When All Else Fails

…read the instructions. No really, some days no matter how much you want to or how hard you try, your efforts are in vain. We just can’t get inspired. Pictures don’t work, examples provided by others don’t spark the imagination, and we just can’t get going. It happens. Unfortunately, there is no one instruction book for inspiration or writing.

Even if our words sometimes come out kicking and screaming, this is not how we want to behave when they simply won’t come. We want to be more productive. There’s no sense in beating yourself up over finding yourself in the dumps. Maybe it is time to do something for yourself. Take a walk. Put on your favorite album (do people still have record players?).

If nothing begs to be written, maybe it would be a good time to review what we want to accomplish. Dig out your “to do” list. Have you done anything on the list? Have you found any new goals to add to the list? We all know how slow editors can be when we submit work, maybe we can update our list to show that we’ve gone three weeks without a rejection. That could be a milestone!

Pull out some of your non-successes and read them over. Can you see anything today that you would do differently? Jot down the ideas. Since we’re not actually writing today, making notes of what we see or of research we want to do could help when we are again ready to work. Pull out some crossword puzzles. Are there some clues or words that just get us going? Make a note of them.

Maybe there’s a movie you’ve been dying to see. Now would be a good time to watch it. Make up some popcorn or other snacks and just vegetate in front of the television. Why not? We’re writers not barbarians! Sometimes we just need to do things for ourselves. Be selfish; I give you my permission. Obviously, today is one of my non-inspiring days. I think its time to go for a stationary bike ride.

Have a good day, all!

To Workshop or Not

Okay, so you’ve decided to send your poem through the workshop. There are several things you need to know about workshops. There is also one thing you need to remember.

The poem belongs to you!

Workshops are designed as a learning tool for writers. It offers an in-depth look from different perspectives on what you have written. It is the job of the workshop instructors to point out your strengths and weaknesses and to offer suggestions. It is your job to filter through this information to determine what is usable to you.

The poem belongs to you!

You, as a workshop participant, have a voice. That voice can say no! The poem belongs to you. If a suggestion or a comment is sending your piece into a different direction than you intended, say so. We can only help you if we understand the intent of what you have written.

The poem belongs to you!

Workshop instructors are not there to do the work for you. Take all suggestions with a grain of salt and, if worthy, use your own voice to give them life. It is not necessary to use every suggestion. We know, or hope, that you have put a lot of time and effort into your poem. You have stamped it with your identity. We only want to help to enhance that identity.

The poem belongs to you!

Reinforcement

I wanted to start with a quote today. This quote comes from the same source as the two stories from yesterday, JAW Magazine, Spring, 2005. Richard Nilsen says “Sometimes it doesn’t just flow out of the word processor. It takes work to pull it kicking and screaming onto the page. And in all probability, the easier it looks to read on the page, the harder it was to get it there.” These two sentences left an impression on me. This is probably because they are both the opposite of some topics we’ve covered recently and identical to others.

Have I confused you yet? When writing becomes like pulling teeth, there obviously isn’t a flow going on. We’ve discussed flow and keeping it going even if it doesn’t fit in our plan. However, because we do have a plan, the words are often forced to fit a specific scenario. In this case, accomplishing the plan can be painful. My advice about sitting on it would come in handy here. When we go back and take another look, we might find a better way of stating those painful words. We need to remember that writing isn’t always easy.

If we remember that revision can be our friend, the whole process of sitting on it can become less uncomfortable. It is okay to change an ending multiple times. It is okay to do a complete rewrite if needed. We previously discussed keeping our unsatisfactory work in a separate place and re-writing them at a later time. We also discussed fishing the gems out of the garbage and providing new homes or new settings. The possibilities are endless.

We are limited by our own shortcomings--impatience and lack of imagination. Given the proper thought and deference, our words can become the proper masterpiece they were meant to be. Given the proper consideration our words can affect someone enough to inspire someone to write.

I have written Richard to request permission to use the quote. If I get a negative response, I may have to do some quick editing to this entry.

Awesome Stories

I read this awesome story today. It was about shopping carts and was written by someone much like you or me. The shopping carts were getting away from the grocery stores and attacking people. It got to a point where supermarkets went back to using baskets and bag boys quit their jobs because they feared they would be targeted first. When they started talking about instituting curfews to keep people off the streets at night, I had to smile.

There was another one right after that about building a fire in outer space. It went on and on about how to build the fire and the accessories needed once we had a fire. These accessories included marshmallows which led to s’mores which led to being desert for hotdogs which led to condiments. Further discussion determined there would be no wood or leaves to use in the fire and no rocks to contain the fire. If there’s no fire then there’s no need to have friends over and no need for marshmallows. We do a full circle. One thing was positive, there was plenty of space.

Now, that last paragraph was pretty much a run on. That’s pretty much how the story was written. Both of these stories were very entertaining and I share them with you today in order to stir your imagination. If shopping carts and building fires in space can make my day, imagine what you can do.

Sit On It

Our perception of things changes over time. After an unspecified period we become more objective and the work we have created becomes less a part of ourselves. It is then that we can see the imperfections. Mind you, they won't always be there, but real or imagined, they will show themselves. This is, however, the way I write.

