Sage Cohen's Tip A Day: Shake It Up

Editor’s Note: Throughout the month of April, Reading Local and Portland poet Sage Cohen will celebrate National Poetry Month by featuring a new tip each day.

April 11: Shake it up

Writing rituals get developed through trial and error. Whether you already have a reliable ritual or you’ve always wanted one, I recommend that you experiment with one or more of the following prompts. See if you discover anything new about what gets you writing—and what doesn’t.

• Write at a different time of day than you normally write.
• Listen to music that’s not your typical style while you write. (If you’re really feeling bold, listen to music that you don’t even enjoy.)
• If you normally write by computer, write by hand—and vice versa.
• Go somewhere you don’t normally go when you’re writing. Maybe even somewhere that makes you just a little uncomfortable.

Sage Cohen is the author of WRITING THE LIFE POETIC: An Invitation to Read and Write Poetry (Writers Digest Books, 2009), THE PRODUCTIVE WRITER: Tips & Tools for Writing More, Stressing Less and Creating success (Writer’s Digest Books, forthcoming in 2010) and the poetry collection Like the Heart, the World. Learn more at www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com.

Image credit Poets.org.