Archive for the ‘Exercises’ Category:
Written on February 2nd, 2025 by adminno shouts
For some this is the cusp of spring, with rituals surround Iambic or Saint Brigids’s Day, for others it is a slight lessening of the winter – a hint that the world will unfreeze. We have just had the Chinese New year and others yet have this as the end of their Christmas celebrations when the wise mean came to visit. I call this time of year the Promise of Spring and the light coming through the window can be bright and pleasantly warm.
What does this time of year mean to you? What of the picture? A summer creature the lady bird is imbued with the winter sun and something magical has happened – write about this magic or if you want just write from t he image. Write for 20 mins.
Or read up on the myths and practices that go with this time of yeah – what are the over arching themes? What deities are associated and what are they like? Write for 10 minutes about 5 of these facets.
Written on February 1st, 2025 by adminno shouts
Today is the first day of the 2025 writing challenge – so crack your note book out or electronic devise of choice and let’s get writing!
First off look out the window…. what is the weather doing? If the weather was a person what would they be like? Do they like travelling? If so what type of travelling and to where?
Write for half an hour.
If this exercise doesn’t suite you there are plenty more in the archive under Exercises.
Written on January 7th, 2025 by adminno shouts
Happy New Year – well we’ve made it through the fist quarter contrary of the New Millennium!
So what have you got planed? Anything interesting? If not don’t worry you can just roll with the universe and see where it takes you!
But if you are in between the ultra organised and the go with the flow then you might want to grab some paper or electronic device of choice and start thinking about what you want achieve this year… do you want to write more? Submit poems to magazines and journals? Read more? Make a list of these and make it a BIG BOLD list and put it up on a wall or door or cork board – somewhere you will see it regularly every day! If they are obvious finishable task then tick them off as they are completed and if you need rewards to be motivated then sort out some rewards for finishing off the hard stuff (we all find different things difficult and if say submitting poems is hard for you then reward yourself when you have completed the task!). If it is an on going thing then maybe make a mark to count how many times you have work towards or done a repetition of these kinds of tasks.
Obviously we are interested in your New Year Poetry pledges!
Here are some ideas of pledges or resolution to make:
1) Write for 5 minutes before bed every nights
2) Spend 1 hour a week editing and sending poems off for publication
3) Get a new note book and see how fast you can fill it
4) Make little notes every time you come across something inspiring, if you made one of these books last year then start writing from the notes.
5) Take a phone or other recording device on walks and strolls and adlib poems whilst looking at and recording interesting spaces such as fish swimming in your local pond. (different countries have different rules on photo taking and video recording and some parks may have their own rules so make sure you know what your local areas is.)
6) Read a poetry book each month.
7) Go to the local poetry reading night.
8) Take part in your first poetry slam or performance night.
9) Take up journaling and see what snippets and poems natural arise from the pages.
10) Enroll on that course you’ve been thinking about.
These are just ideas – try coming up with your own.
Happy New Year and good luck with any resolution you choose to attempt!
Written on February 1st, 2023 by adminno shouts
This is a photo of the sun burning away the mist on a winters morning but it might well be an alien world or just swirls of colour in a paint pot – what is it to you? What do you see? What happen in that sky, in those tree branches or around the roots? What is this landscape and what is its story?
Begin writing for 15 minutes – if you are initially stuck try just describing the image.
Written on February 28th, 2020 by adminno shouts
This building is open to the elements but how did it get that way? Is it part of something lost or forgotten? Or is it something old being shredded back down to basics so something new can arise? Have the fairies taken over?
Write down what you think for 20 minutes, then take keep points or phrases you like out of the writing and see if it fits together nicely, you may find changing the order the phrases appear in helpful.
Written on February 23rd, 2020 by adminno shouts
Sometimes modernity mimics the legends and folklore of old! Take this machine with its two heads, it seems to have a hydra like quality, an old Greek Myth about a dragon or serpent who grew two heads for every one you managed to chop off!
Have noticed any other parallels between the modern world and that of our ancestors?
Why not outline a modern form of a myth using objects we see around ourselves each and every day?
Written on February 18th, 2020 by adminno shouts
Cities are often seen as vibrant and full of life – even the graffitied underworld is full of make shift structures and a life of its own but what of the border lands? The places in between, the forgotten industrial grandeur that lurks in random places in all cities? These places are full of memories and ghosts of what once was. Do you remember visiting such places? Weeds grow through the pavement and the skeletons of the buildings are spilling out from the inside.
Try and remember such places or look at the photo provided and spend half an hour describing what it feels, smells, and looks like.
Written on February 13th, 2020 by adminno shouts
Sometimes there are things in life that are not obvious – they could be one thing but then they could be another, sometimes they are neither and sometimes they are both and sometimes their purpose changes depends on what else is happening and who else is around!
Have you ever experienced this? Or seen it in some form? Take a few minutes to think about it and if you truly can not come up with anything you can just start by describing the photograph. Once you have decided what scenario or object you are going to write about do 30 minutes or response writing – do not worry if it makes sense and do not go back and delete just keep writing.
Once this is done go through what you have written and pull out any interesting phrases – these may make a poem with just a bit of tweaking and rearranging or they might just be the jumping off phrases for other pieces of writing. If they are jumping off pieces do a further 10 minutes of writing from each – maybe using them as titles or first lines.
Written on February 8th, 2020 by adminno shouts
What does this musty rubble strewn landscape say to you? What is the history behind the industry that erected such chimneys? Go a read an article on these old red brick chimneys or maybe watch a documentary on them and then write about the world from the perspective of the chimney. This writing may well be the seeds of a poem or even a short story.
Written on February 3rd, 2020 by adminno shouts
Towers of any type are mystical and when I saw this tower peeking out from behind the rubble I knew it was the perfect opportunity to create something magical – not necessarily nice but definitely magical. Alternatively this image can be seem as the epitome of industrial practicalness and completely devoid of any magic or mystery at all. I personally see it as some strange and fantastic combination of both of these.
Write on the image for 20 minutes.
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