Whenever possible, I advise letting a finished piece sit for a period of time before we rush it off to the publisher or post it online. (Like I’ll listen to that one!) We can always revisit the work a couple of hours or a couple of days later and see if it still has the same feel. This, too, will allow us to spot errors more easily.

When we are working on a poem, for instance. Often we are too close to the material to really see it. We know what we wrote even if we didn’t type it exactly as we thought. Looking at it again after time has passed can show us the error of our ways.

When Life Interferes

Some days just aren’t conducive to writing. There’s just too much “life” getting in the way. If time permits, we might find it cathartic to write about life. This may simply be a “to do” list of things that we need to clear up in order to afford ourselves more time for what we really want to do. It may be a rant of all the things that have bottled up over time. Sometimes, just jotting it down will help to relieve some of the pressure.

Writing can be so many things. Maybe something that is interfering with our creativity and productivity is a conversation that needs to be had. Write a letter and clear the air. The letter doesn’t have to be delivered. It can be destroyed as soon as it is done if need be, but do something!

When life interferes, we must remember that it is okay. The interference is probably not permanent. There’s no urgency in our self-imposed plans. I’ve spoken before about flexibility. We always need to be flexible because there will always be life emergencies to disrupt our processes.

What's the Rush?

I admit, these entries take me no time at all to complete. I liken them to touchdown passes. I get an idea and I run with it. This is probably because I don’t want the idea to get away from me. I don’t want an interception and I don’t want to be tackled. I want a touchdown every time. This requires some fast moves. I want the instant success. This may mean that I will never be great at what I do, but it makes me happy for now.

We must, though, consider the format. This has been a daily venture for me. The entries are generally short and contain only a few main points. Some only contain one main point. Many of them feed off previous entries and tend to be a bit redundant. If I were, at some point, to put this together in more of an article format, I would only need to create a collection of those points and weave them together.

If these columns were weekly or monthly, that story would be different. I think they would be much harder to write. There would be more depth and length to the content. As a daily dose, short is wonderful. As a weekly or monthly dose, more potency is required.

Normally, though, this is not the way to accomplish success. It is simply my way of doing things. I tend to stew on an idea for a bit and when I actually sit down to write, I knock off a project quickly. In the normal mode of things, hurrying through a project will not yield optimum results. There is no reason to rush things. Let me revise that last statement. The piece that we spit out in no time flat will probably make an incredible first draft.

Now it is time to regurgitate the piece to see what we like about it and what we don’t. Editing is difficult for many of us but it is so required. There’s no limit to how many times we can return to a piece for editing. I suppose we only require a feeling of completeness. There’s no rush in reaching this stage either. Slow down, take your time, and really get to know your work. The only clock you need to be concerned with at this point is your own.

Perspective

Your own point of view is only one small piece of the giant jigsaw puzzle. I was in the dentist’s office today and she has an aquarium filled with probably two dozen fish. As I observed the fish, their existences seemed incredibly boring. They traveled the same paths time and again. Occasionally, the path would vary, but then the repetition began again. While it was a relaxing view, it wasn’t anything to write home about. And here I am writing about it.

Now, turn that picture around. Are those fish observing us waiting in the waiting room? What stories could they tell about us? Say that mom has just brought her daughter in for her first visit to the dentist. The daughter doesn’t know enough to not like dentists. The mother knows plenty and frets the whole time. Many exam rooms are not large enough for mom to come in with the patient; so, she waits. Her foot taps nervously and occasionally she jumps nervously at an unfamiliar sound. The fish could tell us more.

I once read a short story or essay prepared as a homework assignment. It was written from the perspective of a boot. It was quite entertaining. The boot has been long forgotten in the closet. One day he sees light. The boot practically begs to be removed from the confines of his dark prison. The only problem there was that the boot must pay a price for that freedom.

He is twisted and turned and poked and prodded until his owner’s foot found comfort in the body of the boot. His face was slapped against grass and pavement as the bully walked to his destination. I’ve elaborated some here, but you get the general idea. In the end, the boot ended up on the bottom of the lake. He was still happily relating stories from his soggy grave.

In typing this column today, I think telling a story from the point of view of the cursor would be very cool. The poor cursor leads a quiet existence of blinking away the hours until someone else takes control. The cursor, even then, leads a very limited life in moving up and down and side to side one space at a time. What happens to the cursor when we perform a drag and drop action for a cut and paste. The cursor gets to open his mouth as wide as possible and taste our text for just a moment before we make him spit it all out again.

Even better, the crisp white piece of paper that takes pride in his appearance can experience quite a trauma when we pollute its surface with crayon or ink. The paper has decided that he actually likes the feel of watercolors on his skin. The paintbrush tickles just a bit. On the other hand, he can’t stand the daisy wheel printer that tap, tap, taps all across his forehead. It is no wonder that paper always has a headache. Now, the eraser is his friend because even though he can be abrasive, he tries so hard to remove some of that dirt that the bad human has left on us.

