Writers block has been kicking me in the nuts.

chadwick

Sky was living flesh.
Used to breathe me in and tattoos.
Sun was feeding life and all the world.
From greed of man came starvation.
Rain built growth in green colors golden wheat.
These tears pour down throughout drowning slums of disposed land.
From non-recycled tree roots on up to canopy, shed all of a single tear.
Stand in burning sands while snowflakes twist around in gradual extinction.
These stars used to be our vision, our sight.
Such beautiful eyes were held as cherished dreams of magic.
Now pollution begs for its unfolding of everything beautiful.
Sorrow is visions grief in sight, these eyes are dying stars boiling in toxic wastelands.
Imagine deep seas darkened abyss or topical paradise all for endless fish numbers.
Pipe-pumping-chemicals-offshore-oil-spills-trillion-dollar-luxury-silver-spoon.
Rest our heads upon a silken penthouse suite pillar so soft the rat race below is muffled.
We are all furniture of Earth.

chadwick

go beneath this water soaked star, swim out to the old growth forest.
hear the sounds of a singing treetops shoreline.
hummingbird wings gently carry you off to sleep.
no longer sweetly enlightened sunshine but a nuclear warhead solution.

DopeBeastie

yipes... wear a cup!

FinsburyParkCarrots

Create two characters, old friends suddenly reunited after several years. Describe the socio-economic status, politics and attitudes of each person; flesh them out; consider how the two characters have grown apart in their fortunes and opinions and how they cope with the revelation of their distance. How do they negotiate this change with themselves and each other? How could you narrate their past closeness and contrast it with the present world of the narrative?

Now, think of an event, a situation that happens to bring these two together either to reconciliation or to conflict. It could be a football match, a shared love, an accident: The more you exercise your imagination with the realms of realism the better! Then, focus on the psychological dynamics between the two characters.

You could write a short story, a piece of dramatic script or a poem, but the key thing is to try to express not only the spoken but the silent language of distance.

lobb152

just stop trying

FinsburyParkCarrots

lobb152 wrote:

just stop trying

Dreadful "advice." Many writers never try, and they spew garbage. Writers' block often happens not when people can't think of words or a theme, but when they want to raise their personal standard and avoid repeating themselves. The whole point to writing is to try: what does the word "essay" mean, for example?

catefrances

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Dreadful "advice." Many writers never try, and they spew garbage. Writers' block often happens not when people can't think of words or a theme, but when they want to raise their personal standard and avoid repeating themselves. The whole point to writing is to try: what does the word "essay" mean, for example?

well for me essay means i am totally fucking screwed cause i don't like the formal structure. it end to write prose the way i think and talk and apparently that does not translate well to essay writing. i get away with it with some of my teachers cause we are on the same wave length. but i have discovered this semester that shock! horror!, some do not like my style. at this stage of my life i won't be changing the way i write. tis enough they're even getting the essay in the first place.

catefrances

well for me essay means i am totally fucking screwed cause i don't like the formal structure. i tend to write prose the way i think and talk and apparently that does not translate well to essay writing. i get away with it with some of my teachers cause we are on the same wave length. but i have discovered this semester that shock! horror!, some do not like my style. at this stage of my life i won't be changing the way i write. tis enough they're even getting the essay in the first place.

FinsburyParkCarrots

catefrances wrote:

well for me essay means i am totally fucking screwed cause i don't like the formal structure. i tend to write prose the way i think and talk and apparently that does not translate well to essay writing. i get away with it with some of my teachers cause we are on the same wave length. but i have discovered this semester that shock! horror!, some do not like my style. at this stage of my life i won't be changing the way i write. tis enough they're even getting the essay in the first place.

I wasn't talking about formal academic essays, as much as the philosophical notion of a prolonged discourse as an attempt to express an idea. Wordsworth might have fancied the idea of a poem as a spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, but this doesn't mean his poems weren't like essays in that they tried to hold a mirror up to nature. Structure and form isn't all of what an essay is. As you know, essayer is the French for "to try", and every work of art tries, whether it's figurative, abstract or conceptual, to try to reflect a feeling or world view.

