Week 94 – Listen out for inspiration

As I said on Thursday, I was off to another open mike night – and what a lovely night it was!

There was only two people reading poetry, and only me doing original poetry, so I was a little nervous at the start, but it really was a very relaxed event.

The format was round-table, so I read on three separate occasions, and in between I could listen and enjoy performances by other people.

And the outcome of listening and being surrounded by music? I began editing the poems in my folder.

Before I carry on, I have to say that these were not new pieces. The most recent was written over a year ago, and everything I edited was either entered into a competition or was a piece of coursework: to all intents and purposes they were ‘complete’. But as I reviewed them, deciding which to read, I could see improvements as though they were highlighted in neon!

With the music going around me it was almost as though the different notes emphasised the different rhythms of the words.  Things I wasn’t quite satisfied with suddenly became clear, and lines I had struggled to adjust seemed to fall into place.  It was amazing – especially as I can’t normally concentrate when listening to music.  I couldn’t do it when people were singing, but listening to the varied instruments really seemed to unblock me.  I definitely need to sit with my other poems in that circle and see where the music takes me.

It’s worth trying even if like me you need silence to write in proper poetic form – sometimes a buzz of creative energy can really help!  Suffice it to say, I will be going back, and honing my reading and my writing 🙂

It’s been great to have a couple of poetry weeks but now I need to get back to the prose – I am going to finalise my bio and my synopsis this week and I also want to re-read the second novel and work out some of the kinks before I start on a second review of that, which I’d like to get underway in July.

I’m also a little overwhelmed with the courses with another archaeology course starting tomorrow and two nutrition ones ongoing; I’d like to finish what I can of them too.  By the end of the week I should be much more organised!

In other news – I read an interview with Khaled Hosseini today which struck a chord with me for a number of reasons: his understanding that over time his writing has changed, his feelings about calling himself a writer, and the importance of family.  I’m glad to see some of the same thoughts that I have about writing are reflecting in a multi-million-selling author!

And finally – I talked about setting up a writing group some while ago, because there was nothing I wanted near me.  Well, I have finally taken the first step and advertised in my local newsletter for interested parties to join one – as I said to my friend, if it just ends up three people in the pub every month, so be it – at least we’ll have a nice night out!

Happy writing,

EJ

🙂