I hope to leave you today with some ideas on different approaches to the everyday story. I provided some very short examples as illustrations. The rest is up to you. Here's one...I mentioned the piece of the jigsaw puzzle. What's his story?

Words Do Not A Writer Make

We all know words. Some of us simply choose to be more vocal than others. Running your mouth doesn’t mean you have anything worthwhile to say. Saying something poorly is often better than not saying it at all, but saying the same thing well is generally much more satisfying. Oftentimes, it is not so much what we say, but what we don’t.

We must apply the same ideas to the words that we write. When we speak, we have a chance to clarify our views. This is not so on paper. We must rely on proper sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation to provide the clarity we need. We need to phrase our thoughts in such a way that they answer any questions that might arise during the read. We must use words to our advantage.

Take the title of this topic. It has all of the right words, but it just isn’t right. I would probably gain better acceptance with “Words Do Not Make a Writer.” To me, that sounds boring. There are a couple of things that I have to my advantage. This is my article and I can name it anything I want. That’s a pretty big advantage. Even more, I love words and know how to use them. This then becomes my excuse for using this title.

When you have a relationship with what you write, it shows. If you’re simply throwing words on paper because you have to, the results might be good, but there’s no investment in the document. I may be entirely wrong about this, but I don’t think so. When you invest part of yourself in your work, you try harder. When the work is part of you, most people will recognize it.

So, being vocal and knowing words won’t make you a writer. Caring about words and investing yourself in those words is certainly a step in the right direction.

Chocolate

We don’t need a complex idea to make a good write. Sometimes, the simplest things create the best results. Have some chocolate. Chocolate itself probably isn’t all that simple, but it is so much in and of itself.

Companies have been combining chocolate with other ingredients for years trying to find the most satisfying result. When we combine chocolate with other ingredients, we might create a good product, but we also detract from the original attributes of chocolate. In my opinion, chocolate should only be added to chocolate.

Take another bite of that chocolate. Feel it melt in your mouth. Experience the sensual nature of the flavor. We can treat ourselves with a candy bar. We derive pleasure from eating it. We can also find guilt if we should eat too much of it. But, it doesn’t need anything else! It is wonderful all by itself.

So, what am I saying? We’re back to keeping it simple. We’re also talking about keeping it singular. A successful story doesn’t need a lot of ingredients. Let the main star and story survive in its own limelight. Just remember that the story is not chocolate and while we might want to eat it up; it won’t be quite the same satisfaction.

The Shortest Distance

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. This is often the best mode of transportation. Sometimes, it is necessary to alter our route if the straight line might pose a danger or threat to us. Otherwise, this is the fastest and most convenient way to get to our destination. It is probably the most boring way.

When we write, the straight line is probably not the way to go. We’ve already talked about having a plan and getting from point A to point B. We need to keep this in mind, obviously, but we also need to consider what alternate routes are available to us. An interested reader will continue reading. A bored one may not.

Consider the last time you got lost when you were out driving. My experience is particularly vivid even today. I was following my honey. He made the light; I did not. The vehicle I was following was new and I was not all that familiar with what the rear end looked like. It was getting dark. It was also starting to snow. Mind you, many colors are identical in the dark.

After the light changed, I spotted the rear end of the pick up truck I continued my pursuit. It turned into a cul de sac. I didn’t think this was the way home, but I followed faithfully. It was a short distance further that I realized I was following the wrong pickup truck! By then, I was totally turned around and hunting for a familiar street name.

After what seemed like an eternity, I got to Wilson Mills Road. I knew Wilson Mills. I even knew the cross street I was on. I just had no sense of direction from there. All I needed was a sign that said which way I needed to go on Wilson Mills to get where I wanted to end up. I stopped at a convenience store and asked a clerk which way to turn to get to Richmond Rd. From there, I would be in familiar territory.

By now, the snow is coming down harder and my temperature is rising with every tenth of a mile I drive. I arrive at the pre-determined destination and my honey (a misnomer by now) is waiting for me. I was livid by then. I swore I would never follow him anywhere again.

So, my point is that I could have simply told you that I got lost. I think the story I told was much more interesting. Don’t you?

Saying So Can Make It So

Sometimes having a positive attitude about what we want to accomplish can help us do just that. Yesterday, I had a mental checklist of several things I wanted to do. I had posed a challenge to a friend, the challenge was my first item on my “to do” list. I also decided that I wanted to have something to submit for the fourth anniversary of 9/11. That was the second item on my list.

Both of these items were adequately completed rather quickly. I must mention, however, that I never included my blog entry on that list. That entry took a little more doing. I did, however, include the idea of compiling a list of publishing credits. That hasn’t been done yet.

A mental or written “to do” list can help you accomplish what you need to do. It also allows you to track progress. This doesn’t mean you will always be successful in completing everything on your list. It does mean that if you’re honest about what you really want to do, identifying the task can make it more possible.

