When writing goes off, by Veronica Zundel

Sliced too soon?

Do you ever find your writing gets stale? I don't mean writer's block, where you simply can't think of a word to say - fortunately (or some, possibly my family, might say 'unfortunately') I am never lost for words. At least not so far. But since re-starting my Writing Poetry MA in June, I have had to catch up very quickly, first by attending an intensive Summer School in Newcastle (basically a whole term crammed into five days), then writing up the poems and essay for that Summer School, and then - and here's the problem - going back to the second term assignment that I should have completed last June (but surgery and chemotherapy rather got in the way).

 The thing is, I had actually drafted most of the poems for the assignment (which demands 10-12 poems) and then I just had to stop. Apart from one tutorial to look at some my tutor hadn't seen before, I hadn't touched them for a year. And when I went back to them, I had a mixed feeling: first, that I had done everything I was ever going to be able to do with them, and second, that they felt strangely old, uninspiring and lacking the original inspiration that had created them. It was just like realizing all your bread was stale, but feeling a spell in the toaster would still not make it palatable. I just knew these poems too well, and couldn't imagine re-working them.

Back in the oven?

I partly solved the problem by going on to the essay accompanying them, which I hadn't started last year and which therefore felt fresh.  But even after being inspired by and for the essay, I still couldn't manage to go back to the poems. I'd just forgotten why I wrote them, or perhaps lost the motivation that produced them. To go back to the bread metaphor, they were already sliced and I couldn't find an alternative way to cut them.

The reality is, I will probably have to submit them as they are and hope for the best. As the poems are 70% of the mark and the essay, which I am more happy with, only 30%, I'm not expecting a high grade, though I do hope to pass. But I've just run out of time to pore over the poems again, let alone to attempt a radical restructuring.

Do you have any clever strategies for waking up old writing and giving it new life? (a bit like the literary equivalent of splashing water on stale bread and putting it in the oven for a bit?). I'd be grateful for your thoughts. It could be, of course, that the poems come over fresher to the person marking my assignment. I can only hope. In the meantime, I'm going to turn my attention to writing something new - or maybe something borrowed, or blue? (perhaps not blue...) I'd like to be  the householder who brings out of her store treasures old and new, but right now the old treasures have just lost their sparkle, and I can't find the right duster.

Veronica Zundel is a freelance writer whose latest book is Everything I know about God, I've learned from being a parent (BRF 2013). She also writes a column for Woman Alive magazine, and Bible notes for BRF's New Daylight. Veronica used to belong to what was, before it closed, the only non-conservative, English speaking Mennonite church in the UK, and is currently playing at being a high Anglican. She also blogs (rather occasionally!) at reversedstandard.com