Creative Vomit: The Ultimate Inspiration Tool
Today in creative writing we did one of my favorite exercises: stream of consciousness writing (or as I like to call it, creative vomit). For those who are not familiar with the term, stream of consciousness writing is a tool to extract ideas from your brain. I think it is one of the purest forms of ideas and inspiration: raw and unedited, like the "unrated" versions of R-rated movies, only generally less crude (really, it's one of the stupidest marketing ploys I've ever seen, but, then again, I don't watch R-rated movies).
How To Do It
1. Find a quiet place.
2. Get a whole lot of paper or use a computer. You're going to be writing a ton, and you don't want to run out of paper halfway through a thought.
3. Choose a topic to start yourself off (for example, one of my streams started at autumn and ended at accidental homosexuality (It's not what you think! It's not! I'll put up the paper when I find it)).
4. Write. Write every little thought that passes through your head, no matter how weird, dumb, abstract, stupid, etc. etc. you may think they are.
4.1. Set a timer. Don't lift your pen or stop typing until it goes
off. Start small: 5, 10, 15 minutes is a good start. Once
you figure out how it works, you can work up to longer
periods of time.
4.2. DON'T worry about grammar or punctuation or spelling.
You can edit after the timer goes off.
4.3. DON'T edit before you record your thoughts and
don't edit until you're done. You waste time and ideas
by doing that.
4.4. DON'T look back at what you've written.
4.5. DO go off-topic. If you stray back to your original topic,
you're forcing yourself. Don't. Let your mind wander.
Most of your good ideas will come about 3-5 minutes into
writing as long as you let them.
Most people's streams look like a massive wall of text, but mine end up looking more like poetry. Every person vomits differently, so don't worry about making it fancy.
An Example of Stream of Consciousness Writing
My thoughts were pretty fleeting and I had to leave halfway through to go see my stupid school counselor (gr) to talk about a class that I don't want to take but my parents insist I do so I can get this stupid scholarship. (Try saying that sentence in one breath). Well, not stupid. I'm just bitter because the counselor wasn't even paying attention (she was unpacking a printer, I think), and I was on a roll in my writing! Don't you just hate when that happens?
Notice how sometimes my thoughts are coherent and sometimes not. Like I said: my thoughts were fleeting. Also, don't feel obligated to read the whole thing, as I have more to say at the end and it's pretty long and incoherent.
Did I mention it's incoherent?
and sometimes maybe then such so someday but not just today you joy yes because then tomorrow indeed inword if pleaseThe Diamond in the Midst: Drawing Inspiration from Your Own Thoughts
if i calm my mind i have nothing to say, no words tho think or thoughts to speak, not anything will come on the words or the p[age with be blank as my mind that’s not thinking, not a thing to be said, not a thing to be said, no thoughts to band e thinking or thinkings to think, void of void nothing there, no time to spare i must fill up the spaces with thinkings and places to roam far from home and certainly i am quite alone but it’s not something i mind, no, not at all do i mind being one of a kind, im just as good as i can be here yes
the birds did not cry out today
as though they had no thing to say
and the sun stayed low in the sky without a reason to pass through the highway is this the end?
sylvia plath i am not alone am i?
and tomorrow i have work to do
and
is my favorite word without end to the sentence and phrase and and and and and and
chillllllls
up my spine
can’t be min
but they are
how to write a sonnet what shall i do
i haven’t the foggiest,
no, i have no clue,
no, i haven’t the fogiest
can rhyme yes?
appease my diseased mind
no food can quench this hunger, no water slake my thrist, but first i must find these reasons that i’m not good enough in the first place
and if i were younger, maybe,
taller, thinner, stronger, quieter, healthier, prettier, doubtless,
doubtless i would love me
too
quiet as two am
sun syrup
my favorite thingsssssss
if i imagine then i am a celebrity in my own mind
mustn’t get caught up with myself
qwertyuiop is a word indeed
ther’s a certain slant of light i’ve been told that slants a certain way. certainly.
i am alpha so i think. i sure am glad i’m an alpha. white is such a pretty color.
listen to the camera flashes. I amd famous aren’t i?
alevoli
i could have olive oil if i wanted. olive oil and rosemary
what does the heart race?
my heart beats with a clockworktick
words want to be marriedtogether always indeed
inword and indeed
idon’t like hymns but i do love poetry
i love music but not singing
no
p l e a s e
and then
because
i am sick i am tired
yeah
carry me
poetry is not paragraphs but lines of literature
what is an illiteration?
i need to i need to i need to
oh what a thrill my thumb instead of an onion!
and my mind isn’t right
look at me look at me
repetitoin is so utterly important
why aren’t the important words repeated?
supercomma to the recue!
internet poets are doing it
wrong
like me.
i want someone to love meeeeeee like i do
please
just as things were geting good look who showed up to wrruin it all\
look at all that empty space on the page
it must be lonely
like me
fill me darling
with something
like sweet
or cool
fill me chilll me like your icebox, glacier cyhunks and bread hunks
hunkny
huny.
gills were made for breathing
poets should not take anatomy. you don’t speak with your esophagus, nor do men have breasts.
water breathing under it please surface little fish for you are dorowning.
no im’ not
i have gills and frills for swimming
do not save drowning fish from drowning
mister chinese man
writeen by a chinese woman
iiiiiiiiiii
staring eyes
on faceless ps and qs
are what exactly
look at creative vomit it still looks just like poetry
coming out of me
that kame out of my brain
my pretty little head
i can’t rhyme with dead or dying anymore
hackneyed, gross, cliched cliches
out of sight out of mind so they say
who they are?
and polluted
pinkies will be gone soon as well as feet and appendixes and tears
o brave new world with no people in it.
ione word is all it takes.
So there's 30 minutes of stream of consciousness. The next important thing is to use it.
When you've finished writing for your 10-15 minutes, read over everything you've just written. If you typed up your stream, print it out. If you wrote on paper, obviously that doesn't apply.
Take a highlighter and find one, two, three lines that you absolutely love or can expand. I put the lines I liked (they're at the beginning of my stream) in bold. Pull them out and write again, but this time you are allowed to take your time and follow the rules of grammar and spelling (you're welcome).
The first line of my stream turned into this (also, no, the internet didn't mess it up. I formatted it that way on purpose):
The Most Beautiful Words
p l e a s e
because then you AND i__________
someday AND
just m a y b e
because then >/if/< we
AND \ / indeed
> tomorrow<
maybe then such
s o |such|
maybe ////not//// TODAY
but then yes
t o m o r r o w AND sometimes
us
So there you have it: stream of consciousness, essentially. If you try it out, I would love to see your creative vomit (in part) and what you make of it! Email it, post it on your blog, whatever.
