I hope these may be of use to you in whichever creative endeavor you are looking for.
Write the same exact poem three times. This can be a poem of your invention, or a favorite poem you’ve read recently. Then, re-write the poem as if to be comedic, tragic, or romantic. If you’re struggling to re-write an entire poem, try starting by reading them aloud with the unique tones. What does a comedic reading sound like when compared to a romantic reading? If you’re struggling to re-write an entire poem, try starting with one line of the poem, one image from it, or even three words from it. Do you make yourself laugh? Cry? Yearn? Are these the goals of comedy, tragedy, romance? Consider what effort accomplishes for the goal of a tone.
Go for a walk. Maybe touch your hands to opposite ankles ten or fifteen times each when you step outside just to limber out. You could even kick and wiggle your legs. Go for a walk and try to find as much language staring at your face as you can. In more rural environments, road signs and sign posts in front yards, and bumper stickers all carry words. Write them down. In more urban environments, graffiti and road signs and flyers and billboards all carry words, even in minimalism, for you to use. When you’ve gathered enough, try to write a poem using the words you found in your walk. Oftentimes, writers will talk about the poem finding them, but I find that artists will discredit the natural-artifice of language sprung around them at any location, any time. From my view currently I see the words ‘Fine,’ ‘Massive,’ ‘Gazelle,’ ‘Rule,’ ‘Guido,’ ‘Sin,’ and ‘Conditions.’
Guido sin.
Fine. Rule conditions.
Massive gazelle.
I knew a Guido’s sin and kept myself
fine. Rule was a coarse tether to the conditions
of the Savannah. Everything massive.
This herd of gazelle with no grass between the concrete.
Voice record yourself for two minutes. Talk casually, comfortably, not with a purposeful elocution for the machine listening but as if chattering with a confidant. Then use the words that the machine couldn’t get right — the ones with the red underline, or the ones that were awkwardly misheard — and start your journal entry with these words.
What’s the closest large hill or mountain to you? And what’s the numerical value of its height? Follow the numbers. Mount Rainier is close to me. Its highest peak is 14,411 feet. It is the 4th most prominent peak in North America. And has a topographic isolation of 731 miles. Four ‘1’s throughout the collection of values. Four ‘4’s. One ‘7’ for the necessary representation of luck and fate. One ‘3’ to tell you exactly how many distinct digits you’re intended to consider here: One, four, seven. Square and angular, the personality of Mount Rainier is one of stability, reliability. Like a Taurus, but with the touch of a water sign alongside to ensure its cosmic integrity.
You know of doppelgängers but what of the unlikeness? Draw or describe the subject that, upon being seen, one would know that is absolutely not you.
I hope these find you with grace and tenderness.