Join a Writing Group

http://www.nfsps.org/
Joining a group in your area can boost your knowledge of your craft. Some areas do not have groups, so consider starting one. If you are looking there is a good chance that others in your location are looking also.
There are different types of groups and the personalities of the members decides how they work. If you find a good group they will not only sit and nod at your reading, but will give good critiquing. There is a huge difference in good and bad critiquing. Bad critiquing will just knock down the writer. Good critiquing will make you see what you need to do to improve your work.
Critiques are not meant to rewrite a person's work. To change the voice of the writer is to destroy the writing. Critiquing is the process of helping the writer see a better way to write what they've written. The opposite side of critiquing is that you have to be willing to listen to the advice, and act upon it.
With snow expected tonight I know I will be spending the weekend writing. With any luck I will have some jewels drop off the page. I belong to three groups, two local poetry groups, and a writer's group that focuses on novel and article writing.
The National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc. is a good place to start. The above link will show you where groups are in your area. They have contests with prizes, but best of all they have smart competent writers that you can learn from. With a well respected group, you can move yourself forward with your writing. Keep in mind, you have to want to.

Words

I couldn't find my password/user name for a bit, so I haven't been on. I finally figured out they wanted my email, not my user name, though that is what they asked for. It just goes to show how important a single word can be. Can a single word affect the world? If the word "slave" had never been invented would it have saved massive suffering throughout history?

I find myself drawn to certain words. I love the words "etch", "filigree" and "lambswool". They have a feeling right off the tongue. They have their own flow and meter, even though each is a different syllable count.

What words can you taste? Which can you feel? Try out some and see how you feel about them. Then place them into a poem. Do they help or hinder your message?

Overcome Writer's Block (for poets)

This method works with any type of poetry, free verse or rhyming. The process I use is writing a "List Poem" also known as the "Catalog Poem". At first glance this may look uninteresting and how could something so benign bring out the Dylan in a poet?

Some of my best poetry has come from this process. I gave a half hour program on this at a local poet's group, and they all agreed it was a wonderful catalyst. The poems written that night were outstanding. (and this is in a group with a state poet laureate, a national poetry president and a state poetry president in its midst).

The basics of the List Poem are as follows:

1. You are not just making a word list. You are listing all of the elements of a subject. Pick the subject first and then begin thinking of every facet of it.
2. As the writer you want to tell others the fascinating thing about your subject. "Look at this" or "Think about this".
   
3. Let the title sum up the whole.
   
4. Put in a beginning and an end, make a story of the list poem. Your last line should wrap up the whole concept.
5. The beginning of each line should have the same (or implied) beginning. You can either leave in the same beginning, which can get repetitive (which with the right poem can give it oomph, but not all poems can handle this) or let the title imply the beginning words to each line.
6. If you put in the repetitive words at the beginning of each line, when you are done with the poem try going back and removing them to see how the poem sounds without.

The Assignment: Write a list poem with one of the following headers:
Yesterday
I wished
The Party
He said
I thought
On my summer vacation
My kitchen
Children
Dragons
Labor Laws
Bush

EXAMPLES:

(a prose list poem)

A List of Things to Do This Winter
by Kathryn Lomer

Take your father's farm-worn hand as your own; choose symbolic uses for the fine array of fingers; curl tarsal and metatarsal about a newborn's shell-like fist; read the palm with its attenuated hachures, lifeline fading out, snaggle in the line of health like tangled catgut, head and heart as intertwined as the love knot he tied in a sapling tea tree (stem pliant as a young woman's waist) on the bank of the Rubicon, retrieved years later sanded polished presented to his wife still woodenly reminding his loved ones...

(a repetitive list poem)

Things I Wanted to Do Today
by Tao Lin

I wanted to join a water polo club.
I wanted to buy a white T-shirt.
I wanted to walk around for one hour staring amiably at people’s faces as they passed by on the streets and sidewalks.

