Still saving the world? As writers I think we are a group fairing quite well with social distancing. And as readers, well, we are used to traveling to the
inner souls and the outer limits without ever leaving our nice warm beds. Come on over for a Wednesday Chat.
There is a table in the back of the room filled with snacks. There is also a wet-bar but you'll have to mix your own drinks. I prefer to drink from the ditch.
(Whiskey & Water)
Bring your own favorite poem. If it isn't too long you can drop it into the room. If it is an epic poem, bring a link to it. Wednesday is a Relaxed Topic Night
during Poetry Month.
Portrait of a Girl With Comic Book
by Phyllis McGinley
Thirteen’s no age at all. Thirteen is nothing.
It is not wit, or powder on the face,
Or Wednesday matinees, or misses’ clothing,
Or intellect, or grace,
Twelve has its tribal customs. But thirteen
Is neither boys in battered cars nor dolls,
Not Sara Crewe or movie magazine,
Or pennants on the walls.
Thirteen keeps diaries and tropical fish
(A month, at most); scorns jump-ropes in the spring;
Could not, would fortune grant it, name its wish;
Wants nothing, everything;
Has secrets from itself, friends it despises;
Admits none of the terrors it feels;
Owns half a hundred masks but no disguises;
And walks upon its heels.
Thirteen’s anomalous – not that, not this:
Not folded bud, or wave that laps a shore,
Or moth proverbial from the chrysalis.
Is the one age defeats the metaphor.
Is not a town, like childhood, strongly walled
But easily surrounded; is no city.
Nor, quitted once, can it be quite recalled –
Not even with pity.
As long as we are still at home keeping everyone safe I thought we could talk about that secret place where ideas swirl around in deep places waiting to be coaxed up to the surface. As long as it is still poetry month I will at least come at the topic from an oblique angle. I say this because many of you deeply appreciate
poetry but you get your writerly creds in short story, novel or nonfiction writing.
As long as we are still at home keeping everyone safe I thought we could talk about that secret place
where ideas swirl around in deep places waiting to be coaxed up to the surface. As long as it is still poetry month I will at least come at the topic from an oblique angle. I say this because many of you deeply appreciate poetry but you get your writerly creds in short story, novel or nonfiction writing.
Ideas
Where do writers find them? Is there a secret place? Let’s talk about ideas.
Remember, it is poetry month and I am taking a workshop. In one of the early lectures Ideas are the focus. I am supposed to make
a list of ten of them. Later, I need to expand on them. But the idea of finding and listing ideas is very simple and can apply to your fictional characters or your memoirs, I suppose any kind of creative writing is at risk of forming from an idea.
The workshop suggests a list of ten ideas and to find them we are assigned to make a list of our high points, low points and our
turning points. I am still working on mine because I don’t want to choose a high point that every parent will choose and I don’t want my lowest point to be so tragic I have to do a round of therapy as I explore it.
Turning points seem very interesting to me. What were the major turning points in your life? Your character’s life? Some of my
highest points became turning points in hind sight. Some of my most dreadful points with the passage of time are now things I would now list among my high points.
The list, if you make one will mellow or compost as you consider what it was about the event making it among the top ten
moments. What universal truth did you find in that moment in time? The truths as writers know can be pretty darned messed up. We don’t have to like our truth but we shouldn’t look away from their value. Your reader will appreciate your honesty.
Join us on Sunday for a mini-topic chat on Idea Mining.
Diary vs. Journal: What's the Difference?
While we continue to do our part to save the world, let’s talk about Keeping a Journal or maybe some of you Keep Diaries.
To me, the biggest difference between a Journal and a Diary is the Lock.
While I probably want my old diaries interred with my bones or tossed in with me before cremation, I might be okay if my family or friends came across one of my journals.
Let’s do a mini-topic on the Difference Between a Diary and a Journal.
Many people think a diary is the same thing as a journal. However, there is a difference between the two.
A diary is a book to record events as they happen.
A journal is a book used to explore ideas that take shape.
Learn more about the characteristics of diaries and journals to find out which style is best suited to your needs.
As Long as we are Doing our Part to Save the World
Let's Have Chat
We are making a Holiday Exception and Meeting for Chat this Sunday.
I've been watching some fairly weird things on Hulu. Reading some equally weird things. Hanging out on Social Media and wondering what he rest of you are doing.
