This question is for writers, of poetry, prose, short stories, etc- Where does the inspiration for words come from and how do we access that stimulus? For me, it is a very strange and much more awkward option than paintings and images-the painting and images tend to create themselves, they sit in the folder in my mind for a long time, either a memory, an idea or the full blown sketch that no one could decipher even myself sometimes.

There are three basic forms of the stimulus that creates words. I will try to articulate this process and the way it feels when the words are at their best or worst. There are three distinct feelings that occur during my writing which I believe depends on where in the brain the stimulus begins.

I would say the best words that come out, almost always in poetry, are when I have no idea what I am writing. It is almost an out-of-body feeling-the hands find the keys and I can’t even read or decipher the words that form. The words come out of nowhere and the sense that you would afford individual words seem lost in the translation and can only be deciphered after the process. I don’t look for words that rhyme, I don’t even think of any specific word or theme, these kind of writings I tend to forget immediately afterwards and the connections of thought and ideas seems very abstract. I equate this to a divine intervention as the thoughts are often very deep and personal and often with a religious slant or questioning premises that are hard to articulate without great use of metaphor and far reaching analogies.

The second best process of writing and usually a bit more clearer and more to the point is when I can barely decipher the words that I write, in other words I don’t look for the rhyme the words I write just seem to be there and they flow as quickly as I can write them. These writings seem to already be written but they just needed to be processed. Poems like these are often sparked by lines or just the title, the awkward problem of this process is when you write the initial title or start the first line the inspiration is so intangible that the idea often disperses the moment the words or phrase hits the page.

The next process is the inspiration that is much more conscious, seeing a beautiful landscape or describing something that is emotionally or physically directly relatable. This is kind of the standard of many of my writings and the quantity of words is usually a large amount and very quickly, fifteen or twenty poems at the same time. I still don’t remember the words I wrote but the idea and the inspiration is very clear and conscious.

The hardest process of writing for me and I think this is just the lack of comfort writing this way is the prose or story pieces. I have always had books full of ideas and premises of anything from short stories, essays to full novels. In the past I have never acted upon the words always questioning the quality and the lack of formal grammar and being able to self edit. I used to self-edit myself out of ever writing anything, feeling the final would be without purpose. Lately, instead of story ideas in books, I have stories started, about twelve of them now and instead of just inspirations and ideas they have turned to actual works in progress. There is always the desire to write the story but when I begin I am often left with a bunch of hard pressed words and attempts at writing that go nowhere.

Stories will often start out with great details and I don’t have the idea of specific words and the idea flows very quickly and as I write one part the next part is in the process of becoming processed. As suddenly as the idea begins the story dissolves and I am left with awkward words that don’t support anything tangible. This is why, like my paintings, it seems that words tend to hang around unfinished for a long time. I am working on the discipline to work beyond the writing block.

So how do other writers feel the process of writing? When does the start of a block begin and how do you get past that stumbling block. Do you remember the words you write, do you self-edit while you write and what motivates you to write? So pick a question and answer, we can start a dialog on the writing process and the intangible act of poetry and prose.