Letters from NYC

Pondering: Words & Exercises

Dear Jean:

I really hope you don’t mind this open letter, but I couldn’t resist on 2 counts. First, I think you’re a brilliant poet and writer and enjoy your words tremendously and seeing as your muse had left thought I might help. Second, I felt like writing to someone tonight and on this occassion you happen to be it!

I read on your latest post your request for suggestions as you felt you were bogged in a creative fetid pond. How terrible of your muse to leave you in such a place! I hope you won’t mind, but I'd like to share a few of the exercises I was given in my grad school writing program to coax our muses into returning quickly when they had abandoned us.

1) Open a book of your choice at random, preferably a work of fiction. As you flip through the pages in the book, stick your index fix in the book letting it rest somewhere on the page and read the passage where your finger lands. Then either write a sagacious assessment of a character or scene from either an omniscient writer’s perspective or a visceral response to what you’ve read as either another character or an omniscient reader.

2) Your word play is phenomenal and often inspires me to write a few stanzas of my own. It was suggested to me by a published poet I respect that I should read poets I am unfamiliar with to become inspired. For that I go to either poetry.com or google certain key words and sometimes will add poem in the mix. Sometimes it can be a miss, but the last time I did it I found you, so sometimes it’s a big hit!

3) Recently I’ve been going through a poetic dry spell and felt my muse had left once again in a huff because I wasn’t paying him any mind (yes, my muse is a man). So I went to Barnes and Noble and went to the section called Writer’s on Writing and came across a book called The Pocket Muse: ideas and inspiration for writing. I loved this book so much I bought it. Here’s an exercise I picked at random: Write about the worst visitor who ever darkened your door. Ironically, I already wrote a funny post about that. Its a cynical email response I sent declining his request to visit again.

4) Or you can do like I do at times, visit a new blog at random and strike up a conversation via comments with new bloggers. I’ve encountered the most interesting people that way, you included!

Well, I hope one of these inspires your muse to return, if not there’s lots more where that came from. I Look forward to reading your pearls once again.

m\

Posted by Michele at March 4, 2007 09:35 PM