Quite a few writers seem to do it all -- both poetry and prose. Are you one of those writers? I've made a few beginner attempts at poetry, and I've been reading and listening to a lot of it. I was told by a great writer that this would help with my fiction. Have any of you found that to be true? I tend to turn to poetry when I feel stuck in my prose work. I guess it's a better alternative than watching reality TV. LOL. But, really, have you found poetry beneficial to you as a prose writer? And in what ways?
Do you think poetry helps with literary fiction?
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Oh, absolutely. Writing poetry helps even a prose writer to "hear" the beats of language. To develop a feel for the right word at the right time to set mood and to learn the best words in the best order to convey with specificity the author's ideas, their world(s), and their characters. If you want to be a wordsmith, learn to write poetry. (I wish I had.)
That's a really interesting point about being able to hear like a poet. When I write poetry, I end up doing a lot of revision. It's because I can't always or easily get it to sound right. I have to read it aloud several times to find where I'm going wrong. And it's never just in one place. I find it helps me to try to write poetry in form. But even when the form is correct, it doesn't always sound right. I make some wrong word choices. That's something I still need to work on. Funny, I don't find my language off at all in my prose, but poetry is probably making me more aware of the way everything sounds so I my new snuff might have a better sound to it. I'll watch for that.
Why do you say you wish you had leaned to write poetry? I'm just saying if you already know the benefits, why wouldn't you be doing it?
It's a wiring issue. Creatively speaking, I don't understand the mechanics of writing poetry. It isn't that I wasn't taught. I was, but I just don't get it. I love poetry, but mine is an instinctive and visceral response, not a knowledgeable one.
But look at stuff we consider great poetry. Do the individual poems in Tender Buttons make any sense alone? It is a work meant to be read in one sitting, if you ask me. And I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about it and what I think of it. I think I will read it again. All I'm saying, is you might be better at it than you think. Me? I know I'm bad. I try really hard. I really do have to pay more attention to sound. Got any tricks for that? I think right now I'm giving poetry one to three hours a day (that includes reading).
This is kind of the reverse question, but since you are primarily a fiction writer like myself, you might have an answer. Are there are skills from writing fiction that you found transferred over to poetry? I've found that I can stay on track. I treat a form as an outline. Funny, I don't outline fiction, but, of course, I know how to use an outline. Even though I don't outline, I am able to maintain a focus. I think that crosses over somewhat. What about you?
Those are good questions, gettingby. We'll have to wait for those more knowledgeable than I, though. I'm a nonfiction writer, if I'm a writer a'tall. I aspire to write fiction and my first sentence is my outline; iow, I'm a pantser who loses focus at denouement.
Absofrigginlutely!
Up until a year or so ago, I would start every writing session by writing a few poems prior to jumping into my current novel wip. I have always believed that poeting made better noveling. You work within the microcosm to attune yourself to the sound and texture of the words...then you take them to the macrocosm and pound them together to make a more solid structure. Poetry is the scaffolding of novel writing. FOR ME. As in IMHO.
exposure to poetry, as has already been mentioned, can make you more attuned to the music of language. it can also be useful in understanding the power of economy in words, honing them to a sharp edge. it can also open your mind to the creative generation of new or modified metaphor, the engine of translating experience into understanding.
I believe it helps. I still dream of writing a novel in sonnets, like Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate. I'm not that talented, though, but I do enjoy writing poetry, especially using classical forms.
I'm a fan of the more classical forms too. What is it that draws you to the more traditional forms?
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All poems can make sense on their own, imo. You (general) may understand them in a different way when considered as part of a collection of poems or a novel in verse, but that doesn't change the fact they're each separate units of meaning. Think of them as part of a themed short story anthology. Every story in the anthology convey something different about the subject matter and deepens the reader's enjoyment and understanding of it in a different way.
I'm not much for the traditional forms myself. I just may bash my head into a wall to make myself forget the idea if I ever get it into my head to write a heroic crown of sonnets for example. But all poetry does have a form regardless of whether it is a sonnet or free form. And I do believe my writing fiction helps me with poetry and vice versa. I don't pants fiction, but writing fiction has made me aware of the form of my poetry in a way I wasn't when I solely focused on one or the other.
I started by writing poetry. Not terrible, not good. But it taught me to hone the language. And how to winnow a description down to its bare bones. Also to use a physical description to limn an emotional one. Of course, I didn't know it at the time. And it doesn't always work for me. But I love reading the Almanac in the morning - it gets my juices flowing.
I forgot to add - placement. How moving a word can make a sentence zing.
I forgot to add - placement. How moving a word can make a sentence zing.
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And let me say right now: I sincerely appreciate your posting the almanac each morning. Your doing so helps my coffee clear the cobwebs from the old brainpan.
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I can't write poetry for s**t. But, reading it often helps when I find my prose turning very bland. I'm not talking about looking for purple prose-y over-descriptive poetry, but, appreciating the simplicity of a good poetic line and how efficient and beautiful it is. It helps.
I write poems in the fly. When I did this, I didn't always save my work. It was calisthenics for beginning my writing day. I limbered up with poetry to prepare for prose.
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Writing poetry strengthens my rhythms, imagery and themes. Same with micros like 6-word memoirs. But I think it's important to remember that poetry is a magnificent art in itself, not just an exercise. Don't discount your poems as I did for decades.
And writing prose strengthens poetry too.
And writing prose strengthens poetry too.
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The more I know how to use language the better the writer I am. Even if I don't use all the tools I practice.
I suppose it's the structure. Oddly enough, when I write prose, I dislike any sort of constraints, which is why I tend to write more character-driven than plot-driven stories. Writing poetry in, say, iambic pentameter forces my brain into a very different way of thinking, which is good.
In theory I agree with you, but I think Tender Buttons is an exception. I'm guessing you haven't read it, which is fine, but some of the poems in Tender Buttons do not make sense on their own. I'm not even sure how much sense the whole book makes, but I do think this work is meant to be seen as a whole or at least each of the the three sections are to be seen as whole. But even then, I think Stein was after something more than a single poem can do. I have mixed feelings about her work.
I think it's very much the same for me. I'm drawn to the structure almost like I'm playing some sort of brain game. I like the way formal poetry makes me think when I am trying to create it. But, like you, when it comes to fiction, I don't want any constraints. Sometimes I go too far or it doesn't work to sort of color outside the lines with my fiction, but I want complete freedom with my fiction. For poetry, I want strict forms when I am writing it. Reading it, I can read anything. It's interesting to find another writer who feels the same way.
This, exactly.
I can knock off doggerel and nonsense verse in minutes. But that, to me, is not poetry. Something I would call a poem can take anywhere from an evening to a couple of weeks to write. I often mull over a single line for days, only to have it jump out at me while brushing my teeth one morning.
Neither exercise is a warm-up for writing prose. But I do think writing poetry has made me more attuned to language and better at paring it down to essentials. (Writing doggerel, on the other hand is useful only for entertaining my little nieces and nephews.)
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