As I was driving along the coast today – inspired, perhaps, by the fantastic view over the Indian Ocean to Rottnest Island – I was listening to some new music on the radio. I’ve got no idea who the band was, and that doesn’t really matter – the point is, as always I was paying the most attention to the lyrics, and in this song they were particularly, well, lyrical!
Somewhere on a long list of lifetime goals I know I’ve got “write some song lyrics” written down. So I got thinking about how I would go about writing song lyrics, and came to the conclusion that my writing brain is not up to the challenge right now – or at least it would need a lot of practice. But that kind of practice could be exactly what I need. I often think that my fiction writing is not lyrical or beautiful enough, and I admire writers who write in a style that I consider “beautiful” (although of course that’s an entirely subjective thing).
From song lyrics my brain wandered to poetry, despite the fact that I’ve recently learnt that poets die young. Poetry is something I like to read to observe beautiful words and phrases, and it sometimes inspires me to write better. But my next challenge to myself is to try and write some of my own poetry. Definitely not for publication, but for practice, and to see if that helps my fiction writing sound better.
Any poets out there? Do you think this will help?
Yes. I don’t consider myself a poet but I do write them whenever the mood strikes.
Getting a well-written poem, even if no one sees it but you, helps you see that you can string words together to produce beauty.
That’s always a gift.
Thanks Aaron, that’s encouraging to hear. And something I definitely plan to try.