Christopher Hivner's Blog - Posts Tagged "inspiration"
Progress and Accomplishment
I write both short stories and poetry and I find that I rarely work on both at the same time. If I haven’t written a new short story in a while I will feel the jones coming on. Within a few days I can’t stop turning my laptop on to write. If I’m at work or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office I have a notebook and a pen. The itch won’t be scratched until I’ve pounded out three or four new short stories. After all that work I’ll feel my energy wane. My desire to write a story has dissipated. So that’s when I get out my poetry notebook.
Poetry can be more satisfying to write in the short term because the sense of accomplishment comes so much sooner. A story may take weeks if it’s a long one and it fights back. A poem may only be 10-15 lines. If I get an inspiration I can feel that desired swell of completion in five minutes. The more involved poems can become like stories though. I wrote a ten page poem for a book project that took me weeks to get right. It wasn’t just the length; it was the tone and language. A poem that long has to draw the reader in and make them want to pull up a chair to sit a spell. At the other extreme a few years ago when I still had my cat Phantom, I had to sit in the vet’s waiting area for 45 minutes while he had a fluids treatment. For some reason I was inspired that day and in the midst of people talking, the phone ringing, dogs barking and cats crying, I wrote 5 poems. My feeling of accomplishment that day was sky high.
I don’t know why but I don’t too often write in both disciplines at the same time. I’m usually in a story mood or a poem mood. The humor will usually last for a few weeks before I switch to the other.
I admit that recently I have been working on both at the same time, probably because most of what I’ve written was for a specific project with a looming deadline. There have been days where I’ll work on a story for a few hours, and then before I go to bed, I shut off the laptop, open my poetry notebook, throw the switch in my brain’s control room and try to find poetic inspiration before falling asleep. A poem is nice that way for me, to work on before bed. If I can only find a line or two that’s acceptable before turning out the light, I still feel progress has been made.
In the past six weeks I’ve written 3 short stories and around 3 dozen poems which is about the most prolific I’ve ever been in a short spurt.
Poetry can be more satisfying to write in the short term because the sense of accomplishment comes so much sooner. A story may take weeks if it’s a long one and it fights back. A poem may only be 10-15 lines. If I get an inspiration I can feel that desired swell of completion in five minutes. The more involved poems can become like stories though. I wrote a ten page poem for a book project that took me weeks to get right. It wasn’t just the length; it was the tone and language. A poem that long has to draw the reader in and make them want to pull up a chair to sit a spell. At the other extreme a few years ago when I still had my cat Phantom, I had to sit in the vet’s waiting area for 45 minutes while he had a fluids treatment. For some reason I was inspired that day and in the midst of people talking, the phone ringing, dogs barking and cats crying, I wrote 5 poems. My feeling of accomplishment that day was sky high.
I don’t know why but I don’t too often write in both disciplines at the same time. I’m usually in a story mood or a poem mood. The humor will usually last for a few weeks before I switch to the other.
I admit that recently I have been working on both at the same time, probably because most of what I’ve written was for a specific project with a looming deadline. There have been days where I’ll work on a story for a few hours, and then before I go to bed, I shut off the laptop, open my poetry notebook, throw the switch in my brain’s control room and try to find poetic inspiration before falling asleep. A poem is nice that way for me, to work on before bed. If I can only find a line or two that’s acceptable before turning out the light, I still feel progress has been made.
In the past six weeks I’ve written 3 short stories and around 3 dozen poems which is about the most prolific I’ve ever been in a short spurt.
The Elusive Muse
Like most writers I use outside influences as inspirations. Music is my muse of choice. It can’t be anything with too many lyrics, or at least lyrics in English, because they’re too distracting. And it depends on what I want to write as to what I listen to. If I’m in my horror mode it will be death or doom metal. The music itself is perfect to create a dark, menacing mood and even though the songs have lyrics, you can’t understand a blind word because it’s mostly growls and grunts. I’ve written some good horror poems while listening to Beyond Black Void, a one-off project by a Belgian guitar player to create the most depressing doom metal ever written. I also like to write to Ahab and Burzum.