The Wikipedia entry on the essay doesn't do a bad job in showing that its "meaning" is vague:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essay


I think most examples of art are essays, attempts.

FinsburyParkCarrots

Er, yep, that sentence I wrote about trying to try shows that we need the edit function back. But then, I guess every artist tries to try.

catefrances

i'm not listening to you anymore fins. i was listening to cpt beefheart today and i have to say, it had me shaking my head. maybe walking the city streets en route to my fave lebanese restaurant wasn't the best place to have my first beefheart experience. i was picturing you drunk and you thinking the good captain was the best shit ever. maybe it'll take some time for me to appreciate the finer points of beefheart. and to top it off zappa produced the trout album. fuck! :rolleyes: thanks for that.

FinsburyParkCarrots

catefrances wrote:

i'm not listening to you anymore fins. i was listening to cpt beefheart today and i have to say, it had me shaking my head. maybe walking the city streets en route to my fave lebanese restaurant wasn't the best place to have my first beefheart experience. i was picturing you drunk and you thinking the good captain was the best shit ever. maybe it'll take some time for me to appreciate the finer points of beefheart. and to top it off zappa produced the trout album. fuck! :rolleyes: thanks for that.

Ah, well, I should have said, the first time I listened to that album, I had to do so from outside the room from which it was playing. Not with it strapped into me lug'oles.

catefrances

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

Ah, well, I should have said, the first time I listened to that album, I had to do so from outside the room from which it was playing. Not with it strapped into me lug'oles.

well someone suggested that i be either stoned or drunk whilst listening. and be sure to crank it up.

FinsburyParkCarrots

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better." - Samuel Beckett

DopeBeastie

There is no try, there is only do.



lol




Got the block? Write about that!

I like what you said, Fins, about block coming from raising the bar on one's own art. That's good.

chadwick

thank you folks for the imput.

however, for me these days i might
have a block from writing due to the fact
i can be seen working 80 hrs or more per week

is this writers block or is it something else

lately i rarely have time for decent sleep

i am exhausted, yet plugging away

justam

Do you HAVE to work that much?

FinsburyParkCarrots

chadwick wrote:

thank you folks for the imput.

however, for me these days i might
have a block from writing due to the fact
i can be seen working 80 hrs or more per week

is this writers block or is it something else

lately i rarely have time for decent sleep

i am exhausted, yet plugging away

I have an idea! Can I create some music on mp3, send it to you, and see what it suggests to you in poetry? Grasshopper had an idea for collaborations, too, awhile back. It might just have the combined effect of relaxing you but inspiring your energies?

Cheers, man,
Richard

FinsburyParkCarrots

PastaNazi wrote:

There is no try, there is only do.



lol




Got the block? Write about that!

I like what you said, Fins, about block coming from raising the bar on one's own art. That's good.

Oi, wummin! Ya got married! Love to ya!


Now, I have this idea of webcam jams. Chadwick on his cam, you on yours (buy one), me on mine, and everyone else on theirs. We'll create a web-conference-jam, and even if the time factor fooks oop, we'll create something lovelier than the constraints of prehistoric message boards will allow.

chadwick

justam wrote:

Do you HAVE to work that much?

this time of year is insane, yes i do have to work this much.

chadwick

FinsburyParkCarrots wrote:

I have an idea! Can I create some music on mp3, send it to you, and see what it suggests to you in poetry? Grasshopper had an idea for collaborations, too, awhile back. It might just have the combined effect of relaxing you but inspiring your energies?

Cheers, man,
Richard

create your music mp3 thingy and send-er on over.
thanks finsburyparkcarrots

FinsburyParkCarrots

Okay, I'll make something up tomorrow!