If only it were that simple.
Inspired Thoughts on Cue-Writing
Maybe you've come across those online writing cues posted on sites like Orcut and LiveJournal. (To see a page with "writing prompts" (cues), click here.) The idea, as I take it, is that all the authorial mind waits upon is some external catalyst to release its pent up ingenuity.
I have mixed feelings about such ploys. Admittedly, the stream-of-consciousness epistles that may result can be somewhat enjoyable to write...but they can also be somewhat painful, or, worse, ridiculous to read. After all, why is a "new" writing cue superior to an old idea? Sometimes it seems all a new cue generates are new hang-ups with structure, rough new content, and newly-made (hasty) errors of syntax. Not to mention that a "good" cue doesn't always generate good writing.
Consider the seemingly auspicious cue, "Inspiration struck me-." I recently attempted to cue-write with this phrase. Here are several of my "possible outcomes."
First, an artsy attempt:
Maybe you've come across those online writing cues posted on sites like Orcut and LiveJournal. (To see a page with "writing prompts" (cues), click here.) The idea, as I take it, is that all the authorial mind waits upon is some external catalyst to release its pent up ingenuity.
I have mixed feelings about such ploys. Admittedly, the stream-of-consciousness epistles that may result can be somewhat enjoyable to write...but they can also be somewhat painful, or, worse, ridiculous to read. After all, why is a "new" writing cue superior to an old idea? Sometimes it seems all a new cue generates are new hang-ups with structure, rough new content, and newly-made (hasty) errors of syntax. Not to mention that a "good" cue doesn't always generate good writing.
Consider the seemingly auspicious cue, "Inspiration struck me-." I recently attempted to cue-write with this phrase. Here are several of my "possible outcomes."
First, an artsy attempt:
Inspiration struck me like a hit and run driver.
From the ground I watched him race away.
When I screamed he just drove faster
And I never saw his face.
From the ground I watched him race away.
When I screamed he just drove faster
And I never saw his face.
Then a simplified approach to the same theme:
Inspiration struck me, but not hard enough.
I soon recovered and wrote this poem.
But it got worse.
and I struck her right back,
knocking the blighter* on her face.
I guess that explains a lot.
Finally ending on this note of introspection:
Inspiration struck me and then stood over me, laughing.
It took me weeks to recover from the humiliation.
Who knows, there could be a place for cue writing in the author's bag of tricks. Until I figure it out, at least I can cue-write about cue-writing, and keep myself amused. OK, I'm out.
This word was used in association with The Vocabulary Reclamation Project.
*Blighter. Another derogatory term which has British connotations for me. Some would suggest the word is euphemistic, a substitute for more unpleasant insults. Perhaps, but if so, they would probably not be insults we'd use in America. For us, similar terms are: jerk, brat, unsavory character...
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