Category: creative writing lessons
Learn to Write Poetry: Creative Writing Lessons
Most people think that poetry is a genius piece of work that only the most intelligent and talented people can undertake. This is however very wrong. Poetry is an open practice that anyone can engage in. There’s no doubt that the talented people will always come up with great poems quickly but this doesn’t mean that ordinary citizens can’t come up with poems just as good. If you are interested and committed to learning poetry then with practice you can also become a master in this form of art. There are several things that as a poet you will need to learn to get good in your work.
1. Accurately identify your goal
The success towards anything first begins with identifying what exactly it is that you want. Are you trying to express a feeling? Do you want to describe a place? Perhaps you want your poem to describe a particular event? Once you have identified your goal, you can then take a look at all the elements surrounding that aim. From these elements, you can now begin writing your poem without going off topic.
2. Look beyond the ordinary
Ordinary people will see things directly as they are. In poetry, you can’t afford to do this. You need to look in more deeply. Make more critical interpretations of what many other people would see as ordinary. A pen, for instance, in most people’s eyes is just a pen. But as a poet, you can start describing how a simple thing as a pen can determine people’s fate. How a tiny pen finally put down a country’s future through signed agreements. How a pen wrote down the original constitution that went on to govern millions of people.
3. Avoid using clichés
In poetry, you need to avoid using tired simile and metaphors as much as possible. Busy as a bee, for example, should never come anywhere near your pieces. If you want to become a poet and standout, then you need to create new ways of describing things and events. You can take these metaphors, try and understand what they mean and then create new forms of description from other activities that most people overlook.
4. Use images in your poem
Using of images in your poem doesn’t mean that you include images. It means that you have to come with words and descriptions that spur your reader’s imaginations into creating objects/pictures in their minds. A poem is supposed to stimulate all six senses. Creating these object makes your poems even more vivid and enjoyable. This can be achieved through accurate and careful usage of simile and metaphors.
5. Embrace usage of concrete words
As a poet, you should always aim to use more real words and fewer abstracts when writing your poems. This is simply because with concrete words most people can relate and understand what you are talking about. It will also create less conflict in interpretation as compared to when one uses abstract words. Instead of using words such as love and happy, which can be interpreted differently, you can think of events or things that would express the same meaning. Concrete words help in triggering reader’s minds extending their imaginations.
6. Rhyme cautiously
Rhyming in poetry can sometimes become a challenging task. When trying to come up with meter and rhymes, you should always take extreme caution not to ruin your poem’s quality. You should also avoid using basic verses and ones that will make your poem sound like a sing-song.
You can incorporate poetry in any aspects of your daily activities. In business, poetry is used to provide desired images to the audience. Check out how to get skinny legs howtogetskinnylegs.org to see how it is done. With practice after a few pieces, you will start noticing that you are becoming better and better in this art. Always follow the above tips and try to revise your poems all the time while making improvements. After some time you will be producing incredible pieces that even you didn’t think are capable of.