Secrets to Spark Inspiration When Writing to a Prompt Challenge

What to do when you’re stuck.

Whenever I see a new poetry challenge, the wheels start turning, especially if the prompt is interesting.

That’s great if it's only a single prompt, but when I’m presented with multiple prompts, it can be difficult to be inspired by every single one.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for a challenge.

It can be daunting. Thirty poems can be a lot to manage, and a writer can get bogged down in their own ideas.

Here are my techniques to spark inspiration when a prompt doesn’t inspire me.

This is kind of specific to how I write poetry, but you could adapt the technique to a longer article or story.

If you write by hand, begin with a fresh page in your journal. If you type on the computer, open a new file.

Write the prompt at the top of the page.

• Take a couple of deep breaths with your eyes closed and listen to the words that come to you. Write whatever comes. Ignore the critic; just write it.
• If the prompt is Angel, and your first words are ‘stupid cheesy prompt that’ll never inspire something new,’ jot it down.

It might the beginning of an inspirational thread where you write a poem about cheesy angels or tacky orange angels dancing in a parade.

Allow anything to happen, and it will.

Many of my poems begin with a rant.

If you feel inspired to riff on the word for a while, go ahead. Fill pages if you can. Keep going until you’ve run out of words.

Set a timer.

• If you aren’t inspired, try setting a timer for two minutes and write anything. Don’t stop writing until the timer goes off.

Rhymes can take you to unknown places.

• Write every word you can think of that rhymes or sort of rhymes with the word. Angel, dangle, ranger, danger, anger. You get the drift.
• You don’t have to use these rhyming words in your poem, but they will bring you additional ideas and directions.

Be open to randomness.

• When a random word occurs to you that is unrelated but has an interesting sound or intriguing meaning, write it down.

Get away from your work.

• Go for a walk. Organize your junk drawer, clean the bathroom, and sort laundry. Turn off your brain.

Googleate it.

(Googleate is what we call it in my house when you Google something.)

• Look up the word and write the synonyms and meanings that resonate with you.
• Use google to find rabbit holes to fall into. Fall into them and find inspiration.

By now, you should have a random collection of words and phrases that might be the beginning of a poem. Play around with them a bit, adding and removing bits as inspiration comes.

Here’s an article where I take a random rant and show you how I make a poem out of it.

Caution, This Demonstration May be a Failure.

“Be willing to delete the parts that don’t fit with the whole.” Author

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