I came up with a great idea for a freewriting exercise the other day: I cranked up Windows Media Player, set it to play my T.Rex playlist and started writing. What resulted was an interesting piece of freewriting that was filled mostly with responses to lyrics in the music I was listening to. I have seen so many books with exercises and prompts to spark one’s creativity, but discovered that this little exercise in talking back to the music was far more effective than anything else I’ve ever tried. Give it a shot yourself and crank up your creativity by cranking up the tunes! Let me know how it works for you.

On my knees I’m begging please, uh-huh. Lyle Mole was a strange little fellow and the subject of a song by Marc Bolan. He’s dead of course. Left Hand Luke, on the other hand (no pun intended) is very much alive and well. His hair was perfect. He has lost most of it by now, though. Begging is not permitted in a school zone. That’s right, Ms. Peach, so you must stop begging your students to actually give a shit about what you’re teaching.

I have all this stuff but have no idea what to do with it all. And I really mean, NO IDEA. Left Hand Luke, on the other hand (no pun intended), knows exactly what to do with it. However, he will not tell me. Probably because of the hair.

If you call yourself friend, and look me in the eye, I’ll unstrap my knees and apologize. Seriously, Luke, I will. Just tell me what I should do with all this stuff. At the present time, I am totally preoccupied with simply organizing and rearranging all of this stuff. I know there must be more to life than this.

Please tell me what the meaning and purpose of it all is. You won’t fool the children of the revolution, you say. Does that mean that it’s all about the revolution? What revolution? What has it accomplished? Is it still ongoing? Because everything seems pretty much the same to me as it did many years ago. What revolution??

The Earth is revolving. Could this be the revolution to which Luke is referring? If so, then we are ALL children of the revolution in the sense that we all live and die on the revolving Earth. Do you have to be AWARE of the Earth’s spinning and revolving in order to be considered a child of the revolution, or is it enough that you are revolving along with it through space?

Jitterbug love is what? I can’t understand you. Is that what it’s really about? Dancing? Love? Could it really be that simple? I suppose I could Google the lyrics to the song to find out what it is you are really trying to say, but I won’t. It could ruin the flow. And that’s what freewriting is all about, right? The Flow. Just like a woman’s flow is what makes the creation of a new life possible, The Flow of freewriting makes creation of a new story, poem, etc., possible. Wow! So writer’s block is kind of like Menopause, then? Very interesting.

It’s a shame how you unzip my winter poetry. Well, then, I apologize for that.

Life is the same and it always will be. Well, what about the revolution, then? How about a little consistency, huh? I can’t get no satisfaction, all I want is easy action, baby. Well, that does kinda simplify things, doesn’t it? It helps to clarify one’s goals in life, I suppose.

This is really a good writing exercise. Talking to the music you have playing while freewriting. I like it.

It’s plain to see you were meant for me. Meant by whom? Who is that means for me to be with you? Do you even know? Or care? Or are you just looking for some easy action, baby? Is that what life is REALLY all about? Human life, I mean. It’s pretty clear that it is really all animal life is about: Eat, survive, reproduce. Can all of our customs, creations, etc., be boiled down to sophisticated veneers of the biological urge to eat, survive and reproduce? We, of course, would like life to be about more than that, so we pretend at higher purposes, etc., so that we can make sense of the fact that our higher brains don’t make us MORE THAN animals, they just make us more efficient animals.

Kind of depressing, isn’t it?