Multi-Faceted Diamond

A story has many sides to it. Like a multi-faceted diamond, each side has its own shine and sparkle. Our job as writers is to present our stories with maximum sparkle. I work in the health insurance field. Before that, I worked in medical offices. I have seen the physician’s side of the field, the insurance’s side of the field, and unfortunately, I have seen the patient’s side of the health care field. I’m sure there’s something I am leaving out.

Any way, I could take any of these sides of the insurance field and tell a story for that point of view. Finding a point of view that is less common can make a story more interesting. It is our job to find the least common denominator. People don’t want to hear the same stories over and over. They want to hear a story that has a difference in it. They want the shine and the sparkle of the gem. That is what we must present when we tell our stories.

When you next come up with a topic that begs to be written about, turn the idea over a few times to see if you can find the sparkle. If you’re really lucky, you might find the one flaw that demands to be publicized.

Expand Your Horizons

The internet makes it so much easier to find information. Since we recommend writing about what you know, expanding your world is very important. In this case, the term "world” is used very loosely. We could mean the geographic world, the literary world, the poetry world, or simply our personal worlds. We could, of course, mean all of these worlds rolled up into one.

The best way to find out who and what make up these worlds is to read about them. Get your hands dirty and do some searches. I’ve recently done some searches to find submission guidelines for poetry. These guidelines exist for most types of writing. This is a good way to find out what new markets are available and what they expect. By reading some of the past issues of previously published works, you begin to learn what works and who knows how to make it work.

If you find the same names appearing in several magazines, maybe those authors deserve more study. What is it about their style, voice, or subject matter that makes them appealing to several magazines at once? How do we compare to these authors? We might then do searches for those authors we need to look at more closely. Do they have web sites or blogs that might help us in our own endeavors?

The internet puts your worlds at your fingertips. Get to know your worlds. Expand what you know. In doing so, we often find out there’s much we don’t know. The race is on to bridge the gap. It is only when we no longer care that we fail in our tasks.

Blog Update

Every day I’ve posted something in this blog. Most have been ideas that simply came to me and forced me to write. A handful of pieces were previously posted in the Wired Poet Newsletter. I started out with the idea of writing about writing. It seems no matter how we approach the subject, there’s plenty of overlap and repetition. I’m beginning to wonder if writing is a finite subject.

At least two of the entries I posted are meant for further research. The first one being whether poetry fits into both the art and science categories. The other is the conversation I posted about fairy tales. Both of these have so much further to go. So, in that sense, this blog has become a catchall for bits and pieces that can be tied into something much larger.

Since April 1, one entry per day from this blog has been posted on Moontowncafe.com. While most of my entries do not deal directly with poetry, I explained early on that many of the general principles could be applied to all kinds of writing. My reads and responses have been very disheartening. Does that mean that I chose the wrong train of thought to follow? Probably not; I still consider the thought processes to be valuable.

I do think that the audience selection was poor. After April, the only audience I need to worry about will be the one that seeks out my work. Yes, I am deluding myself into thinking there will be seekers, but it is a more comforting idea than where I am now.

Getting Your Poetry Read

The Importance of a Title
Your title is your advertisement of your poem. A title can make or break the decision of whether your poem gets read at all. Use the title to suck the audience in. Make the title appealing, but still tie it to the poem. If you can get your reader to at least say “yes, I’m going to read this poem,” you’ve won half of the battle. Be extra careful to avoid typos in the title. This can be a huge turnoff.

The Opening Lines
Once you get the conscious decision to be read, you need to pull your reader into the poem. The first four lines of your poem will determine whether the rest gets read. Make sure you use these four lines wisely. Use active, descriptive language to lure your reader into your message. Be sure, though, that you save some punch for the last four lines as well. We don’t want a strong beginning only to be left flat at the end.

Errors and Cliché
Typos and grammar errors will hinder the progress of the reader no matter where they appear. Check your poem after you’ve written it to see if there’s anything that needs to be fixed. An occasional spelling error is forgivable, but a piece filled with errors will stop a reader flat. It will not matter what you have in your last four lines if the reader never gets there. Cliches should be avoided at all costs (almost as much as -ing). Find a new way of saying the same old thing.

Awkwardness
Read your poem out loud. See how it sounds. You wrote the poem; did you stumble upon your own words? If so, you need to consider rewording the parts that made you stumble. If you stumbled, others will too.

Slow Down
There is no race in getting your poems posted. Take the time to read what others are saying. Respond to others as you would hope to have them respond to you. Take the time to review your own poem one last time. If you’ve just posted a poem, give it time to live and breathe. Often, poems will be ignored when the same author posts too many poems. The one not being read may be your best work. No one will ever know.

Courtesy and A Grain of Salt
If you should receive a suggestion on your poem, thank the user for their suggestion. Even if you may not agree with it, common courtesy applies. Remember, all suggestions represent a point of view. Take each with a grain of salt and make it more palatable. Suggestions from your readers can be invaluable tools. Use them wisely and be grateful for receiving them.

Fairy Tales

I'm going to do something with this...

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The damsel in distress who is saved by the handsome knight on the beautiful white horse only happens in fairy tales. It is in these tales that the sexist stereotypes of women are exploited to the maximum. We need the man to remove us from danger. We need the man to validate our own happiness and self-worth.