Drop by the chatroom at the usual time, 7PM EDT April 12th and see what everyone else is up to.
Watch this Clip from my Favorite Friend's Episode and Laugh Out Loud!
I don't think there is anyone who calls herself a writer who hasn't collected Tools of the Trade.
I just added another book to mine. It is a heavy book, around 3 pounds maybe, almost 1400 pages. I bought it used. And when I opened it I discovered added value. The previous owners of this book of poetry added notes in the margins, highlights and other marks. I can mosey through the pages and pick up on the trails of readers who came before me.
The new book on my shelf is the Norton Anthology of Poetry, the Shortened 5th edition.
Drop in and share the names of your Writerly Treasure Trove.
On Wednesday, April 8th at 8PM EDT
The Poetic Process
I thought I would continue April’s Poetry Theme. The resources for this post are listed below.
I am 95 days into my DH’s retirement. Something that turned out to be very well timed, considering unfolding events. I have been
thinking about the turning points in my life. Those events that make me consider memories as those before and those after something huge. There are smaller things, red flags, ignored hunches, crazy mistakes. There was that day in the hospital, my daughter in my bed and I with a lit Winston in my hand, gazed deeply into her big bright baby eyes and sang, “Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side.” I will never forget the day I committed to leave an abusive relationship and there was literally no
turning back because the brakes had failed on my car as I left town on the old frontage road. The day I watched, stunned as the space shuttle exploded on take off. I remember smiling so hard and long on the day my first novel was accepted and I had the cheekies all evening.
Nothing in my life right now is like it was before. I know this moment is a defining one for many of us. We can use the
feelings, visions, fear, happiness, the raw emotion of this time and place for writing novels, memoirs, short stories and poems.
Poets are tasked not only with understanding language and universal truth, but how that truth feels and what rhythmic words can
capture that feeling—harness it in lines and stanzas—and move the audience as the poet once was moved. To identify such moments, recall the epiphanies and peak experiences that calibrate your life. To do so, you might make a list of highs, lows, and turning points you experienced over the years. A high can be a birth or a marriage. A low can be a death or a divorce. A turning point can be how a low like divorce metamorphosed into a high like re-marriage, and so
forth.
The Poetic Process
Most poets choose topics containing metaphysical insights or hard-earned truths—usually drawn from the author's highs, lows, and turning points—as explained in Chapter One of The Art & Craft of Poetry. These truths are conveyed throughout a poem via themes depicted by images and metaphors that build in intensity,
foreshadowing an "epiphany," or universal truth, in the ending. You can vary your truths, using your imagination and envisioning other viewpoints and perspectives.
Poets are tasked not only with understanding language and universal truth, but how that truth feels and what rhythmic words can
capture that feeling—harness it in lines and stanzas—and move the audience as the poet once was moved. To identify such moments, recall the epiphanies and peak experiences that calibrate your life. To do so, you might make a list of highs, lows, and turning points you experienced over the years. A high can be a birth or a marriage. A low can be a death or a divorce. A turning point can be how a low like divorce metamorphosed into a high like re-marriage, and so
forth.
In other words, make a list of highs, lows, and turning points relating to love, nature, the supernatural, war, politics, and
occasions. Have you experienced an enduring truth associated with romance, nature, etc.?
Bugeja, Michael. The Art & Craft of Poetry . Unknown. Kindle Edition.
Fundamentals of Poetry Writing Writer’s Digest University.
Chat begins at 7PM EDT at the Writer’s
Chatroom
Poetry in Lock Down
It is a strange, new world. It is also a frightening new world. Most of us are Staying Home to do our bit toward saving the
world.
For those who can’t work online, remotely, a whole lot of writing time just opened up. Oh, okay, I forgot that some of you also
have children. When they aren’t accusing each other of breathing too loud, you probably have a moment to yourself.
This might be a perfect time to become involved in some online writing related courses. And some of them are offering their
courses at a lower price than usual.
This is how I stumbled onto an online Poetry Course.
I know very little about poetry, but I do know how to read it. I cannot tell you how poems are written or judged any more than I
can tell you why some red wine tastes like the inside of a grapefruit peel. The course suggestion showed up in my email and I thought, why not. And I am taking advantage of Sheltering in Place by taking a deep dive into something new.
Join us on Wednesday, tomorrow, April 1st for a mini-topic on poetry.
