John Baker’s Blog

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?

Regarding the inspiration behind a poem, a piece of prose or a short story, for me there is no set pattern. Sometimes a line of words will come into my head, or sometimes it will be an image, a memory, an idea or even something as intangible as a feeling. If I am extremely lucky (and that is not too often), the words will quite literally pour through me, but more often than not I will have to labour long and hard to bring my work to fruition. One technique I use is to put pieces in progress away in a folder for months (and sometimes years) until I can bring some objectivity to them. I am still working (on and off) on a novel I commenced in 1992 and have poems that are, as yet, still not completed to my satisfaction, which date back to the 1980’s.

Dee Rimbaud wrote the novel, Stealing Heaven from the Lips of God; he is the editor of The Book of Hopes & Dreams, an anthology of poetry designed to help the charity, Spirit Aid, bring medical facilities to regions of Afghanistan. He blogs at: Stealing Heaven From The Lips Of God.

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