Are you feeling stuck? Is your muse off flirting with other authors? Do idle pens and pencils and blank pages fill you with guilt? Do you have a bad case of what we commonly call “Writers Block”? Well, oddly enough, it is a description that does not apply to other occupations or careers. We do not hear people speaking of Electricians Block, or Surgeons Block, or Teachers Block. Certainly, people tire of careers and lose enthusiasm for formerly appealing employment, but it seems that no other vocation claims “Block” as a diagnosis. So, what are we actually dealing with when the dreaded “Writer’s Block” strikes—and more importantly how do we deal with it, attack it, and get over it? And how can “writing to a prompt” help us cure the condition and make us productive members of the writing community? These are the things I have learned along the way.

First of all, we do nothing to solve the problem by “waiting for the muse to strike.” This is about discipline and creativity. It is about employing the mechanics of our job, our task. It is about learning your craft. You would not second guess an art class that presented you with a Still Life and required you to paint it. You would realize that it would sharpen your skills and be wide open to interpretation by each and every artist in the class. It would be all about learning and improving. Just so with a poetry prompt. It is an invitation, not an obligation. Life throws these experiences at us—like making a meal when we haven’t done the grocery shopping and we have to scrounge through the cupboards and fashion a dish that satisfies out of what we have on hand. Just as an artist has sketchbooks and a musician practices the scales, it behooves a poet to have practice pieces, word play, snippets and explorations. In the best-case scenario, one of the practice pieces matures into a finished piece that you can take pride in.

People didn’t, and shouldn’t have, stopped painting water lilies because Monet is an acknowledged master. As poets, we are challenged to say something new or something in a new way. For example, Wallace Stevens wrote “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” Perhaps we can find ONE new way of looking at a poetry prompt… or many new ways. But we have to admit that sometimes we do get stuck. Sometimes it is a case of distraction, too many demands on our limited time and resources. Sometimes it is exhaustion, physical or mental, but whatever the cause, we are frustrated by it because at the same time our poetry is an outlet for the creative soul and Writer’s Block is a kind of psychic or creative constipation. We are, indeed “blocked.” It is not that we have lost interest it is that we cannot seem to turn on the creative faucet.

It is here that the poetry prompt comes to the rescue. Read the prompt and write. Don’t have a moment’s concern about writing “well.” It is a task, an assignment. Think about Wallace Stevens and his blackbirds. Is the prompt a photograph of a slice of cake? Is it a wedding cake or a birthday cake? Did it make you feel guilty about your diet or make you hungry? Did you think about temptation or remember the aroma of your mother’s kitchen? As in an art class, everyone has a different point of view and only you can express things from your point of view. There will be no wrong or right. Perfectionism will cripple you—and is a synonym for Writer’s Block.

And where can you find the prompts to help you along? EVERYWHERE!—in writer’s magazines, online (just type in “Poetry Prompts”), on poetry blogs, or be creative and generate your own. Start your poem with the last line of a famous poem, write a poem about your biggest fear, your strongest childhood memory. But don’t stall, don’t vacillate don’t demand perfection. This is to get you over and past that Writer’s Block. Go to a local art gallery, choose a piece of art and write an ekphrastic response. And for your own amusement and encouragement read the poem (available online) “When Thomas Takes His Pen” by Elsie Hill. It has encouraged all of my own family members when malaise and acedia move in.

Using a Prompt isn’t “cheating.” It is just another way of getting your engine started. Chances are that even the greatest poets wrote poetry that they chose not to keep, threw away, or shredded. So write, quickly, often, erase, shred, try again.

I read long ago, that the difference between a professional photographer and an amateur is that the professional only keeps the good shots. Be that poet. Write, write, write. Ask yourself if a reader would understand how the words that you chose reflected the prompt that you addressed. Face your block head on, climb over it or tunnel under it. Critique your own work and let trusted friends and mentors critique it for you. Keep the best and discard the rest (or at best, hang onto it in a separate and sacred space labelled “practice.”) Later you may find that there is a line or a stanza that stands out from the rest. Work with that. If things don’t gel, let them rest. And don’t scorn the poetry prompt. It can charge your battery and get your creative juices flowing again.

For more poetry/writing prompts, you can view all related posts on TrishHopkinson.com here.

Kathy Lundy Derengowski is a native of San Diego county. She is an active member and co-facilitator of the Lake San Marcos Writer’s Workshop. Her work has appeared in Summation, the ekphrasis anthology of the Escondido Arts Partnership, California Quarterly, Silver Birch Press, Turtle Light Press and the Journal of Modern Poetry. She has won awards from the California State Poetry Society and been a finalist in the San Diego book Awards poetry chapbook category.