Sunday, July 25, 2021

Your Poem Editing Process

 Okay, so you’ve written a poem.  So, what’s next?  Do you immediately type it up and mail it out or upload it for submission?  Or do you take it to a writers group for feedback?  Do you print it out and frame it on your wall, or give it to someone as a gift?  Once the poem is written, what exactly do you do with it?

For me, unless I’ve written a poem for hire or I’ve written it to enter in a contest or to meet a publication deadline, I let it sit.  Yes, sit!  It sits in my notebook if it’s hand written or it sits on my computer if I typed it.  I then move on to something else.  

It may be months or even years before I get back to that particular poem again.  Yes, really!  I suppose I love to write (almost as much as I like to swim) so I write a lot.  Once I get back to the poem again, that’s when I edit it for typos, subject, line spaces, line breaks, word count, form, style and so on.  I dissect it, I suppose, at that point.  After that, I polish it up and then and only then is it ready to send out into the world if I find a place where I want to send it or a book I want to include it in.

There really is a process to writing poems.  It’s more than just jotting lines down on a napkin or memorizing verses!

How do you work up your poems?  What’s your poetry editing process?

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Poetry on the Road

Do you travel?  Go places?  Run errands?  

I find I enjoy reading and writing poetry on the road, or on the go.  If you write place poems, you can certainly gain from being out and about for ideas, etc.  And traveling or moving about is a great way to find time to read poetry, or whatever else you like to read.

Poetry on the Road, to me, is like carrying around that battered book of poems you simply cannot leave home without and reading a few lines, verses, or pages as you travel.  Or it is like carrying that device, notebook, however you write, with you so you can jot down your thoughts, ideas, and turn them into a poem, or two or three.

It could also be if you attend open mics, or attend literary festivals, book fairs, or other art events.  You can take your poetry “act” on the road so to speak.

What do you take with you on the road or even around town?  What do you write as you move about your day or week?

Go ahead and get out there and take your poetry on the road!

Monday, July 5, 2021

Acting Can Make Your Character Writing Better: Live Your Writing, Dream Your Poems

 When I went to acting school in Washington DC I was taught there are two kinds of acting - technique or method.  My school employed technique but we did study method as well.

Later on, I went to Graduate school and earned my degree in Theatre and Communications.  I always preferred writing over acting.  Studying acting, participating in plays and even writing them helps me now with character dialogue.

I always found that experiences helped me with acting.  It also helps with writing.  

Yes, you can research things you write about and never go and do them, etc.  But, how much more real is your writing if you are able to actually do some of the things, go to some of the places your characters do, within reason, of course.  I think it adds that terrifically special element into your works.  

For instance, I wrote an award nominated mystery series (The Glass River and A Sunless Sea) that each time included local history and real places in the community where I live.  People were excited to have been to the places in the books.  In “A Sunless Sea,” I went up the mountain, Hibriten Mountain, where it is mostly set and that way I could include very real details in my story.  I know that what I learned in Acting has been beneficial to the way I write!

Whatever I do during each day, whatever I get to do, I’m always trying to pay attention to specific details (the man in the tank top, with round holes in his ears filled with green rings, his companion a preppy dressed lady in a fancy designer coat) and I make note of them for later use.  I read a lot, watch a tiny bit of TV, and I pay attention in conversations or around me to absorb all these goings on.  As a result, if I fall deeply asleep I often have very vivid dreams.  My dreams could be movies, I sometimes say and laugh about later.

Take aways from them often help me get through a stuck plot point or give me an idea for a poem. You can dream your way into a good poem, ask my favorite poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge!

Have an adventure when you write!  And pay close attention to your dreams … a special verse may await you!





Artemis at Sunset

As this year begins to come to a close, I thought about one of my favorite things to do: watching sunsets.  While I am often up early enough...