Nancy Schoellkopf
Here are a few things that have worked for me. Try them and let me know how it goes.
1. Meditate.
2. Go swimming.
3. Sit in the center of your house where it's quiet and there are no windows and scream.
4. Go to a hardware store and collect paint chips. Choose three or six or nine colors that have amazing names, arrange the names like a poem, then chant them like a mantra. Trust me: bliss.
5. Read. Read poetry. Read the latest piece of literary fiction on the NYT best seller list. Read a thriller or a romance you buy in the grocery store. Re-read your very favorite books from each decade of your life. If that doesn't inspire you to write, find your favorite poems or prose paragraphs from these books and copy them in your notebook. Feel the rhythm.
When I went back to school in my mid-30s to get my teaching credentials and I was overwhelmed writing lesson plans and term papers and abstracts of research articles, I told my Mom I was so burnt out and afraid I'd never be able to write poetry again. My mother was one of the kindest women who ever lived . She said, "It will come back." BELIEVE MY MOM! Now go call the kindest person you know! It will help.
1. Meditate.
2. Go swimming.
3. Sit in the center of your house where it's quiet and there are no windows and scream.
4. Go to a hardware store and collect paint chips. Choose three or six or nine colors that have amazing names, arrange the names like a poem, then chant them like a mantra. Trust me: bliss.
5. Read. Read poetry. Read the latest piece of literary fiction on the NYT best seller list. Read a thriller or a romance you buy in the grocery store. Re-read your very favorite books from each decade of your life. If that doesn't inspire you to write, find your favorite poems or prose paragraphs from these books and copy them in your notebook. Feel the rhythm.
When I went back to school in my mid-30s to get my teaching credentials and I was overwhelmed writing lesson plans and term papers and abstracts of research articles, I told my Mom I was so burnt out and afraid I'd never be able to write poetry again. My mother was one of the kindest women who ever lived . She said, "It will come back." BELIEVE MY MOM! Now go call the kindest person you know! It will help.
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