Poetry for dummies #1

Part 1) Reading and Understanding Poetry
Chapter 1) Poetry 101

What is Poetry and Why do People write it?

"Poetry is the practice of creating artworks using language." (P. 10)

Unique elements make poetry special are
1) Attentiveness, 2) Concentration, 3) Experiment, 4) Originality, 5) Form

Poets: exploring experience through the written words, every kind of experiences, and the emotions and feelings, into art through the way he uses language.

- Creating an intense emotional experience
- Drawing attention to something that is true

Bringing Poetry into Your Life

- Checking out libraries
- Browsing through bookstore
- Attending readings
- Seeking cyber-poetry

Terms:
Metaphor: unspoken comparison
Similes: comparison using "like" and "as"
Anthology: collections of poems from different poets

Reading Poetry Aloud

- Why you should read poems aloud
1) Poets design their poems to be read aloud
2) You'll experience the whole poem if you read it aloud: sound and rhythm
3) You'll understand and remember more if you read aloud.

- The basic steps to good reading
1) Have the right tools handy: a dictionary, a book about the history and forms of poetry
2) Read silently first: Scope out the poem, get some background information> Read the poem silently, to yourself> Take notes as your read silently, if you want-it becomes a sort of journal for them, a history of their reading and their thought processes over time.

Terms:
Stanzas: groups of lines
Allusions: references to persons, places, things, or history

- Note surprise and unfamiliar words
***** "Stop, repeat, go back, dwell." If you really like certain lines, reread and enjoy them again. If the poem is in a book you own, underline the part you like or note it in the margin. And keep your dictionary by your side so that you can look up words you're not familiar with.

- Find an engaged, conversational tone
- Don't rush

Terms:
Alliteration: the repetition of initial consonant sounds

- Pause for power: 1) Any punctuated pause, including dashes, commas, semicolons, or periods. 2) Any surprise. 3) The end of one stanza (or group of lines) and the beginning of another. 4) The ends of lines

- Pay attention to line endings
- Treat white space as time
- Do it more than once

Writing Poetry

- Becoming a poet
1) Discover as much as you can about the poetic craft, 2) Become as sensitive as you can, both of life and to language, 3) Think divergently, 4) Make time for yourself to write, 5) Be disciplined

- Keeping a poetic journal

Terms:
Journal: a repository containing ideas, images, subjects for poems, drafts of poems, other people's poetry
Found Objects: things you pick up that inspire you or that could become the basis for poems, such as someone else's grocery list

- Trying your hand at a writing exercise
1) Write down a very mundane, straightforward prose statement about the outside world
2) Now pay closer attention to the thing you just wrote about: brainstorm
3) Concentrate on your subject and come up with a few new ways of presenting or describing the thing your original statement was about: reject anything that seems familiar or secondhand
4) Write at least two passages of poetry on the subject, experimenting with different forms
5) Now rewrite one of the passage in as few words as you can.

Poetry for dummies
Wiley Publishing Inc., 2001
The poetry center, John Timpane, Ph. D, Maureen Watts
Chapter 1: Poetry 101, p. 7-30

Writing Fiction for dummies #1

Part 1) Getting Ready to Write Fiction
Chapter 1) Fiction Writing Basics

* 5 urban legends that can hurt you

Legend #1. You are not smart enough to write a novel.
> The main thing any novelist needs is the ability to tap into her own emotional wellsprings and create a story that can move her readers.
> Fiction writers are exceptionally honest people who don't balk at telling their own inner truths.

Legend #2. You are not talented enough ti write a novel.
> "Persistence"

Legend #3. You have nothing to write about.
> If you've ever known fear, joy, rejection, love, rage, pleasure, pain, feast, or famine, then you have plenty to write about.

Legend #4. You have to know people to get a novel published.
> All you have to do is show around what you have, and the right people will find you.

Legend #5. You will forget your friends when you are famous.


* 4 stages on the road to publication

1. Concentrating on craft
> Nobody ever got good at writing by talking about it. Or hearing about it. Or reading about it. You get good at writing by doing it. Then you get your work critiqued, figure out what's not up to par, and try it again. And again. And again.
> By writing, by getting it critiqued, by studying the craft of fiction, by writing some more.

2. Tackling the proposal
> *** Book Proposal, Synopsis, Query Letter
> By writing, by studying how to write a proposal, by writing that first practice proposal, by testing the proposal at writing conferences.

3. Perfecting their pitches
> By striving for perfection in craft, by polishing proposals, by pitching projects to live agents or editors.

4. Preparing to become authors
> By ignoring rejections and continuing to submit a polished project until a publisher buys it.


*** Getting Yourself Organized

4 things to turn great ideas into great stories

1. Story World: "setting" or "milieu," the world in which your story takes place.
2. Characters: having a past, a present, & a future.
3. Plot
4. Theme: a core idea.

[Editing your fiction: great writing never happens in the first draft. It happens when you edit your work - keeping what works, chucking what doesn't, and polishing it all till it gleams.
* Reworking your characters so that they come fully alive & revising your storyline at all six layers of plot.]


note taking from
"Writing Fiction for Dummies"
by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy,
Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana.

Ingermanson, Randy, and Peter Economy. Writing Fiction for dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2010. 9-19. Print