If you could assemble a room full of poets and ask each of them why they write poetry, most of them would probably say at some point that they hope to connect with a possible reader – someone they may never even have met. They want their poems to surprise or inspire, to amuse or pierce the heart of that possible reader.
 
But how do poets manage to do this? It is true that inspiration sometimes seems to come to us out of nowhere. But more often than not, we have to change small things in our world, to invent new rituals and unsettle old ones if we want to feel inspired on a regular basis and become better at what we are doing.
 
Caitlin Stobie (http://www.caitlinstobie.com/) is an award-winning South African poet who has made a home for herself in the UK, where she lectures in creative writing at the University of Leeds. Her own debut poetry collection, Thin Slices (Verve Poetry Press, 2022) has been described as “startlingly vivid, tender and surprising.” This month, the AVBOB Poetry Project asked her to reflect on what aspiring poets can do to channel more surprising, richly imagined words. It turns out that they first have to surprise themselves, to unsettle the routine of their lives.
 
Read the three creative writing tips Caitlin shared and notice how your experience of writing is transformed when you apply them to your own practice.
 

1. Change your environment

Try to change at least one thing about your writing setup. If you normally write at a desk, try sitting on the floor (some of my students recently sat cross-legged under their tables and produced great work). You might want to experiment with writing by hand in a notebook if you normally type on a laptop or vice versa. Can you write a poem outdoors? What about in the company of another, if you normally write alone? 
 

2. Write to music

Listen to a song of your choice on repeat. While you're listening, free-write a poem inspired by either the music or lyrics.
 

3. Rethink your line breaks

This exercise is for editing a piece of free writing, or a poem that doesn't feel quite right. First, read the following transcript of a conversation between Ron Padgett, Sharon Olds and Rita Dove on line breaks: 
 
https://poets.org/text/video-breaking-line-breaking-narrative
 
Rita Dove's closing questions call to mind the breaths that we take when we pause between laps in a swimming pool. Think of the line breaks in your poem as such. Where do you need to draw breath? Where might you use a line break that would cause intrigue or surprise? Experiment with changing the line lengths and breaks in your existing poem. 
 
In the next few days, make a point of changing something small in your environment each time you sit down to write a poem. Try different settings, different kinds of music (or silence), different times of day. Think of these changes as small steps in learning the art of being surprised regularly, so that you can be more available to the images and stories that come to all of us unexpectedly.
 
Remember, the annual AVBOB Poetry Competition opens for submissions on 1 August 2024, with fabulous cash prizes available to the winners. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za to familiarise yourself with the competition rules and start preparing your best words.