How can you breathe new life into your writing? How can you get more spontaneity, imperfection, and risk into your work? I'm going to be doing a series of posts about this, but I'd like to start with a story first.
My westie, Keegan, is fourteen. He's a fabulous dog (anyone who knows me knows I'm crazy about him and with good reason, in my opinion!). I like to keep him as active as possible - long walks, playing, etc. Well, for the last two weeks, I have not been able to get him interested in any of his toys. I went through all sorts of ridiculous gyrations trying to get his attention - I threw them around, kicked them around, snuck up on him with them, walked them slowly under his nose and - nothing. I dumped out the big basket of toys I have and spread them out on the floor, which usually gets his interest, to the point where he'll come by and take several of them one by one, as if he's making a pile of his favorites, and then he'll play with these for a few weeks. This time he completely ignored me.
Being the fanatical dog mother I am, I told a friend about this, and that I was worried he was starting to really slow down, that this was the beginning of the end, and I didn't know what to do - worked myself up about it - and my friend simply said, "Chris, get him a new toy. He just needs a new toy."
Duh.
Worked like a charm.
So my first word of advice to you is - do something new. Either in your writing (try a new technique - for a quick one, write in the voice of someone else (a persona piece) or in your life or both. Go to a new restaurant, or a movie you wouldn't normally see. Rent some foreign films. Visit a new neighborhood in your city. If you're religious - go to a different church. Go to a festival. Buy an article of clothing you wouldn't normally wear, wear it somewhere, and see how you feel. Try a new food. Listen to new music.
You can't keep moving in the same circle every day and expect your writing to zing. Get some new input - especially sensory. Gather new experiences, images, sounds, tastes, smells. All of this will come in handy at some point. Take your notebook and describe everything. Use fragments if that will help. You're not trying to write beautiful prose in that moment - you're just trying to absorb your environment as vividly and specifically as you can. Include how you feel.
Get a new toy.
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