All writers, and artists generally I should imagine, have times of what feels like low creativity. The urge to write dwindles and it feels as if you can no longer call yourself a poet. This happened to me during the writing of ‘A Bench for Billie Holiday’, about five or six years ago.
I remember very clearly thinking that I had to take charge and write something every day. And that’s what I did. I ‘churned out’ a sonnet pretty well very morning for about a month, so thirty or so. Of variable quality some of them had lines of which I was proud, or which would demand another look. But it was the feeling of achievement of doing something which spurred me.
I decided to do the same at the beginning of this month and send any new poems off to a friend, not for feedback but using them as a witness to my writing and to act as a kind of sonnet bank. I have about twenty poems now and again the feeling of motivation gained from just writing something is ahem extremely motivating….
And then last week Corinne Pollard [whom I had first met as student in a Calderdale high school], contacted me about an article they wanted to write about sonnet writing, referencing me and the greatest master of them all, Shakespeare. It was published online and I found it to be a very engaging, informative piece.
Again a motivating experience, as well as interesting to see what poems she chose….
You can read it on:
https://horrortree.com/how-to-write-a-sonnet
But for getting yourself in the writing mood, try the daily writing challenge… it may work for you too.
