Writing Poetry -- Chapter Two: Form and Structure
I feel like this chapter was basically written for me because I suck at form and structure… I am not scared of the blank page, once an idea sinks its hooks into me I have no issue getting started. My issue is the fact that I edit in my head, I never have enough on the page to get to the contraction stage. I just simple tweak what I already have on the page and it never expanse. But this chapter gave me an insight about just how much I’m holding myself back by doing that. But with the help of Davidson and Fraser I now have lots of good ideas to “force” myself to expand my work. The “twenty-four student questions, one student answers” idea is the main tool that I have implemented from this chapter. I force myself to write twenty-four lines based on the twenty-four questions and then go back and cut out the bad. Then I do my normal tweaking.
It's funny how totally different writers are: I have the complete opposite problem most of the time. I look at the blank page and it's horrifying. It's like a tremendous wall. If I can get started, then the writing will run its course and eventually end where it needs to end, but I have to jump that blank page hurdle. Ironically, the same question/answer method will help me out too. It'll simply help me start, but for you, it helps you keep going. I think that's super nifty.
ReplyDeleteIt really is silly how writes can be so different from one another but it would be a really boring creative writing class if that wasn't so! Maybe being stuck in a class together for a semester will help us rub off on each other a little bit so our difference won't be so horrifying at the end.
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