Media Blitz

I can't tell you how many times I've felt or told myself that I would never write anything again. It's usually something that hits me early in the morning, when I just wake up, and that right there could be the reason for the sense of loss... but sometimes inspiration seems a distant thing, and a part of me seems to always worry if it will ever come again. So I walk to work feeling low, on these mornings, full of doubt... noticing the way the streetlights pool their flow on the blacktop, and hearing the wind whistle through my earrings, and watching the clouds begin to break under the force of a new front coming through... and usually by day's end I have some new ideas. It's all about having faith, I think that's the key. And as much as I preach on this site about writing, these are lessons I am still learning too. I guess I'm hoping you'll read these articles and learn along with me. Learn faith and confidence in the same step-halt-step pattern that I seem to be using.

It's like I've written here before... the ideas will come... they will... you will write when it is time to write. Sometimes you need spells of dryness to let your mind refill itself... refill itself with new images and feelings... or let itself be trigged by sights and sounds to remember things from your past, things that can be written about and shared with others. It just requires the faith to know these ideas will come when they come, and to have the confidence to keep living while waiting for them to come, knowing the sweet release you'll feel when that bolt from the blue finally does hit... and you head for your computer... or pen and pad.

Still, there are things you can do to encourage inspiration, and one help can be to develope a writing routine for yourself. What this means is that you try each day to set aside a certain time that you will devote to writing or to at least the "percolating" of ideas in your mind. Here's my case in point...

... I try every day to sit at my desk from about 5pm or so... I have my computer there, my pens and notebooks, my box with scrap lines from poems that never got worked through, my music, my incense and my window... all vital things to me. And I try every day to give myself this time even if I don't write anything at all. Sometimes I just sit there... sometimes I read poetry from books... sometimes I have music playing... other times, I might sit and bang out 4 or 5 poems, feeling them come right on each other's tail... and I just want to sit and keep going, on through the night... and just feel that beautiful feeling of creating... of writing. But whether I produce anything or not, I give myself this time away from everything else to let whatever is going to happen, happen. And I don't mentally punish myself if nothing does come... I don't see it as wasted time at all. Because I still gave my mind time to think, and remember, and wander... I filled it with music and the poetry of other writers... or sometimes I even surf the net and look at art. All are things that can feed the mind, the soul and the source of creativity. Again... the writing will happen when it is time.

Don't ever begrudge yourself the time you DON'T write. You can't write if you don't live. And sometimes the strongest and most beautiful ideas and inspirations come when you're not looking for them. Take that walk in the evening... play with your children... watch that movie sitting on the coffee table... break out the new CD... go shopping. Live... and let your mind wander, let your memories be stirred, and let the things you see and feel become words inside of you. You'll find the writing will come then... and it will come sweetly.

If you drive yourself too much, or mentally kick yourself for what you might consider wasting time away from writing, you're going to tense up that creative muscle, and then nothing truly good and original will come from you. You'll be grinding the axel, so to speak... wearing out the break pad as you pressure yourself more and more to create. But that's like thinking about breathing, instead of just letting it happen. You'll choke.

I have a name I use for my hooky away from the keyboard, when I'm letting the world and movies and music fill me, and I'm awaiting inspiration... I call it a Media Blitz. And I don't mean that in the bad way... I mean it as letting music, images, TV, art, poetry,people and the world fill you and flow around you... let it all stir you. Let it take you to places you might not have thought of before... and go where it leads. It can lead to such wonderful originality... and in the end, it will ultimately lead you back to yourself... and you will write.

This Media Blitz idea came to me years back, when I would have some spare cash (that I probably should have saved, but being a dreamer and a poet, I always believe eventually my money tree WILL sprout bills of all denominations and I'll be just fine ;) ) and I would go to the Tower Records here in Cherry Hill and have a bit of a shopping spree. Ladies and gentlemen, I easily confess... I am a man who loves to shop, and can do it quickly and efficiently, lol... but I would go there after work, and get some magazines I liked, maybe a CD or two, and then end up in the movie section looking for something good to take home... then grab some more incense on the way to the register. The I would come home, and for the afternoon and next few days, I would immerse myself in my new finds. I would take in the music, the articles and pictures, and the drama and imagery of the movies... and even the scent and curls of smoke wafting in the air from my incense. And I would do this, and find myself stirred to want to create, to want to do something grand of my very own. Memories would be awakened, or new images created... and it was then only a few short steps to my keyboard.

I just want all writers out there to understand the value of walking away from it for some time. You just can't force inspiration... you have to let it happen. You may only write one great thing in your life, but wouldn't that be enough? To write even just one thing that maybe thousands would relate to, adore and take to heart? It's never about quantity... there are no score cards in art and writing, no matter what anyone else tells you. It all comes down to personal satisfaction, and knowing you did the best you could, you told what you had to tell... and that is came from the heart. Go walk... go listen... go watch, and go read... then go write, when you're ready... when you're ready.