Day Twenty-Two – Occasions

Occasions are a rich source of inspiration – think about all the parties, funerals, weddings, graduations etc… that you have been too. Pick one; recall how emotionally charged the event was, what were people wearing, saying, was there background noise or an ominous silence?

Yummy cake or cheap beer? What did it smell like? Rose petals? Cigarette smoke?

Take the feelings and the imagery and write! Maybe use it as an extended metaphor for the process of life or some such 🙂

Day Twenty-One – Sweet Wrappers

Collect together some sweet wrappers – these are often pretty coloured foils or transparent coloured plastic – think of what a treasure box they can make.

Of how they inspire the magpie instinct in us.

Look at how the light catches the creases and the metallic sheen of them. The sweet burnt sugar smell that often lingers and even the annoying stickiness!

Write these musings down and you might be surprised at what you find!

Day Twenty – Dark Geometry

Look at this beautiful photo – showing what you would think of as an ancient mandala type pattern – instead this is part of an electricity pylon. Think about how the photographer has made the mundane and even ugly into something of mysticism and wonder.

(Picture kindly donated for use by WoPoWriMo by Ella Gale please do not use the photo for anything other than the writing exercise – if you want to use it for something else ask Ella!)

Think about the strong black lines and their contrast to the background.

Or write about it in anyway you want – look at it and let it inspire you!

Day Nineteen – Coffee

Do you love coffee? Do you hate it? Do you worship hot drinks of all varieties or think that caffeine is the worst discovery ever made?

Think of the different types of coffee; of bitter and rich, golden or brown, of a head of warm white froth or the smooth glide of the latte going down.

Preferably have a cup there in front of you so you can smell it – yes even if you hate the stuff!

Now write… go on! Pick up that pen!

Day Eighteen – Museums

Go for an afternoon to either a museum or art gallery – in the UK at least a lot of these are free for the most part. Again carry a note book or something to record information on. Look at the exhibits – does anything jump out at you – that painting over there, the steward asleep in their chair.

Record these little snippets – any interesting facts you read about an object. If your an artist you might want to to make a quick sketch.

This gives you snippets to take away with you to write from another day. But you can also find one exhibit or gallery that touches something – if this happens or even if you think it just might be happening – sit down and write – don’t worry about structure or spellings – just pour the thoughts onto the page – you can edit it when you get home.

Day Seventeen – Fantasy Worlds

Go to the library and get out a fantasy art book – it can be one on how to draw or one by a specific artist.

Look through the book; these books are full of strange, beautiful and hideous sights. Look closely at a few of the pictures and try writing from them.

If you get stuck, just describe the scene and your emotional reaction to it, or think about what happened just before or just after the picture in time.

Day Sixteen – Animals and Children

Love them, loath them?

They are a great source of inspiration for the writer; listen to the way young children speak, watch the way cats sun themselves on shed roofs, watch how the child pulls the tail of the cat and then looks shocked when it hisses and scratches.

Think on these things and start writing – it may feed back into your own childhood or parenthood. Just don’t go lurking around school playgrounds, though – you will get arrested!

Day Fifteen – Time for a Walk

Poets are really very lucky – they are mobile!

Take a note book and pen, or at least your phone so you can text yourself, and simply go for a walk.

Walk around for maybe an hour in either the country or the town and observe the world – look at the sunlight slanting through the trees or how it turns the stone buildings into honey. Think about how cold and miserable you are and how you hope the note book isn’t too soggy to write on.

Then when something hits you as a particularly good observation write it down. When you get back home or slink into a coffee shop or flop in the dappled shade of a tree, see what comes out when you look at those notes and just start writing.

Day Fourteen – Whispers

Invite some fellow poets or writers or friends round, have a stack of poetry books about and plenty of paper and pens!

Sit in a circle and get one person to open a book, choose a line of poetry or prose from it, and then whisper it into the ear of the person next to them. They then in turn whisper it to the next person and it goes round the circle. Once you get back to the beginning the last person says what it is they heard – this will normally be altered from the original and may well be something fresh and inspiring (and hopefully not too rude)!

Write these altered lines down. Once you’ve got a few and you’re bored of the game all sit down with them and try constructing a poem or two from what you have.

Day Twelve – Collage

Look through the magazines or old catalogs you have laying around the house – newspapers, old travel guides, anything that you don’t mind destroying but has pretty pictures in!

Now leaf through them and pick out the images that resonate with you – if none do just pick ones you like the look of! Now cut them out and stick them onto a piece of card or paper. This is an image collage and a source of inspiration.

Think about how you’ve laid out your pictures – are they overlapping – did you mean to do that – does it set up a nice relationship between the two?

Now start writing.

If you are neat and want to think about the composition more then these collages can easily be turned into Visual Poems (VisPo).