I don’t care how much danger I find myself in, I will not have a man climb up my hair in order to be a hero. I would be scalpless or in the moat long before that happens. At the very least, I’d have a broken neck. This is not for me.

Today’s woman might very well take care of seven little men and bite into a bad apple. Instead of being revived by the kiss of the handsome prince, she’d be kissing a stomach pump in the local emergency room.

Fantasies such as these just don’t exist any more. The harsh reality and complexity of life would make it very difficult for the fairy tale to gain any acceptance in the adult world. Things used to be so much simpler. There weren’t so many choices. What used to be deemed as make believe is now so far removed from reality as to make it almost absurd. Only the innocence of the child allows the fairy tale to exist. The perception of the adult makes them laughable.

Even so, fairy tales live long after the telling. I, personally, haven’t read a fairy tale since I was a child. Okay, I did write one and I read that. I’m referring to the classic fairy tales that have been around forever. There haven’t been any new Snow Whites or Rapunzels of notary fame in recent years.

Maybe we need to revive the fairy tale. Escape is still very popular. Some escape to their vacation places to remove themselves from reality. Others crawl into the pages of a book to find escape on a more consistent basis.

Do More With Less

In business, the new buzz phrase is "do more with less." We're expected to work harder and smarter and use fewer resources to do our jobs. This is also true with our writing. When you're on a roll, write what you can. Just remember, more words is not always good. Let the words come and then once you're done, see if there are smarter ways to say the same thing.

I mentioned before the author who spent pages describing the red room. Sometimes, it is simply more effective to state that the room is red. Unless there are some details within the room that make it imperative to know, the room is red is sufficient. There are times, of course, when it is appropriate to use the extra verbiage. We don't want to pare down our words too much that we produce uninteresting text, but we do want to make sure that we find the best fit of the words with the circumstances. Balance is again a key to keep in mind.

Being smarter in our writing can sometimes mean that we simplify our writing. It is not necessary to proof our mastery of vocabulary when writing. Save the fancy language for when it is needed, say, in your poetry. We want to produce work that drives the reader into reading more. We can, of course, challenge the reader, but we don't want to create a situation where the reader must arm himself with a dictionary to get through our work. If a larger word is the best word, by all means, use it. If your purpose is served just as well with a simpler word, my advice is to use the simpler.

It seems I'm doing a lot of repeating in these posts. I do apologize for that, however, if they weren't important concepts, they would not be repeated. To summarize and repeat just once more, some previous topics touched on in this entry are as follows:

1. Don't interrupt the flow.

2. Try to achieve a balance, don't write too much; don't write too little.

3. Keep It Simple whenever possible.

4. Find the best fit.

Practice Makes Perfect

When we first learned to walk, we took tentative steps and fell down a lot. As we got more practice and learned the art of balance, our steps improved and the incidence of falling reduced significantly. The same is true for writing. With anything that we do, the more we do it, hopefully, the better we get at doing it.

Consider the act of falling to be the receipt of a rejection. Rejections can help us to grow as writers. Let’s say it is one particular type of writing that keeps getting rejected. Another type of writing has been accepted. Maybe we need to concentrate more on the type of writing that has shown success. What are we doing differently between the two types of writing?

This does not mean we can no longer write both types of pieces. It simply means that we need to evaluate our processes. If one type of writing gets accepted and the other rejected, we want to push that which will be accepted. We can always put the other writing to the back burner and re-evaluate it at a later date. There may just not be a viable market for what you’re offering.

Some advice then, know your market and know your readers. Internet access and email make information much more obtainable. Do some research to find out what works. It might same you some heartache in the end. Once you find a system that works, use that system to your advantage. Be open to new ideas and options in other areas, but when tried and true works best…use it!

Writing Is Not Easy

Even under the best of circumstances, writing is not always easy. Most of us know that ideal conditions only come around once in a great while. Take advantage of those moments of boredom to think about what you want to do. It is possible to come up with a great many topics or one-liners in those moments. Be sure you have the means of capturing them as well. There’s nothing worse than having paper with no pen or pen with no paper. Make sure you have both with backups. Pens die all the time.

I recently wrote, “contentment serves only the dreamless.” For those of us who are always thinking ahead about what comes next, this will not be an issue. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with contentment. If, however, we want to make something of ourselves, the periods of contentment will be short because we are forever looking for the next challenge. We can permit ourselves a sense of contentment with the sense of accomplishment. Then, we must move on to the next goal.

Once contentment is allowed to sink its teeth into us, complacency may result. Complacency may make use less aware of our opportunities. We never want to miss an opportunity. Keep looking forward and keep thinking about what you want to accomplish. Then, takes steps to move in the right direction. Some days, it is all we can do to have ourselves positioned in the right direction! That’s enough.

Never lose sight of your dreams and your goals.

The Blank Page

Writers find the blank page to be intimidating. There is actually nothing wrong with a blank page. This emptiness gives us time for observation. There are a number of things we can take in while our creative juices begin to simmer. We can observe our own thought process. Why does white space bother us so much? We all know it is a temporary thing. What are others doing? Who wrote the latest best seller and why is it a best seller? What’s new in poetry?

