The idea of this thread is that people mention ONE small something they do...or think they should...in their poetry that makes it better. Or at least sometimes does.
No manifestos.
Detail.
Minutiae welcome.
Tips Thread
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bodkin
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Edit electronically, keep half finished poems more-or-less forever, keep coming back, tweak, adjust... eventually you hit a moment where you realise how to make it gel...
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Ros
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A cracking last line can cover a multitude of sins.
Ros
Ros
Rosencrantz: What are you playing at? Guildenstern: Words. Words. They're all we have to go on.
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Crayon
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Hey, that's THREE somethings! But I shall try each of them.Antcliff wrote:The idea of this thread is that people mention ONE small something they do...or think they should...in their poetry that makes it better. Or at least sometimes does.
No manifestos.
Detail.
Minutiae welcome.
Last edited by Crayon on Sun Nov 27, 2016 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
wisteria
glares mauve ~
sleepless dawn
glares mauve ~
sleepless dawn
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Ros
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Dive in at the middle. Don't write a couple of verses of scene setting.
Rosencrantz: What are you playing at? Guildenstern: Words. Words. They're all we have to go on.
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bodkin
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Similarly, if you've got most of the content together but it isn't gelling, try changing the order. Put the end at the beginning or vice-versa...Crayon wrote:That's a screenwriting rule, too: come in late; leave early.Ros wrote:Dive in at the middle. Don't write a couple of verses of scene setting.
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bodkin
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Read your work out loud to yourself, anything that doesn't feel right needs editing...
(I originally said it had to feel like "normal speech" but this may not be true if you deliberately adopted a contrived style -- 95% of the time it's a bloody good guideline, however!)
(I originally said it had to feel like "normal speech" but this may not be true if you deliberately adopted a contrived style -- 95% of the time it's a bloody good guideline, however!)
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bodkin
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(Sorry, I'm monologuing here.)
If you have been workshopping for a while and you, or others, start saying they preferred the original, sometimes you get a sense of having over-edited the piece...
I this case it can be useful to put the latest and original versions side-by-side and build a new one that draws the best from each.
Ian
p.s. also this is the moment to really embrace "can't please everybody"
If you have been workshopping for a while and you, or others, start saying they preferred the original, sometimes you get a sense of having over-edited the piece...
I this case it can be useful to put the latest and original versions side-by-side and build a new one that draws the best from each.
Ian
p.s. also this is the moment to really embrace "can't please everybody"
http://www.ianbadcoe.uk/
Compare your finished (if you ever get there) copy with your first version and ask yourself "What have I gained, what have I lost?" Too often I find my "finished" version reads better but says less than my first thoughts.
Steve
Steve
A link shared on another forum that I found relevant:
http://danagioia.com/essays/writing-and ... etic-line/
http://danagioia.com/essays/writing-and ... etic-line/
Perhaps more about reading verse than writing it (though of course they feed into each other), but if you are a relative newbie at metered verse - I just found this site which I find interesting, entertaining and useful: http://prosody.lib.virginia.edu/