NaPoWriMo Week 2 - Time to Shake it Up

Time to embrace the unexpected and uncomfortable.
"METAVERSE" by Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com. 

Week Two of NaPoWriMo is the time when the difficulty moves up a notch and the motivation moves down one.  It is harder to be enthusiastic.  After all, week one is behind us, but there are three weeks to go.  Ideas are more scarce, time seems to be more pressing, and things aren't going quite the way we planned.  You know - this is the usual way with writing projects, but it doesn't make it any easier. 

So I think of Week Two as the time to shake it up a bit.  Time to try things you haven't considered before.  Time to pull in some new influences and move out of the comfort zone.

And if today's Monday Art Day doesn't shake you up, nothing will.  This is "METAVERSE" by Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com.  I thoroughly enjoy this sort of art - the kind where my mind and emotions will not settle.  The artist comments "I thought it would be interesting to create a "stage like" outer environment with which to gaze in at inner world I created. This "outer world", like an opening in a cave, is something I have not done before."  The outer frame provides the context from which we view this strange new place.  There is so much happening here - wild colors, a mix of organic and industrial imagery, motion, and EYES everywhere!  The image is teeming with a strange sort of life filled with wires and light.  Creatures are spawning, swimming, hunting, and crawling.   

So here are the prompts and exercises for week two, starting with this evocative art. 

Monday, April 8 - Monday is, of course Art Day.  Take another look at METAVERSE.  Spend some time checking out the details in the piece, and how colors and lighting are used.  How does the art make you feel?  Disturbed, energized, anxious?  What genre would you give the piece - horror, science fiction, fantasy, or simply science?  Write a poem in that genre, using some of the emotions you feel looking at this art.  As an additional challenge, write from the viewpoint of a creature inside the art itself.

Tuesday, April 9 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Pick weird ones for this week in keeping with our "Shake it up" theme.  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Wednesday, April 10 - Find a word that rattles you and shakes you up in some way - good, bad, or a mix of feelings.  The word could be anything, since words and experience are so personal.  A few that I might pick are: blood, mother, crash, god, and hate.  Pick one and write out ten related words or phrases than include it, like goddess, godhead, godliness, ungodly, etc.  Write a poem using at least three of your related words, trying for that feeling of being rattled or shaken up.  An additional challenge - after you draft the poem, remove all the lines with your related words, and reform the poem.

Thursday, April 11 - Thursday is Camera Day.  Take some pictures with your camera, and choose one to use as inspiration for a draft poem.  Try to find a subject or scene that makes you feel something in a new way, or even makes you uncomfortable.  Feel free to take photos all week, and then pull out your favorite for Camera Day.  (If you don't have a camera, draw a picture of the scene, and then use that for your inspiration.)

Friday, April 12 - Find a poem that takes you somewhere new, or out of your usual mental space for writing.  You don't need to know why, or to explain it.  Something about 20 lines long is just about right.  Do the classic exercise where you write out each line of this poem with an open space in between.  Now fill in the missing lines with your own work, responding to what comes before and after.  Remove the lines of the original poem, leaving behind only your responses.  Take ten or so of these lines and reform them into a draft poem.

Saturday, April 13 - Tuesdays and Saturdays are Pick a Prompt Days.  Visit the archive of speculative fiction prompts on this blog entitled "Prompt the Muse."  Pick weird ones for this week in keeping with our "Shake it up" theme.  Do the writing, and then choose images, phrases, or sensations from your writing to include in a draft poem.

Sunday, April 14 - Look through your books and try to find one that rattles you, either because it is horror, is on a difficult subject, or is connected with a time in your life when things were in motion.  Flip through and copy down at least ten words or phrases that strike a chord in you.  A few I found from my chosen book are: compulsion, fix yourself, silence, body all bent, convalescent, and obsess.  Use five of these words or phrases in a poem.  Additional challenge, remove the lines with your specific words and reform the poem.

Image Credit: "METAVERSE" used with the generous permission of the artist Robert Steven Connett on deviantArt.com