Writer's Block Is Evil, So Here's A Holiday Gift Instead Of the Poems

   I was working on two poems based on I Guess It Doesn't Matter Anymore by Blackmore's Night, but I have had so much writer's block that I can't finish it in time. So instead, I throw out a few good tips on how to get your own poems started. These will be tips I myself use on a daily basis when I can actually write without that block stopping everything. These tips will range from the basic to the way I get my best ideas.

1. This one is really basic: Music is poetry with a beat, so listen carefully. I have gotten several ideas for short stories and quick poems while listening to new songs. Sometimes listening to a song you normally wouldn't, is a great burst of inspiration. I (Might) Remember Me is based off a song I heard on Graham Norton Show but because I couldn't remember the song lyrics the title was all I had. Some good musicians I get inspirational from regularly: SJ Tucker, Heather Dale (good for Renaissance poems), Blackmore's Night, anything that Mercades Lackey had a hand in, and Emilie Autumn songs (for those who like more rock songs).
2. Read some of the classics and study how they write. The first poems I had studied were some by Edgar Allen Poe, one of my favourites. I think he probably inspired some of my more morbid ones. A poet and play-write that is really good to study is William Shakespeare. His sonnets and monologues are some of the best to study withe iambic pentameter and the whole feminine and masculine endings. I'm still working on learning those. Good writers to study: Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, anything by the Brontë sisters, ee cummnings, and maybe some international authors if you want. I have most of these authors poems on iBooks.
3. Poems don't have to rhyme. I have a lot of issues with clever rhyme schemes unlike Ishymaru. How he does it, I still don't know. I know a lot of people who can't rhyme and think they need to make it be a poem. Working with prose is much easier but does give it a bit of a rough, unfinished look. (Just got distracted for about an hour looking through pictures.) If you want it to rhyme but can't think of anything, go to rhymezone or some other site you can probably find on Google. There are no examples here.
4. Try using a notebook instead of the computer if needed. I used to only use pen and paper for all my poems and books. I use computer now because it is a lot easier for me to type faster than write and I can look back and edit anywhere. Handy if you have more than 20 pages, but all my old poems and first 50 pages of The Hunted were hand written(Which remind me, I need to find my good pens again). I still always carry around a notebook for ideas or if I get a flash of inspiration and I don't have a computer. Sometimes having the notebook and actually feeling the pen writing sometimes gives you the best ideas. If you have no purse that can carry a notebook (which I highly doubt) or if you're a guy and don't carry around a purse or bag, just find some of those small memo book which can fit in a pocket. I just bought a new/first purse which can carry a full sized notebook. Actually around 5 full sized notebooks.

Since I am really tired right now and I know this post would slowly go downhill if I stayed await. So I'm guessing there will be a part 2 soon. If I remember.