stimulating the creative juices called
I can write better than that.
This concept works for me because I have a big writing ego, so it might not work for you. To make this work, I go to a place of bad writing - the internet where there is a universe of bad poets who either think they have to rhyme to make a poem or express their limited subject in the most boring and crude ways. ( Hey if you are angry with someone - yell at them, don't write a poem that says you stink I ahte F%%^K you) This is not poetry - it is not even good language. Good poetry involves using a creative way or style to say something - bad poetry sounds like a sermon "We should feed all the hungry, man "We should stop killing each other"). You get the point - I think I can do what you did better. It is sort like cheating because I was not creative enough to find my own subject - but hey Hollywood does this everyday. Except for the making it better part - they just steal whatever story is not copyrighted down.
So That is my creative writing tip for the day:
Get ideas from stuff that other people have done - you might not be able to do it better but - you will think you did.
Keep Writing.
This woman to the left demonstrates the look most students have after I tell them this.
"What would that be ?" they ask me, as if I knew the answer to the internal workings of them. After many attempts, I have given up asking them to find out what they want to write about. I think most students have been programmed to do what the teacher tells them to do and when the teacher tells them to think for themselves and put their feelings on paper - they draw a blank. And suprisingly, this effect is demonstrated by people of all ages. Including me.
I am at the point of no subject right now at this very moment. No, not here in this blog but trying to concieve of subject matter for my poem of the day. What I am thinking about doing is an old technique for stimulating the creative juices called
I can write better than that.
This concept works for me because I have a big writing ego, so it might not work for you. To make this work, I go to a place of bad writing - the internet where there is a universe of bad poets who either think they have to rhyme to make a poem or express their limited subject in the most boring and crude ways. ( Hey if you are angry with someone - yell at them, don't write a poem that says you stink I ahte F%%^K you) This is not poetry - it is not even good language. Good poetry involves using a creative way or style to say something - bad poetry sounds like a sermon "We should feed all the hungry, man "We should stop killing each other"). You get the point - I think I can do what you did better. It is sort like cheating because I was not creative enough to find my own subject - but hey Hollywood does this everyday. Except for the making it better part - they just steal whatever story is not copyrighted down.
So That is my creative writing tip for the day:
Get ideas from stuff that other people have done - you might not be able to do it better but - you will think you did.
Keep Writing.