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Posts tagged ‘poetry’

Dec 7

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Stretch your writing comfort zone

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.”
-Abraham Maslow

As I grow into being a prose writer there are times when I feel like a fraud or a fake. I feel uncomfortable in this new territory. Sometimes, I want to run away from it all. Throw down my pen. Burn all those awkward sentences. When I start to feel this way—like an absolute and utter failure—I go back to poetry.

Poetry is my comfort zone. I feel safe there. I know I can create there. When I write poetry, the words, images and metaphors are my abacus, my rosary, my worry beads. To me, poetry organizes my world. I feel most comfortable in that space. But how can I use this comfort zone to help me grow as a prose writer?

Years ago, I read a little business book that promoted the idea of building on our daily small successes. When you have a success, use that to build your next success. Read more

Dec 5

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Using poetry to enrich your prose

French writer and philosopher Voltaire wrote that poetry is the music of the soul. He also said, “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.”

Besides being an end in itself, poetry also helps me dream up ideas for the novel I’m writing.

Some people create storyboards or collages to help them brainstorm. I’ve done this but, recently, I wanted to delve deeper into an idea I was developing so I decided to write a poem about it.

Poetry is all about getting the right words in the right combination in a small space (well, at least smaller than a novel). Poetry is about condensing details and sense impressions, and using metaphor to evoke an emotional response in our readers. When I write poetry, it forces me to go deeper into my subject and think of it in new ways. I can relate to what Voltaire said because poetry becomes an echo that stirs up images and ideas on the periphery of my original idea or thought that I may not have otherwise seen. Read more

Dec 1

Letting go of the old to make room for the new

In my last post, I wrote about poet and author Raymond Carver’s law: “…to use up the best that was in him each day and to trust that more would come.” Carver exemplifies this philosophy in his last book of poetry, A New Path to the Waterfall, where some of the best poems are also some of the shortest.

My favorite is a poem called “Quiet Nights”—four short lines about life, death, and rebirth. This poem reminds me of my process of becoming a writer and an artist—each day dying to the old and reawakening to the new, pulling at my ropes, wanting to set sail to the next new place my writing will bring me. And what about Carver’s Law? I learned that I don’t need to hold anything back, that I can give my all each moment on the page because, in giving everything I have, I make room for the new. Read more

Nov 29

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One writer’s law: trust that more will come

I tend to view the world in terms of poetry, finding meaning and metaphor in everything from the way the rain falls here in the Pacific Northwest, to the process of replanting a lilac tree, to how my grandmother drags branches to her burn pile or shells peas while watching the sun set over the Olympic Mountains. This may be why I admire Raymond Carver’s poetry so much—because he writes about common people and events, yet manages to transcend their commonness into something beautiful.

When I first discovered Carver, nicknamed the great “American Chekov” for his short stories, it was his poetry that drew my attention. Carver’s last book of poems, A New Path to the Waterfall,written while he was dying of cancer, quickly became my favorite as I read it over and over, each time moved to tears, especially over the introduction by his wife and fellow poet Tess Gallagher. Read more

Oct 24

How to use poetry to better your writing

At the Surrey International Writers’ Conference this last weekend, I received the honorable mention award for poetry in their annual writing contest. It was an incredible honor and an exciting, inspiring conference. Later this week, I’ll share some of my personal highlights from the weekend—including a few tips I learned from author Diana Gabaldon on writing sex scenes and author Wendy Roberts on what makes a good villain.

In honor of my poetry award, below are three previous posts about ways to use poetry to better your writing:

Two exercises to help you write poetically

Four ways to stimulate creativity and cure the writing blahs

Three ways to feed your muse: hunting down inspiration

If you have other ways you use poetry to better your writing, please share!

Oct 20

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How to riff your way to more ideas

Earlier, I wrote a post about word riffing—applying the musical technique of riffing to find just the right word. Sometimes, I use this riffing technique to generate ideas for plot, character traits, or anything else I might be stuck on.

Often an idea will grab my attention and I’ll follow it, riffing along to see where it leads me. Riffing is like dominos–one thing leads to another. To really get my brain going, I ask questions such as: What if? What’s next? How does it feel?

This happened recently when a friend was diagnosed with an illness. She told me how the doctor’s words felt like a curse. The idea of words as a curse intrigued me so I started asking myself questions. Below is the poem that was born from my riffing: Read more

Sep 12

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Four tips to choosing a book title

Choosing the right title is an art. Sometimes, titles come in a brilliant flash of insight. Sometimes, not. I write poetry so I’ve had years of practice with titles. With most poems, I can usually find an intriguing title fairly quickly. Not so with my memoir. I’ve spent hours and hours and hours trying to come up with just the right title. In the process, I’ve discovered a few things to think about when choosing a title. But first, I’ll share some of my title failures and why they failed (no laughing out loud!)

My memoir is the story of how, as a child, I used the intuitive gifts inherited from my Norwegian great-grandmothers to transcend my father’s dark legacy. Below are the titles I’ve used along the way, in order of appearance. (I’m sharing the bad first so you can see how I learned from my mistakes).

The Language of Thorns. Okay, yes, I’m a poet. This shows it by being too literary and dramatic. Read more

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