What do you write about?

[Doc Dan]

I write down my poems. I write poems saying what men want to say in manly ways. I also write sword and fantasy style poems, and several other genres, including religious poems expressing faith. I write poems about whatever interests me at the time, about what I see, what I think, or what I've experienced. I even wrote a poem about a practical joke I pulled years ago. Writing poetry is hard and keeps the mind fresh and active. It is far more challenging than writing prose. 

[Nanixashi]

@Doc Dan any advice for someone who only ever wrote poetry for a brief time during middle school (to mourn the death of a fictional boat)? 
was recently re-introduced to being artsy, and wanting to get back into other art forms. 

[inkstainedruth]

@Nanixashi Have you thought about taking an adult ed writing class, if they have such things near where you live? (Although at the moment a lot of the classes at my local community college are online only....)

Another suggestion would be to look at the NaPoWriMo website, especially when NaPoWriMo starts up again the end of March.  There are daily prompts, starting with an early-bird prompt on March 31, because so many people outside the US are apparently doing it as well, and continuing for the entire month of April, and then the woman who runs the website will post links the next day to various peoples' websites and blogs so you can see how those people tackled the prompt.  (You don't, of course have to follow the prompts -- which might be a specific theme/subject or poetry form, but I like doing them as a challenge -- sometimes head on, and sometimes coming at the prompt from an oblique angle.)

I've been doing NaPoWriMo yearly since around 2016, at this point, I think, after seeing someone's post about it in another thread on FPN.  (I minored in creative writing in college -- when I was a freshman, I placed out of Freshman English, and my original advisor suggested a poetry writing class, because I'd done some things for school literary magazines in middle school and high school, and enjoyed it immensely, and actually have 1 professional publication in a small press magazine from that class -- I didn't know anything had even been accepted until I got my [one] contributor copy -- currently lost somewhere in my house, but I kept it from all those decades ago).  I was especially prolific during the first year of the COVID lockdowns -- 37 or 38 poems in 31 days, and some I'm happy enough with that I typed them up into files on my laptop, since a lot of small magazines are online/online only, and that's how they take submissions.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Doc Dan]

6 hours ago, Nanixashi said:

@Doc Dan any advice for someone who only ever wrote poetry for a brief time during middle school (to mourn the death of a fictional boat)? 
was recently re-introduced to being artsy, and wanting to get back into other art forms. 

Well, Udemy offers classes on poetry. I actually decided to take one and it isn't bad. I think Masterclass has an offering, also. The best advice is to read a lot of poetry and pay attention to meter and construction. I prefer classic poetry, but there are a lot of new modern styles, too. Find a few poets that you like and write poems that emulate the styles. Develop your own voice, so to speak. Mostly, just have fun. 

[Misfit]

Just throwing this in: Emily Dickinson’s poems are the same meter as the song The Yellow Rose of Texas. You can actually sing her poems to that melody. 

[inkstainedruth]

Gee, and a friend of ours used to have a game as to how many songs could be sung to the tune of "The Ash Grove" vs. how many could be sung to "Greensleeves"....   (And IIRC, you can sing the lyrics of one of those to the other, but don't, at the moment remember in which order....)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Doc Dan]

16 hours ago, Misfit said:

Just throwing this in: Emily Dickinson’s poems are the same meter as the song The Yellow Rose of Texas. You can actually sing her poems to that melody. 

Hahaha! I tried it and it works! 

[Misfit]

8 hours ago, Doc Dan said:

Hahaha! I tried it and it works! 

I learned that a long time ago. I don’t remember from whom. Maybe it was college days. 
 

I don’t have it all memorized, but in my head I can hear her poem to The Yellow Rose of Texas. “Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me.  His carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.” 

 

[Doc Dan]

2 hours ago, Misfit said:

I learned that a long time ago. I don’t remember from whom. Maybe it was college days. 
 

I don’t have it all memorized, but in my head I can hear her poem to The Yellow Rose of Texas. “Because I could not stop for Death, he kindly stopped for me.  His carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.” 

 

Thanks. Now I'll never get that out of my head. 😆

[Doc Dan]

“A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it." Dylan Thomas

[antares1966]

Every few years I’ll dabble in some attempts at poetry.  Agree it’s an agreeable challenge to try and convey something meaningful within a structured framework.

 

The bad news…with perhaps one exception, my efforts have been Vogon-level bad.

[inkstainedruth]

@antares1966 Well, maybe if you meet an actual Vogon someday, you'll get rave reviews....  (Yeah, I caught the reference.... )

@Doc Dan You and me both... (i.e., the ear worming thing)   Of course now I'm wondering if "Hope is the thing with feathers" scans as well (I've liked that one since my middle school chorus sang a choral version of it years ago).  And yeah.... it does....   That is just so, so, so wrong....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[Doc Dan]

I am going back through and polishing up one of my novels. It is a sci-fi action adventure. Everyone that's read it said reading it was like watching a movie. Well, I guess that is good. I am going to try and find a way to get it traditionally published and see if I have a better experience this time around. 

[Misfit]

@Doc Dan I wish you well on the book venture for a traditional publisher. 
 

I think saying reading your book was like watching a movie is a compliment. It means you engaged their imaginations to see what your words were describing.  I think that’s what books do, when they are written well. 

[Doc Dan]

6 hours ago, Misfit said:

@Doc Dan I wish you well on the book venture for a traditional publisher. 
 

I think saying reading your book was like watching a movie is a compliment. It means you engaged their imaginations to see what your words were describing.  I think that’s what books do, when they are written well. 

Thank you very much.

 

I hope I will land something soon. It is a lot of work to try and find agents and publishers, and etc. It takes time away from writing, which is what I want to be doing. 

 

I find it fascinating to outline and then write a book and discover how it ends, which is likely different than I originally intended. The journey is the thing. 

[Sailor Kenshin]

11 hours ago, Doc Dan said:

I am going back through and polishing up one of my novels. It is a sci-fi action adventure. Everyone that's read it said reading it was like watching a movie. Well, I guess that is good. I am going to try and find a way to get it traditionally published and see if I have a better experience this time around. 

 

Best wishes!  
 

I'm doing something similar now, not SF, more fantasy.  It was an ollldd novel and I was surprised to discover not all of it sucks.  🤣

[antares1966]

7 hours ago, Doc Dan said:

Thank you very much.

 

I hope I will land something soon. It is a lot of work to try and find agents and publishers, and etc. It takes time away from writing, which is what I want to be doing. 

 

I find it fascinating to outline and then write a book and discover how it ends, which is likely different than I originally intended. The journey is the thing. 

Best wishes for much success getting your work published.  Good writing is HARD work and that’s before wading through the “business” part.  

[Doc Dan]

6 hours ago, Sailor Kenshin said:

 

Best wishes!  
 

I'm doing something similar now, not SF, more fantasy.  It was an ollldd novel and I was surprised to discover not all of it sucks.  🤣

I'm sure it is pretty awesome. Finish it. Get up every morning and write. Don't correct it. Get it done and only then fix it. Let us know when you are ready. 

[Doc Dan]

2 hours ago, antares1966 said:

Best wishes for much success getting your work published.  Good writing is HARD work and that’s before wading through the “business” part.  

Thanks.

 

Yes, it is very hard work and lot of editing once the story is finished. I hate the business part because I am so ignorant of all of the ins and outs and dos and don'ts.