{"id":147,"date":"2011-01-27T12:55:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-27T12:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=147"},"modified":"2011-01-27T12:55:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T12:55:00","slug":"jeffrey-mcdonald-has-some-instructions-for-the-uninspired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/jeffrey-mcdonald-has-some-instructions-for-the-uninspired\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey McDonald has some instructions for the uninspired"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instructions for the Uninspired<\/span>


Been around long enough?<\/span>
Tried and failed?<\/span>
Moved, changed, married, divorced, a make up, a break up?<\/span>
Screamed into a pillow!<\/span>
 <\/span>
GOOD NEWS!<\/span>
You can write something with a<\/span>
unique voice.<\/span>
Something that no one else in the world<\/span>
could write.<\/span>
No one, but you.<\/span>
Just keep it personal.<\/span>
If it doesn\u2019t have<\/span>
your voice<\/span>
in there<\/span>
then anyone could have written it.<\/span>
 <\/span>
What does a person who has:<\/span>
Lived in Grand Junction,<\/span>
owned a yellow car named Butterbox<\/span>
got punched in front of everyone in fourth grade<\/span>
and rode every roller coaster in Ohio,<\/span>
think about wild lilies?<\/span>
If that\u2019s you<\/span>
go write about lilies.<\/span>
 <\/span>
A schizophrenic<\/span>
yarn collector<\/span>
that\u2019s artificially inseminated an emu,<\/span>
saw the Spice Girl\u2019s movie in the theatre<\/span>
and has a mom and four sisters named Olivia<\/span>
You?<\/span>
See the arc in the air after the squirrel\u2019s jump from oak to feeder?<\/span>
Write.<\/span>
 <\/span>
Your life has made you unique.<\/span>
Eliminate random variables.<\/span>
Until you\u2019re alone in the world.<\/span>
Find that voice.<\/span>
 <\/span>
And write from there.<\/span>



* Jeffrey McDonald<\/span> writes poetry and short stories from his home in Brooklyn, New York.  His work has been featured in <\/span>Haggard & Halloo, The New Verse News<\/span>, and The Mine Falls Press 2010 Anthology <\/span>Best Stories From the Shelf<\/span>.<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instructions for the UninspiredBeen around long enough?Tried and failed?Moved, changed, married, divorced, a make up, a break up?Screamed into a pillow! GOOD NEWS!You can write something with aunique voice.Something that no one else in the worldcould write.No one, but you.Just keep it personal.If it doesn\u2019t haveyour voicein therethen anyone could have written it. What does a person […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}