Word Association exercise

Word associations can almost make a poem in and of themselves, no matter where you start. Now, whether that poem makes sense to anybody but you is up in the air, but what's that Stephen King says? Write your first draft with the door closed, edit with the door open? That's a lot like "write for yourself", isn't it? That's what so many of us do, isn't it? I say that a lot, probably. Because really, who else am I writing for right now? A hypothetical future? Hypothetical children who will be embarrassed by my badness or boldness?

You can start with a simple thing. A state.

Nebraska
Bruce Springsteen
Asbury park
sun gold summer
barefoot
dewy green grass
lightning bugs at dusk
stars in the gloaming
Cheshire smile moon
Andy did you hear about this one?

The words that come out of you can be a punch in the stomach, a slap in the face. Writing is so private and so raw, sometimes. We're naked, it the audience knows how to look. We're inscrutable if they don't. Friends, strangers. Sometimes it doesn't matter. The worlds in our heads are of our own creation, and the windows we create to them can be so small.

In the Headlines

Sometimes, people ask me where ideas come from. And sometimes I don't know.

Other times, I can truthfully say that I've gotten inspiration from reading the news. I know I'm not the only one.

Your Limits Will Set You Free

In writing classes, when an assignment was handed out, most of the other students sighed, and rolled their eyes, and sometimes even ignored it and did what they wanted anyway. I can't say that I never did what I wanted anyway, but for the most part, I was happy to have the assignment. Writing assignments can challenge you to step out of your comfortable crevice and do something new with your writing, and doing something new can be when you learn and grow.