Find The Way To Write That Works For You
- A chapter from How To Write Evocative Poetry -
Writing feels akin to a combination of exorcising a demon, giving birth, and the following of a holy calling. There is a reason you are reading this book. It is the reason you want to write. You may not even be able to articulate it, beyond a drive, a push, a force, that seems to be moving you in a certain direction. You know when you hold the negative poles of two magnets, how one is compelled to move? You can hold it back, but there will forever be tension.
Back when I started, I was running. I knew what I didn’t want to be, or rather I needed to pin it down on the page, effectively creating a massive warning sign that states ‘danger, do not enter’. My past held demons, but I didn’t yet know where to go to escape them.
The calling came next; the small still voice, gently putting me onto a path, or perhaps helping me to create it. A compass pointing to my true north, the distant mountain I am to summit.
Then came the climb, or perhaps the birth. Then, as now, with this book, it is a process of deep learning, change, challenge, and introspection. Each time I look at the summit prior to starting out, I believe I can. Then halfway through I see just how much further I must go – and question everything. But a birth can’t stop halfway. It is coming whether I want it to or not. So ultimately, I find myself both pushed and pulled, by a force outside of my control, and find myself pushing and pulling with everything in my control to safely arrive at the summit, to safely birth my baby.
My first job was at McDonalds. Back then they operated on a push system, the workers would pre-emptively make a bunch of Big Macs, waiting for the customers to choose them. Then McDonalds switched to a pull system. Nothing was premade, a Big Mac would be made to order. Each approach has its positives and negatives, and whilst the pull system resulted in fresher food, it was slower. Thus, during peak times, customers had to wait longer because we could no longer cook in bulk.
I share this with you here because there is an analogy to writing. You need to find the approach that works for you. I used to approach all my writing as a push system. I would look for external direction, I would write to a topic or whatever current affair was in the news, or I would answer a university essay question. This ‘worked’ as I was able to get the job done, but it wasn’t inspired. It wasn’t magical. My work had little soul. But I was able to produce. Output was functional and predictable. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t work for me with poetry – it may for you though so don’t discount it just yet.
I write poetry on a pull system. The universe, the muse, my creativity, the poem itself, or some other sort of force seems to demand that a poem is written. I have learnt to listen to the customers’ orders so to speak, ensuring that I am ready to create when that order comes. You have probably felt this yourself. The shower thought, the idea that wakes you up at night, the concept that grasps you out of the malaise of existence and into the world beyond. Something is coming and it simply must be written.
I have learnt to both give myself the time and space to be open to receiving those orders (meditation, down time, silence), and ensuring that I always have a tool on hand and ready (notepad, phone, laptop). Every person’s process, like every restaurant, will have their own unique approach to creation, and to creating different things on the menu. My poetry is pure ‘pull’, but my books, podcasts, blog, and fiction are a combination of both. I am pulled to an idea, but then I need to dedicate the time to push it into existence.
This chapter is from the book How To Write Evocative Poetry
