Egos do not belong in publishing!
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Literally ‘Find’ a Poem
So you’re bored with writing poems. You feel that all of the words that you use are often the same ones with the same meanings. You are at a lack of resources to find topics to write a poem about. You read books and short stories and poems and are just discouraged by everything that you read. You wish you could be as great as the authors who wrote the works that you’re reading. If this sounds like you, stop complaining and use your resources! Have you ever heard of a found poem or an erasure?
A found poem is one in which you get inspiration from works that have already been published. This is where you take lines that particularly stand out to you from the writing piece and try to mesh them together to form a unified theme or topic. The best part is that you can mesh any part of the work with any other part that is written by the author. The theme or topic can, once again, range from anything, as long as it’s somewhat centralized. A found poem is great when you are feeling absolutely bored with your own writing and want to critique others. Harshly cross out and blacken all of the sentences that you find weak and generic written by the published author, and use the good lines in order to bring forth a powerful poem.
An erasure is similar to that of a found poem, but a little more structured when doing so. You can cross out, once again, all of the mundane diction used in the writing piece and use whatever words that are presented before you to create a new poem. The only drawback is that the poem should be made up of the words in the same order that the reader would read the original piece in, hence the word “erase” in the erasure. It’s basically taking one page from a book (or as many pages you would like), erasing all of the unimportant, unrelated words, and condensing them to form a poem that can be either related or unrelated to what the original piece dealt with.
It is important to give credit when credit is due though in these circumstances. Make sure to say “A Found Poem Inspired By…” or “An Erasure Of…” when presenting your newly constructed poem to any reader. If you’re afraid that you won’t look creative by telling someone that you took work from an already published piece of work, don’t be. It takes a true artist to make something better out of something that is just average.
Memorable Memories
They’re memories for a reason. Obviously, they have some prominent impact on who you are today. Use them. Whether they are good or bad, they’re still very helpful to what you can be tomorrow. Write about these memories, either by your subjective view or write it from what you think someone else would view it as.
Have you ever been full of joy? I’m assuming you said yes, because if you’re old enough to read and have never had at least one moment of joy, you would have probably sadly killed yourself. What did your joy feel like? Did you smile? How big was that smile, if you did smile? Why didn’t you smile? Are you too much of an introvert to show your happiness on the outside? What made you so joyful? Did you have any physical reaction? What did everyone around you do when you were so joyful? Did they treat you differently than they usually did? All of these questions are ones that are so intriguing to any reader, since everyone has a different reaction to joy. I’m not one to jump up and down if I win a free Mountain Dew from the cap game, but maybe you are. Write about it! Were you holding your Mountain Dew when you jumped up and down? Did it explode when you opened it? Tell the reader! Or use your joy when writing about a character in your novel and explain all of the details.
I know it’s just so hard to talk about the bad things in your life. Boo hoo. Stop playing the victim and do something about it. Wield your haunting memories as a poisonous weapon in which you slay that which made you so depressed. If you need time to cope with whatever issue is following you, take your time. However, make sure it doesn’t take too long and prevent you from writing about it. People often use writing as a way to express their emotions, since it’s often one of the only ways to get out what you’re thinking without having to tell another. Telling someone shows a lot stronger person, mind you. Use your reaction and incorporate it into your writing piece. Either show in depth through techniques (metaphors, similes, etc.) or use it to sympathize with one of your fabricated characters.
Most often, the memories are very effective when writing short stories. Therefore, you can add as much detail as you want in explaining the reaction and not be forced to fabricate a lengthy story around that one moment. Talk about what made this reaction possible, what influenced you to react this way, and what the reaction brought as a result.
Caldecott, Newbury and other ALA Awards a Fraud???
Book buyer calls ALA awards possibly fradulent!
Are You a Poet and Don’t Know It?
Some authors have the worst time when writing stories. Often, one can’t think of such a convoluted plot that would make a lengthy book. Therefore, authors sometimes normally resort to writing a short story. However, the authors produce some dull short story that has a moral or theme that is overdone and isn’t bringing anything new to society. I completely support the authors that do try over and over again to write an influential short story or a gripping, lengthy novel. It’s great that they are so ambitious and motivated to become a successful author that society values.
I would advise them to try other writing forms though. One that I thoroughly support is the art of poetry writing. Poetry can be very beneficial and very easy to do. First, poetry can be of almost any length, and rhyme doesn’t matter very often. Think of any topic, and write it very descriptively. Overstress the description, and I’m sure you’ll have very interesting view points from which you analyzed the topic at hand. You can use any kind of language that you want, and you can play with the words in the way that several rap stars tend to do in this day in age. I know poetry is sometimes feared because its short and simplistic style is almost intimidating, but you can write anything. Free write all you want on anything that crosses your mind.
Unlike free writing, edit harshly. Take out dull words and replace them with more specific, captivating synonyms that grasp the eye and make the reader read the poem from start to finish. Provide the reader with images that are very descriptive, using only a few words, from the way you see things through the use of similes, metaphors, symbols, allegories, etc. If you don’t know what any of these words mean, research them! You’ll find out so much about poetry that I certainly can’t convey through one blog.
Also, poems are one of the easiest things to get feedback on. In two classes that I have taken, we have work-shopped poems. This requires the author of the poem to be completely quiet while various people talk about the content of the poem. The author being mute through this process is necessary (just like any other editing process) since the author shouldn’t have to explain anything if the poem has done what you have set it out to do. Take the feedback constructively and don’t play the victim by saying that the readers were ignorant or that they’re simply stupid. Generally, those readers are telling your stubborn self the truth and you need to listen to their advice.
My last point about poetry is that it can be used to formulate a plan to write one of the lengthier novels or a successful short story. Maybe what you lacked when writing a longer piece was simply new ideas. When analyzing your poem, look to see if you accidentally inserted a sign of symbolism here or if one of the words you used had a second meaning. Maybe that symbol or second meaning is the added characteristic you needed in order to write a lengthy story.