If I’m writing my mainstream poetry I’m very partial to Azam Ali either as a solo artist or with Vas or Niyaz. She has a gorgeous voice but sings entirely in Persian or other languages so instead of the lyrics distracting me, her sensual voice becomes another instrument mixed with the music. I also love Dead Can Dance. Lisa Gerrard is another female singer with a mesmerizing voice who sings almost entirely in other languages or made up sounds. When Brendan Perry sings it’s in English which can sometimes break my concentration. I just recently discovered a Norwegian group, Arcana, which also puts me in a good frame of mind, as well as Delerium.
Ambient music in general puts me in the mood to write: Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, David Parsons, Mind Over Matter, Appalachian Falls, etc. Here are a couple of links:
Vas -- Sunyata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMgRVV...
Dead Can Dance -- Yulunga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJqUbb...
David Parsons -- Himalaya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0sOSA...
Beyond Black Void -- Desolate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEs30Y...
Photographs and art work are also rich sources of inspiration for me. The simple photograph of a steer a few years ago gave me the idea for my short story “The Way of the Land” which was set in a medieval time period. I’ve written two poems after studying the painting Entres Les Trous de la Memoire by Dominique Appia. Recently I was trying to write a large batch of horror poems for a particular project. I started to run out of ideas so I opened a book I have on the work of Hieronymus Bosch. Concentrating on parts of The Last Judgment helped me to write three poems I was very happy with.
Entres Les Trous de la Memoire
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Entre-m%C3%A9...
A piece of The Last Judgment
http://www.flickr.com/photos/profzuck...
Recently I’ve made myself work a little harder. I was again in the mood to write some horror poetry but I wasn’t at home with easy access to my music or any artwork. I decided to look around the room I was in and write about the first thing that I saw. Over the next hour I wrote a poem from the starting point of a telephone and another from a yellow box of tissues. Later that night, back at home, I continued the experiment with a take-out menu and a container of powder. I’m working on one right now that started with a pine tree.
Here is the silly poem I wrote after glancing at a Chinese take-out menu:
The menu said
“finger sandwiches”
but I didn’t expect
a ham and cheese on rye
flipping me off
I know, not exactly Pablo Neruda, but it made me laugh.
If I’m writing my mainstream poetry I’m very partial to Azam Ali either as a solo artist or with Vas or Niyaz. She has a gorgeous voice but sings entirely in Persian or other languages so instead of the lyrics distracting me, her sensual voice becomes another instrument mixed with the music. I also love Dead Can Dance. Lisa Gerrard is another female singer with a mesmerizing voice who sings almost entirely in other languages or made up sounds. When Brendan Perry sings it’s in English which can sometimes break my concentration. I just recently discovered a Norwegian group, Arcana, which also puts me in a good frame of mind, as well as Delerium.
Ambient music in general puts me in the mood to write: Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, David Parsons, Mind Over Matter, Appalachian Falls, etc. Here are a couple of links:
Vas -- Sunyata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMgRVV...
Dead Can Dance -- Yulunga
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJqUbb...
David Parsons -- Himalaya
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0sOSA...
Beyond Black Void -- Desolate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEs30Y...
Photographs and art work are also rich sources of inspiration for me. The simple photograph of a steer a few years ago gave me the idea for my short story “The Way of the Land” which was set in a medieval time period. I’ve written two poems after studying the painting Entres Les Trous de la Memoire by Dominique Appia. Recently I was trying to write a large batch of horror poems for a particular project. I started to run out of ideas so I opened a book I have on the work of Hieronymus Bosch. Concentrating on parts of The Last Judgment helped me to write three poems I was very happy with.
Entres Les Trous de la Memoire
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Entre-m%C3%A9...
A piece of The Last Judgment
http://www.flickr.com/photos/profzuck...
Recently I’ve made myself work a little harder. I was again in the mood to write some horror poetry but I wasn’t at home with easy access to my music or any artwork. I decided to look around the room I was in and write about the first thing that I saw. Over the next hour I wrote a poem from the starting point of a telephone and another from a yellow box of tissues. Later that night, back at home, I continued the experiment with a take-out menu and a container of powder. I’m working on one right now that started with a pine tree.
Here is the silly poem I wrote after glancing at a Chinese take-out menu:
The menu said
“finger sandwiches”
but I didn’t expect
a ham and cheese on rye
flipping me off
I know, not exactly Pablo Neruda, but it made me laugh.
