If writer’s block is keeping you from finishing your manuscript, try reading a poem. When you finish, type the entire poem–the process of literally writing poetry will jump-start your creativity.
Author and journalist Jeff Gordinier outlined the method in an essay: “I buy somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 books of poetry each year, and when I find a particular poem that moves me, I’ll hold that page open with a paperweight and meticulously type up the poem, line by line, comma by comma. So my friends weren’t surprised when I told them a Don Paterson poem had moved me so much that I had, on impulse, booked a trip to Scotland.”
You can find pages and pages of poems at the Poetry Foundation. Browse its poetry archive by topic, season or poet to find the perfect inspiration.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
What does your writing website look like?
Is it like my personal site, with lo-fi graphics and quick, dirty template? Or is it like Tony D'Souza's with a quiet theme, nice pictures and lots of content?
Today, The Book Publicity Blog is exploring some of the more avant-garde author websites out there, talking about cheaper ways to make your site look better.
Check out this link-filled post:
"Wednesday evening Rebecca Skloot posted about Sloane Crosley’s website for her new book on the NBCC blog Critical Mass. This morning, the Ad Man wrote up Toby Barlow’s site for his new book on M. J. Rose’s blog Buzz, Balls & Hype. They couldn’t look more different (Barlow’s is heavy on flash, Crosley’s has a more basic vibe) yet both are equally cool and creative."
If you are looking for some more website building advice, check out my video interview with journalist Jeff Gordinier about his DIY book promotion.
I spend about an hour every day pacing around the streets of New York, playing my favorite songs over and over on my headphones. Life is not a musical, but I do absolutely everything possible to fool my writing brain into thinking that life is a musical.
If I'm blocked, I listen to a song from high school or college, and I write about what I remember when I listen to that song. It's the best way to make myself write.
Think you can't do it? Run, don't walk, to Largehearted Boy's wonderful site where the journalist Jeff Gordinier shares his favorite songs--delivering a story with each tune. Gordinier is a friend from Details magazine, and next week he'll be our special Five Easy Questions guest--discussing music, family and book promotion, and his new book, X Saves the World.
Until then, here's a largehearted sample:
"'Good Morning, Captain,' by Slint. This comes from an obscure-but-influential 1991 album called Spiderland, which is a perfect title, because Slint specialized in weaving meticulous, ritualized, delicate-yet-deadly webs of sound. I once went down to Houston to write about a conference attended by hundreds of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Spiderland, intentionally, was the only CD I brought along in the rental car."
