So I'm a writer and poet, I had a bit of writer's block, and, in light of my recent experience, decided the best solution was an enema - writing 100 poems in a single day.
People have been suggesting titles for the poems, and I now have a decent pool for my 100. I'm going to start at 9am on Thursday 26th Nov, and work through hopefully until 11pm, although I might have to go on for a bit longer if I'm behind. Obviously midnight is the cutoff for 100 - I'm hoping I don't end up going to the wire. I'll be posting each poem title up on my Twitter as I start, so people can follow along and have a go at writing their own version if they like. On average, I'll be giving myself 8 minutes per poem. When each one's done, I'll post it up on this blog until I've (hopefully) got 100. In the days that follow, I'm hoping anyone who's had a go themselves will email me their poems, which I'll add to the blog as alternate versions. It'd be great to have a whole bunch of speed poems by other people off the back of it.
What will be the result? 100 substandard poems I should imagine. But also maybe some ideas for new stuff. It's just a big writing exercise, really, and I hope you'll feel just the right mix of inspiration and pity to join in with at least one poem, then send it to me afterwards. And if you're reading this after the whole thing has happened, then I hope I didn't fail and that some other people joined in, and that we have a quite interesting compendium of attempts at poetry that ends up being useful to mine when you're stuck for ideas, or just fun to look through and gloat when you're stuck, as a way of reminding yourself that it's better not to try than to have a go and expose yourself as crap.
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I shall be in the middle of nanowrimo, and at work, and poetry confuses and scares me. But I may try one or two.
ReplyDeleteI think this is really exciting! Looking forward to seeing the results.
ReplyDeleteThis was such a brilliant idea!
ReplyDeleteI've never speed written anything before, but I think it's got to be the key to getting out of writers block.
You sir, have inspired me. I think I am going to attempt the feat myself. Though 100 is quite a scary number, I think I'm going to be a bit more of a pussy about it and attempt 50.
Thank you =]