London's Young Poets Laureate Offer Writing Advice

At The Guardian, London's young poets laureate (past and present) offer their tips for a career in poetry: "Write about what’s difficult," says current laureate Selina Nwulu. The laureates are chosen every year through a program called Spread the Word, supported by an independent charity for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. More from Nwulu:

Set yourself clear goals
Set yourself practical goals and be clear about what success means to you. Do you want to write and perform as a career? What steps should you take to get there? Who can you speak to to help shape practical goals in achieving this? Or is writing regularly for yourself a more desirable goal?

Recognise this, too, as a success and create conditions to enable you to write regularly. For example, book out a regular time every week to write and try to stick to it or start an anonymous writing blog. Importantly, don’t get swept up into other people’s versions of success. Be sure of what you want from your writing and create your own action plan.

Be inspired by other artistic forms
Reading poetry and discovering other writers is so important, but I also think good writing finds interesting crossovers with other artistic mediums. Immerse yourself in different artforms, whether film, dance or theatre, to see how this might inform and shape your writing, particularly if it is in a topic or area that you are writing about. It might also leave you open to developing interesting collaborations with other artists, which could lead you down an interesting trajectory you hadn’t previously envisaged.

Helpful advice! Read more from Nwulu and 2014–15 young poet laureate Aisling Fahey at The Guardian.

Watch Selina Nwulu read her poem "Home is a Hostile Lover" below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDizmRwGhiE#action=share