Motivation Mondays: Inspiration for 30/30!

Oh my goodness! It’s almost April! National Poetry Writing Month! A bunch of my friends and I write and post a poem a day every April. For a half-introvert like me, it’s almost more fun than Nation Poetry Slam events, and in some ways, it’s a better way to get to know people.

I love any writing game that does the good old surrealist trick of accessing the unconscious and bypassing the inner censors with fast and urgent writing. I LOVE being forced to use whatever I have from day to day and of COURSE I like any excuse to be in touch with everybody more.

If you have any favorite writing prompts/games, email them to me: serotoninfactory@gmail.com. I’ll post and try as many as I can.

Here are some ideas to keep you going:

1. Get What It Is by Lynda Barry. It’s my favorite ANYTHING about the creative process. You’ll have infinite writing prompts and a heartening new perspective on getting drafts down without judgment. I really can’t recommend this book enough.
2. Write a pantoum.
3. Cut up a pop song.
4. Cut up Blessing the Boats by Lucille Clifton and make someone a benediction.
5. Write about all of the stuff that pisses you off.
6. Come out of the closet even more.
7. Write letters to people, places, things.
8. Read Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens and write your own____ Ways of Looking at _____.
9. Save your Scrabble words and your Apples to Apples words to make into poems. I haven’t actually tried this one yet, but I think it might work.
10. And of course: