Warm-ups

Prepare a special psychic place where the creative force knows it can find you and regularly inhabit that place.

Be careful not to allow over responsibility to steal your time. Put your foot down and say no to things that you know you do not have to do.

Art is not meant to be created in stolen time so set aside time for your art each day.

Read some poetry every day. Take a line and just write without thinking. This is called stream of consciousness writing.

Alter your perspective by taking a piece of broccoli from the refrigerator. Talk to it about the meaning of life.

Go for long walks in tree filled parks and just gaze up through the leaves, or walk watching what is happening at ground level.

Visit the Daily Grind and use one of the fun tools to kick start some writing. Make sure you keep the fun in the fun-damentals.

Have you used the Writer's Digest daily prompts.

Observe life and write about it.

Have races with yourself to see how many words you can get on to the page. Take a visual symbol from a magazine and then write for ten minutes without stopping.

Train yourself by doing short writing sprints every day. Julia Cameron gives a good outline in her book 'The Artists Way'. Imitate others, snatch lines from poetry books to get yourself started. Take a news item and use a few words to get started. Pop into the Writing Directory and find a link and a writing suggestion. Sign up for one of the Soul Food mailing lists and make it a practice to write when you open the e-mail. Always write for at least ten minutes but makes sure you don't think. Write stream of consciousness writing.

Go to an interesting place or change your route to and from work each day. Be a regular visitor at the library, organic fruit and coffee shop, a quiet church, a peaceful park. Walk bare foot and renew your sense of touch. Hug a tree and establish a close relationship with it.

Amble through the centuries and read a book. Books improve your colour sense and your ideas about character. List some of your all time favourite characters and consider why you liked them so much. It was possibly that they lived passionately.

Get a packet of Tarot cards, shuffle and lay out some cards. Meditate upon them and begin to write without thinking.

Be a bit eccentric and dress to please yourself. Wear flamboyant, ecclectic accessories.

Drape a fur coat, from a recycled clothes shop, around yourself and write sensuously and erotically

Give up ideas of glory. The Muse will rush away in terror if she suspects that you are only in it for instant fame, money or name.

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