Saturday 23 October 2021

J. D. Nelson : coda

How does a poem begin?

Most of my writing is created through a process which involves the cutting-up and collaging of my own daily freewriting. My process is a combination of the spontaneous prose techniques of Jack Kerouac, and the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs. I start by freewriting a section of text, not stopping to punctuate or worrying about whether or not what I’m writing makes any sense. I simply try to empty my brain, usually typing as quickly as I can, following Kerouac’s advice to “blow as deep as you want to blow.” Then I go through what I’ve written and highlight words or phrases that stand out to me. I begin to play with these pieces, putting them together, rearranging them, and looking for unexpected juxtapositions. I keep adding pieces which I’ve taken from my freewriting, collaging things together. This is most often the method I use to create a poem.

Jack Kerouac – Belief & Technique for Modern Prose

https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/kerouac-technique.html

Jack Kerouac – Essentials of Spontaneous Prose

https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/kerouac-spontaneous.html

William S. Burroughs – Cut-up Technique

http://www.languageisavirus.com/creative-writing-techniques/william-s-burroughs-cut-ups.php#.YP3PVejYrrc

https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/burroughs-cutup.html


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