These are all things that we can consider when the blank page stares so fiercely back at us. We should learn to enjoy this time. Perhaps we can think about what it is that we really want to do with our craft. Now, that is something that is totally worthwhile. Some people have dreams of putting together books. What do we need in order to do this? How can I use this time to make that future goal entirely more possible?

Helping others is a good way of helping ourselves. There may be some problem a fellow artist needs to overcome in order to perfect their craft. What do we need to overcome in our own talents? Can we use this time to help both of us? Why not? Any and all of these activities might just be what we need so that the next time we sit in front of a blank screen or page, it doesn’t intimidate us. We have used our uninspired time constructively and can start with that.

Then, again, some people just like crisp, clean paper for itself. I, personally, have an attraction for pens.

Ready for Publication?

Another old one.
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When trying to get work published, online or in print, it is imperative to do your homework. This takes time, but it will increase your chances of success.

Check to see what has been published before. Read the previous issues of an e-zine or magazine to see what kind of work is published. Is your work of the same caliber? The same genre? Obviously, romantic poetry will not find favor in a science fiction publication and rhyming poetry will not be well received in a free verse setting.

Check to see what poetry is winning competitions. The IBPC (interboard poetry competition) selects the best of 17 poetry boards each month. This competition has been around for several years and is quite prestigious. The NPAC (net poetry and arts competition) selects the best of 16 boards each month. This competition is relatively new and favors some of the newer poetry boards. Find out what is considered to be the best from these sources.

One way to get a real dose of humility is to visit other poetry boards on the internet to see what kind of reviews their poets receive. Post some of your own work. Just remember that one unfavorable review does not mean the end of the world. Consider the comments you receive and decide if there is merit in them.

If in doubt, try a workshop! A workshop is a wonderful way to unleash latent potential. It is also a great way to get multiple opinions of your work.

If nothing else, put your work away for a couple of days and then look at it again with a fresh view. This is a good way to catch typos and incorrect wording in your work. If you start with a good word processor, spelling errors should be eliminated but common errors still require a keen eye.

Make sure you follow submission guidelines. Failure to do so could land your work in a trash can even if it would have been published. Are you meeting all the requirements? Do they ask for a bio? Do they accept email submissions? If not, do you need to send an SASE? Do they require the completion of a contract?

Be prepared for rejection. There are many talented poets out in cyberspace (more than you think) and only a limited number of publication pages to fill.

The Balance Beam

Sometimes we have to make decisions between too little and too much. In normal circumstances, balance is the key. We want to provide just enough. In the case where too many questions arise because we have provided the improper balance, decisions must be made. It is a good idea to have someone we trust test our work for us.

Too little can leave our reader unsatisfied and empty. I recently wrote a poem that referred to “he” a number of times. A couple of my readers were very curious as to who “he” was. Did I provide too little? Maybe not since the poem was a complete work. Who he is wasn’t important in the grand scheme of the poem. Granted, the poem could have gained some length if I had included clues about him. Instead, I actually gave myself the inspiration to write another poem about him.

Too much can get us mixed reactions in knowing what the point was. In poetry, especially, too much can be a bad thing. Most poems are smaller works; filling them with more stuffing than necessary leads to an overflow in the oven. We all know or can imagine how awful that is to clean up.

Differing Opinions

Let's face it, we're not going to agree with everyone about everything. There are going to be differences of opinion from time to time. This could be the fuel we need to learn more about our chosen topic. Use the differing views to your advantage.

If you would, for instance, decide to write an article. Differing opinions could be prefaced with such statement as "some people think" and "still others say." This approach would give our article more of a rounded outlook. What we have to remember is to treat each set of opinions equally. If one opinion angers you, now is not the time to show it.

I guess it depends on what we're trying to accomplish. If the anger you feel is shared by others, research it. Back up the feelings with facts. An example of something like this might be a protest you find in the news. Quite frankly, your own opinion is just that, an opinion. People will likely read your opinion, but what's to keep them reading?

A little research never hurt anybody. Research your subject and explore even the points that don't agree with your views. A good article can present multiple views.

Professionalism

We never know who may be visiting our forums and blogs. Our next reader might be an editor, a publisher, or simply someone with connections. I strongly advise that we mind our behavior online. This applies not only in what we put forth in our daily work, but also in our interactions with others.

As some of you know, our work is searchable on the internet. Maybe you've submitted a piece of work somewhere and the editor feels it may have potential but isn't quite what he needs now, it is entirely possible (though not likely) that he could search to see if we have anything else available.

This does not mean we cannot be friendly or make friends. This simply means to treat each new reader with courtesy and respect. It also means to watch the comments you make to others. The next potential editor might absolutely love your work but not the way you take suggestions.

An editor doesn't want someone who will be difficult to work with. He wants someone who will stand behind their work and defend it when needed, but also be willing to listed to good advice. Use good judgement in how you deal with your current readers. The next reader might be the important one.

