Esther Chilton

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with our writing. Perhaps you’re a novelist and the right words won’t come. Or if you write short stories for the women’s weeklies, it can be difficult to come up with a new idea. Article writers often specialise in writing about specific issues. It’s easy to become stuck, or to feel your writing is stale, or to simply wish for something new.

If you feel any of the above, try writing something different. Write a poem. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t all that good; it might be just the distraction you needed and now you feel refreshed and able to go back to your novel, short stories, articles etc. Or you might find you have unleashed a new talent and you’ve produced a poem to enter into a competition.

It doesn’t have to be a poem – just try something different.

I’ve written a lot of poems over the years, but when I read back through them, I saw they all suffered from the same thing – an extremely melancholy mood! So I’ve tried something different – it’s not particularly good but it was fun – a poem with a dashing of humour:

Unwanted Gifts

 It is the worst time of year,

One that fills me with great fear,

Christmas is coming soon, you see,

I know I should be filled with glee,

To receive presents and gifts galore,

But I don’t want them, not anymore,

Not out-of-date sweets from Uncle Ken,

Or twee ornaments yet again,

I don’t want toasters or a wok,

Nor an annoying cuckoo clock,

I’ve earrings coming out of my ears,

And smellies just reduce me to tears,

Though there is one thing that would be quite grand,

And that’s money. I’m sure you understand.