Writing without a plan   (Image source)

This poetry, I never know what I’m going to say
I don’t plan it
when I’m outside the saying of it
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

These lines from Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks in The Essential Rumi, (published by Harper Collins) invite us to think about the process of writing. Rumi tells us that he doesn’t have a plan for what he will say, that writing and speaking are very different, and that the process of writing (in this case poetry but any writing will do) is about getting quiet and looking inside.

To use this poetic excerpt as a springboard for your own writing, take a few moments to “get very quiet” and let some words tumble from your pen onto the page. If you want a topic, think of something that happened to you today, something you are struggling with, or an everyday event you happened to observe.  I found this picture of a cat looking as if its about to write that I thought might be a fun inspiration.