Professionalism is the key. Simply because our audience is anonymous and we really don't know who we are dealing with, we need to always put our best foot forward. Doing so allows us to maintain a respectful distance when needed and judge our surroundings accordingly. Once we know who we are dealing with, the guard can be relaxed somewhat.

Let your work receive the attention. Save yourself for a live audience.

The Value of Words

Here's another article I wrote previously. It may contain some repeated messages, but reinforcement isn't necessarily a bad thing.

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Words are the keys to life. At some point it became more effective to describe objects with words, rather than symbols, and so the alphabet and language evolved to perform important functions in civilization. Words now make up our books; they are our main means of communication; put them to music and they become art. Of course, the evolution of language is more complex than this, but the general idea is the same. Although we are left with the adage that a picture is worth 1000 words, where would we be today without our instruction books?

Language is not an exact science. Just look at the number of languages in existence today. We have variables of context, syntax, and dialect at work–just to name a few of the many variables attached to language. Inspiration, mood, and personal circumstances can also affect results of communication. Try a little experiment. Listen to the results as people interpret a photograph just to experience the affect of some of these variables. Objects mean different things to different people. What is happening in our lives also determines how we see things. A picture of the World Trade Center in New York would bring a different reaction today than it did three years ago.

Words are often insufficient and can lead to trouble. They are subject to interpretation at various levels of comprehension; when comprehension fails, interpretation falls short of its intended goal. We abuse words. We misuse and misspell words and punctuate our sentences incorrectly. Often, we use our words to be deliberately hurtful as well.

Hurtful words are not always deliberate. They may be misconstrued and become hurtful; perception, or interpretation, is relative. Factors such as personal taste and preference, education, and environment play roles in our understanding and comprehension. What we know of the speaker who delivers the message will play a part in how we react to that message. This is especially true when reviewing the work of other writers.

We are more likely to pay attention to that which we are interested in. How much of the newspaper do you read? Do you skim the headlines until something catches your eye? Do you read every poem or only the ones with the catchy titles? Therefore, the selection process also becomes important.

Okay, so we have something to say. We know roadblocks are at work. Where do we go from here?

Don’t get lost in your words. Detours in our discussion are fine if they add value and reach the result, but tangents, on the other hand, promote aimless wandering. You control the direction and destination of the work. Rambles, or streams of conscience, can be quite entertaining, but often have little actual value in their message.

Like driving, most of us don’t drive aimlessly; we drive with a particular destination in mind. Most of what we do in life is similar. We do things for a reason and hope to achieve a specific end. This brings us to a short list of questions to keep in mind. Think of these questions as the fuel that we put into our cars so they get us where we are going:

1. What is the message?
2. Who is the audience?
3. How will we convey our message?
4. What result do we want?

These questions must be considered in most everything we do. If we fail to answer even one question, we may not reach our goal. I will provide an example. My message is to show the importance of words and how we easily misunderstand them. My audience is a general one, but most likely to be the readers of this newsletter who are also writers. The conveyance is this article and uses reason to make a point. My desired result is to increase awareness and thoughtfulness.

Even in poetry, we must have an idea of these answers before we begin to write. Poetry, of course, gives us license to steer away from plain language. We do, however, have to convey our original message. Sometimes we miss the mark completely. Our titles should entice the reader and lead them into our poem and should not trick or tease the reader. Even when we veer off course in our creation, grammar, punctuation, and spelling should help our reader along. Readers should not have to stop and proofread what we have written.

Take the time to make sure you are speaking effectively; it doesn’t matter whether we speak verbally or with the written word. In verbal communication, we try to look our best when we interview for a job. We avoid street language and slang when we speak. Our choice of words, our tone of voice, and body language help to show our interest. The written word is simply dressed differently.

Written words, of course, are more permanent. They are also easier to dispose of when they don’t meet our needs. Misspelled words are often words in themselves and can twist our context terribly. Grammar errors can also distort meaning and signify laziness. Capitalization can relay emotion. Make sure that the subject and verb match in number and use active voice whenever possible. What is most important, give some thought to what you want to say and how you want to say it. Once you lose the interest of the reader; it is over. If you've dressed your words properly, you attain your goal--you've been read and understood. The second cannot be achieved without the first.

Having said all that, one might ask, "who cares?" Many may not care about this article. As a writer, the message means something to me. It is my responsibility to make you listen or read long enough to explore my meaning. If I have done my homework, I will have succeeded.

Human Nature

I've been thinking a lot about the nature of humans lately. Actually, I've been getting quite pissed off about the nature of humans. The thinking part is good, the pissed off part is not. Getting pissed off doesn't help anything. Getting pissed off makes us do things we wouldn't necessarily do under normal circumstances. How do we overcome human nature in our work as writers?

If we consistently produce a good product and are true to ourselves in the process, we gain in the end. What is the saying? Good things come to those who wait? Well, lord knows, I'm waiting. If we share our knowledge and experience with others, we may be able to eventually refer them to some of our work. If we treat the work of others with respect and interest, hopefully the favor will be returned. This is what we call "reciprocity."

