Fighting writers block with film reviews
I'm a great believer in writing every day. Whether it be a couple of lines or a whole poem, its all part of exercising my poetic muscle. Sometimes these exercises will appear on line as a tweet or an Instagram post. Not always good, often mediocre, sometimes awful, but I'm still glad I made the effort. Some days I find it easy to put pen to paper but on others I struggle for inspiration. There are a few tricks I have learnt to use and I'd like to share one with you.Yesterday I was struggling to write anything coherent (insert joke here), the TV was off, no music, no internet and I just couldn't get my brain to settle. I nearly gave up, ok I did. I began randomly surfing reviews for 'Only Lovers Left Alive', a movie I'd watched the previous night. On the films Wikipedia page I game across a review by Jonathan Romney. He rounds off the review with;
"classy piece of cinematic dandyism that makes the Twilight cycle redundant in one exquisitely languid stroke."
Something about the poetic feel of the line that got the creative fire started. I made a note of the line and then began surfing for more of his reviews. I found a review of 'In Pursuit of Silence' and made a note of the line; "sabotages its own logic by slapping on an undistinguished new age-y score"
I was deep into Mr. Romneys reviews now making notes of lines from an Anguish review "grungy ordinariness", I even found some inspiration in 'Jack Reacher';
"Possibly to minimise distraction, the supporting cast is on the bland side, but it’s nice to get a glimpse of Robert Knepper, the inimitably abject T-Bag in TV’s "Prison Break"
I surfed around the Guardians website (not my usual haunt), reading other reviews by Jonathan Romney making notes of phrases and lines that seemed to stoke the fire of creativity and then began to build a poem. You don't have to use film reviews by Jonathan Romney, but it helps as his turn of phrase is so poetic. You can just grab the nearest book or paper and make a list of a number of phrases, lets say a minimum of ten that catch you eye, and then use them to build/create a poem.
Below is what I created, whether good or not, it helped get the creative juices flowing! Now I just need to work out whether I'm obliged to give Jonathan Romney a writing credit?
Fisticuffs
Dandyism
Sabotaged your suburbanite logic
With one exquisitely languid
Stroke.
Once
A story of empowerment
With a ring of Authenticity,
You Counterpointed the
Abrasive.
However
After less than strenuous exercise
Your theological subtext
Turned out to be nothing more
Than a grungy
Ordinariness.
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Just a quick note, I do not know and have never met Jonathon Romney.