I wanted to join a water polo club.
I wanted to buy a white T-shirt.
I wanted to walk around for one hour staring amiably at people’s faces as they passed by on the streets and sidewalks.
I wanted to say hi to strangers and smile big at them until they smiled back.
I wanted to let my appetite go and go and then when I felt hollow and good I wanted to buy a corn muffin and a coffee and a soup and sit in the park on a bench and take my time eating and feeling the sun on my arms.
I wanted to get in touch with old friends.
I wanted to take the initiative and make plans for as many Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays as possible for the rest of my life.
I wanted to buy a small vacuum cleaner and a small fold-up desk and I wanted to put the vacuum cleaner on the desk and then carry the desk on my head down the street towards my apartment.
I wanted to run into a friend sitting on a stoop to my right.
I wanted to stand there listening to what they’ve been up to and then when they asked if I was uncomfortable standing there with the desk and vacuum cleaner on my head, I wanted to say something to indicate that I was, but that it was worth it to listen to them tell me about what has been going on in their life.
I wanted to offer to vacuum their house.
I wanted the friend to be someone I knew in fourth grade who said she liked me.
I wanted to go in there and vacuum her house and then when she offered me lemonade, I wanted to compliment her hair and maybe her teeth.
I wanted to keep on complimenting her until she was giggling and sitting at one end of her large couch and touching her hair and glancing up at me, all the while giggling.
I wanted to set up the desk in the middle of her living room and put the vacuum cleaner on top of it and then stand arms akimbo and say, well there then.
I wanted to sit on the other end of her large couch and ask her from across the length of the room what she was doing on Friday.
I wanted the TV to be off but the fan to be wooden and on and making a faint sandy noise like a quiet beach.
I wanted her to crawl over her couch towards me.
I wanted to stand up while she was crawling towards me and then vacuum her couch.
I wanted to vacuum her hair.
I wanted to say, can I try something to you?
I wanted us to take turns doing new and interesting things with the vacuum cleaner.
I wanted us, at one point, to be standing on the desk together trying to gain control of the vacuum cleaner from the other.
I wanted her to go into to the kitchen and then come back in the living room with a steak knife and I wanted her to chase me around with it.
I wanted to leave her house when the sun was big and red and the sky was orange and whipped like a peach smoothie.
I wanted to see a three-year-old boy with black hair and blue eyes playing with a small white dog on the way home.
I wanted to shower with hot water and then cold water and then walk around naked.
I wanted to do one hundred jumping jacks to build my stamina.
I wanted to cut up a papaya and eat it.
I wanted to package some of my books and send one to my mom, one to my brother, one to a friend.
I wanted to do nice things for everyone I’ve ever knew.
I wanted to lie on my bed and put my ear on the pillow.
I wanted a mysterious noise outside to wake me up.
I wanted the window to be open and a light breeze coming in and I wanted it to be dark outside and cool in the room when the mysterious noise woke me up.
I wanted to feel sleepy and happy and comfortable.
I wanted to fall back asleep wondering what the mysterious noise was that woke me up.

I hope this has helped you through a writer's block. Please let me know if it has helped. I would love to see the results.

Snowi

In the beginning

This is a blog on writing and expressing life, love and the general state of the world. We are united by the gene pool, leading back to the creatures crawling out of the ooze. A unique species (as far as we know to this point) with our ability to communicate through writing, art and performance venues.

I hope to share poetry, writings, art and other random ramblings. I hope you will come back to see the latest and hopefully greatest, as we all hope to improve in life.

Currently I write for a local woman's magazine that promotes itself as About Women, For Women, By Women. I have met some fantastic people through the interviews. I do not plan to write about just women here. I will start you out with one of my own favorite poems:

Undressing Autumn

2001 Copyright held by: Snowi

The tree sways

Slow strip tease

leaf by leaf

to reveal bareness

unveiling hidden recesses

Dropping each bit

in seductive swirl

To leave her

orange and red sweater

puddled

about her feet