Read! Read! Read! and Write! Write! Write! Keep a notebook and write down things you see, hear, and think about. Ideas disappear quickly unless you jot them down. When you have an idea for a poem or story, write down anything you can think of that has to do with that idea. Study your list and you'll start to see connections among certain items. If you are writing poetry, don't force rhymes. It's better to work on what you want to say and create a feeling for the poem than to try to make up things just to make the poem rhyme.

-Jack Prelutsky