It is not that I feel that I have some super-special message I need to convey. It is that I feel worthy of being recognized for some small insight I may impart. I would be quite happy to have someone argue with me that they totally disagree with everything I have written. That would thrill me simply because my words reach someone enough to cause a reaction. A negative reaction is better than no reaction.

I believe myself to be flexible enough that if someone makes a better point that I do, my views can change. I firmly hold that a coin is not sufficient since it only has two sides. I take pride in the fact that I can often find a third side. I admit the third side of the coin is often the most obvious and therefore the least thought of point, but it is a valid point nonetheless.

Poetry Board Etiquette

Refrain from posting all of your work in one day. Check the rules of the board or forum you are visiting to find out what their requirements are. One poem per day or week is a good rule, especially on a new board. Be sure you are willing to respond to several poems of other artists for each that you post. If you are posting in more than one forum, follow these guidelines (or the posted ones) for each forum.

Make sure your post is appropriate for the forum. There is nothing more disconcerting than finding adult content in the children's forum. Check for a rhyming forum if you have a tendency to follow a rhyme scheme. Posting in the incorrect forum may lead to alienation and, possibly even, deletion.

Share your opinions and you might find people willing to sharing theirs with you as well. Expect to spend some time on the board in order to gain acceptance. New posters tend to go through an initiation phase no matter where you land your pen. Persistence in responding, restraint in posting, and pleasantness in attitude will go a long way.

Be courteous! If you don't like a poem, you are entitled to your opinion, but don't be nasty about it. State your reasons, if you must, and suggest how it might be done differently. Just do it nicely! Possibly start your comment with something like "this is not my cup of tea, but I liked how you...."

Please add a title to your work. Some sites use titles as their link to the poem. If you don't add a title, your piece may not be read. Also, your title is the first thing that a reader sees. Use your title to attract your audience! Of course, it should be appropriate to the poem, but creativity is what it is all about.

Learn to edit your work. Editing is your key to perfection. Use this function to fix spelling errors or to make other corrections (including adding a title!). You can even do a full-fledged edit with this handy function as well. Use it!

Finally, always, always, always keep a copy of your work. The internet is a wonderful thing and poetry boards are great; but technology, conflicting personalities, and accidents can cause havoc without proper protection. If you write directly onto a site, one suggestion might be to cut and paste your creation into an email and send it to yourself. Otherwise, it is a good practice to create your work in a wordprocessor, save it to your hard-drive, and then cut and paste to the site.
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National Poetry Month

Never underestimate
A word of kindness.
This shared smile
Is possibly the
One gift--
Never expensive,
Always welcomed--
Loved by all.

People seldom
Offer words of praise.
Everyone has complaints;
Those we hear often.
Realize the impact
Your words will have.

May the sun suffuse
Our universe and remove
Negativity; may
The moon guide your
Heavy thoughts.

We Write to Be Read

We write for many reasons. Regardless of why we do it, one thing remains the same. We write to be read. If no one reads us, we have wasted our time, effort and talent. It is not enough to hope to be "discovered" after we are gone. Life doesn't normally work that way. Today is all about explosion and controlling that explosion (for example, population explosion). Online words get purged. Hardcopy work gets shredded, buried, burned, and who knows what else.

Let's face it, there's not a whole lot we can do about how the world is. Only a handful of people can be credited with affecting major changes. Our best hope is to be able to reach a portion of the world and to make a difference to that portion. In most cases, change starts out small. Who does the commercial that says something like "changing the world, one smal step at a time?" This may be all we can do.

If I can make a difference in one person's life, I suppose that, by some measure, I have been successful as a writer. Mind you, I'd never be a rich writer. It may be that we need to examine the issues of who we are writing for and how we are writing. Maybe it would only take one instance of recognition before others will join the band. I don't know. Maybe it is only a matter of promotion.

The more people we can get to read our work, the better our chances of affecting the reader. The more we affect the reader, the more readers we will have. Word of mouth is a very powerful tool.

National Poetry Month

Well, here we are in April again and ready to celebrate National Poetry Month. What does this do for us? What does this do for poetry?

With the loss of attention and reputation that poetry has suffered over the years, National Poetry Month permits us to bring poetry back to the limelight for a whole month. There will probably be more works of poetry and poets showing up in the news during this month than in any other. For the past 10 years, April is the month that attempts to reverse the damage done to poetry by showcasing the art and its artists.

Many organizations, especially on the internet, are hosting special events all month long to explore, exploit and celebrate all that poetry is and should be. Will National Poetry Month do its part to put poetry back in its place? I don’t think anyone really knows the answer to that question. As long as leisure time continues to diminish in our society where one is forced to maximize the quality of that leisure time, poetry may have a long hard road ahead.

The decline of poetry and whether a decline has actually happened will have to remain for another day. Research offers varying opinions on this and I have not done any real work on the subject in some time. In the meantime, use this month to learn more about poetry. Some links have been provided to get you started:

National Poetry Month
Info Please - National Poetry Month
Against National Poetry Month
Ten National Poetry Month Activities
League of Canadian Poets - National Poetry Month