Beat The Blank Page Writing Exercise  

July 2004 

"Picture This"

The blank page never ceases to intimidate - it seems presumptuous to intrude on its perfect whiteness. As our pens hover uncertainly, it asks us who do you think you are? Easier not to begin, to go and do something less risky instead (like the washing-up) - after all, if we don't write anything, then the possibility of creating something brilliant and beautiful remains; we haven't marred that hope with the messy, no-guarantees process of writing.

If this is how you feel too, then I hope this regular exercise page will help. What follows is meant as a starting point, a way of allowing you to make that initial mark on the page, and ease you into the creative flow. These are exercises which I've found useful myself and which I've tried with different classes of students. It may seem artificial to be given a starting point, rather than letting inspiration strike, but I've always found that inspiration needs encouragement and the right conditions in which to flourish. Exercises don't always result in a finished piece of work (although they can do) but at the very least, they get you going, and fire up the brain. If you come out with even one image or word you might use later on, then the process will have been worth it.

Instructions

Purpose

• I like this exercise because it begins with a point of focus, the picture. This provides you with a lot of specific and vivid detail to start with. 
  
• I also think it's helpful because it makes the writing of a poem seem possible, breaking it down into step by step stages, until you've built something. This inital version will probably need re-drafting, and it may change a great deal during the course of this process, but the 'rules' of the exericse, and the specificity of the details it asks you to comment on help give the initial draft a structure. 

Example Poem

Here are a couple of examples which demonstrate how a painting can be a leaping off point for a poem. My own poem 'La Patience 1943' is influenced by the French artist Balthus; he achieves in paint what I would like to do in words, managing to be both very physical and concrete (he is a figurative 20th Century painter) whilst also conveying a sense of alienation. His pictures are like walking into a dream which seems uncannily familiar, an idea which also links to the first poem:

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