This Writers' Life: The Cheat Sheet

Im often asked where I get my ideas from or how I go about writing my poetry/lyrics. Truth be told, Im not exactly sure... a thought or feeling will just appear in my head and I will have this dire urge to get pen and paper to get it out. I honestly cant explain it; when the muse strikes, the words just flow out of me and Im left with a poem or lyric.

I do have to come clean about one thing... I dont just sit around waiting for the muse to strike. If I did, I would hardly ever write or get halfway through a piece and the muse decides to leave me to my own vices. I have what I call Cheat Sheets that I can go to should I be separated from my muse.

What is a Cheat Sheet?

A Cheat Sheet is simply a notebook that I keep with me at all times. Inspiration can come at any time, it doesnt care if you are able to work on the idea that instant or not. Quite often inspiration will strike at inopportune moments. It is times like these that my Cheat Sheet comes in handy, I may not be able to work on the poem or lyric right away, but I can jot it down to work on at a later point in time.

The Cheat Sheet often comes in handy if I come across a thought I may be able to work on but unsure of how I will use it. Another great use for the Cheat Sheet is to jot down lines or phrases that catch my attention. I may be working on another piece and the perfect line comes to me... only to see that it has nothing to do with my current project. I can easily store it on my Cheat Sheet to come back to it later.

How often do you spend hours working on a poem only to find yourself stuck on a line or verse? By taking a break and having a look at your Cheat Sheet you may find a solution to the problem or be inspired to start a new writing project while you distance yourself from the problematic piece. The uses of a Cheat Sheet can be endless you are limited only by your imagination.

The Cheat Sheet and Writers Block

Every writer, at some point, will suffer from the dreaded writers block, if like me, you can go months without a single word written. I find that the Cheat Sheet can help in curing writers block; at least to a certain extent. How on earth can a Cheat Sheet cure writers block you ask?

Its simple really, even though you may not have any current inspiration for a writing project, your Cheat Sheet can have hundreds of different ideas, lines, phrases, etc that you were inspired to write down in the past. Its possible that there are dozens of poems, lyric or story ideas within the pages of your Cheat Sheet.

Start simply by looking through your Cheat Sheet, and jot down any of the lines, phrases, etc that may come to you. Failing that, try and group some of these lines into similar themes. Once you have a collection of these thoughts on your new page, take a long look at what you have in front of you. Can you write something using these words? Are there other thoughts that come to mind while looking at them? Continue jotting down any ideas and thoughts that may come to mind and try to start structuring them into a writing piece [be it prose, poetry, lyric, etc].

You will soon discover that you are writing once again, and that the dreaded writers block has dissipated. The writing may or may not be good, I cannot make any promises in that regard, however, you will no longer have a blank page in front of you and will have something to show for your efforts. If it isnt any good then you will have something to continue working on until it is up to scratch.

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If you are serious about writing, you probably like to write everyday. Having a Cheat Sheet can help eliminate those wasted hours staring at a blank piece of paper (or the blinking cursor on your monitor). With a little forethought and planning, you can have a system set up to help you through many of the problems a writer can face.

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