A Plagiarized Guide To Poetry and Prose
I wanted to take some time to formally write down a very scattered and incomplete personal guide to writing poetry.
I use the word formal in the sense that yes, these are the steps/processes I use to develop my work, and I use the words scattered and incomplete to describe the nature of said steps. The title using the word “Plagiarized” is very intentional as well. None of these ideas are mine, none of them spontaneously appeared to me in a bright light from above. They are what other authors from many eras and moments in time have said time and time again work. And of course I have my own testimony of this process in that they are the things that work for me too. Otherwise I would have no business proselyting these ideas on to other creatives.
For me, and many other writers, at my best a poem is something that happens to me, and I am sort of a channel to that emotional truth that I am trying to transcribe, but there are ways to sharpen, deepen, and formalize my own skill and craft, so that when the moment of “There is a poem in this feeling” strikes, I have the language, skills, and mental functions to put it into words, and then afterwards, after its lived some time in this form, go through with an editors brain, and iron out the piece that I created.
Some of the things and habits that I have created that help me exercise the mental muscle of writing are as follows:
1) Read A Lot, Read Everything.
2) Be a good thief. (I stole this phrase).
3)Find Inspiration Everywhere. Poetry exists whether we write it down or not.
4)Write bad poetry.
5)Share your work with whoever will listen, and if no one will listen, share anyway.
Reading is the first function of writing, just as an inhale is to speaking. We need things absorbed deep within, emotional truths that others have already put into words, so when we have the moment of inspiration, we are familiar with what it is like to transcribe that into language. We must understand what our point of view is, and what it is not long before we are going to write something that will resonate with others. Let me be clear, this does not mean we do not write until we have read “enough”, I will get to that later, write now, write always, try to mimic your favorite writers, notice what they do, and more importantly what they don’t do. Intelligence is rooted in understanding not only what something is, but what something isn’t. Read things you “like”, read things you don’t “like”, understand why it is that you have preferences for what you do. And let your brain do the work, eventually, you will begin to develop your own tone, growing your own tree of “Voice” based in the roots of all the authors that you can’t help but love.
Virginia got it right when she said “Read A Thousand Books And Your Words Will Flow Like A River.” And I would expand this beyond books. Read everything, dissect the billboards on your way to work, think about why the author used one word over another. Ads are great for this because you already know the intent of the author, to get you to buy something, so try to understand HOW they are doing that, what about the phrase are they attempting to make compelling, what are their tactics? You already know their motives. Read social media posts, We are so lucky to live in a time where people are constantly putting their lives into words. Go through your own, or a friends or strangers Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, notice patterns, notice themes, this will help you develop an understanding of tone and character. And also make sure to throw in some Shakespeare, Rumi, Mary Oliver and other great works too, we can’t write sonnets feeding off of Pinterest quotes alone, but there is value in BOTH. Just keep reading.
Be a good thief. Write down, save, and steal words phrases and sentences you love. The phrase “be a good thief” I stole from Anne Bogart, a director and author, who stole the phrase from Tina Landau. This does not mean plagiarize, if you claim that you were the first to ask the question To Be Or Not To Be?, of course others will know the truth, but there is nothing wrong with playing with phrases, quotes, words and ideas of other authors. Alluding to tropes, narratives, and characters that are already rooted into the public lexicon, is an extremely powerful tool.
If the author is alive, and the inspiration was direct, simply give credit where credit is due. If the work is in public domain, especially with works such as Shakespeare, or anything rooted in a religious text, I think those authors will forgive you for not tagging them in your post. And as a reader, when I make those connections and parallels on my own, or recognize a reference or motif I have seen before, I am immediately more willing to go on the journey with the author I am reading, knowing they love the same things I do, Its a beautiful sometimes not so secret, secret.
Find inspiration everywhere, and WRITE IT DOWN! Take photos of things you find interesting, write down conversations you overhear, consume art in every capacity and understand what you are drawn to. Like I said before, for me, poetry isn’t something that is created spontaneously, its something that is noticed. Mary Oliver has three steps for living a life.
Pay Attention.
Be Astonished.
Tell About it.
She also says that “Attention is the beginning of devotion”.
Notice how “Tell About It” is the last step, the first is simply taking in the world around us, with no judgement, no predispositions to how the world is supposed to be, but accepting reality on realities terms.
The next step, is be astonished. Astonishment isn’t always a positive thing, but it is a state of being amazed, surprised, and to be those things you have to be present, with what is, as it is, without trying to assert yourself onto the narrative in any way. That comes later in step three. You can be astonished by something horrific, you can be astonished by something beautiful, but you cannot be astonished if you are too quickly compelled to place what you are witnessing into a neat little box in the mind, or give your “opinion” of the thing, and move on your merry way. It is not hard to be surprised if you continue to notice. If you are not surprised, look deeper, and if you are still not surprised, stay with it, give it more attention, sustain your focus onto what it is that caught your eye, there is a poem there.
The final step is tell about it. Write down what you see, just sensory wise, what is it that you witnessed, then describe what about it was compelling, this is where your point of view comes in. What was this thing in relation to you? How did it make you feel? What memories did it stir? This is the beginning of metaphor. Describe the thing, the scene, and describe how it made you feel, then describe what it could have been, what was underneath that feeling, what was at the heart of what was before you. We start by revealing others, but really we are revealing ourselves, in what we say, what we find important, what we do not. This is where we are found, and hopefully, others will resonate with that too.
Write bad poetry. This goes along with telling about it. We will not write “good” poetry until first we write bad poetry. And really, who are you to judge if your work is good or bad? I look back at things I wrote at 15 years old, going through my first break-up, and believe it or not, it was truly terrible. But it served its purpose in getting that girl to sleep at night knowing she had expressed herself in some way over a situation she had no control over. What it was however, was true. She wasn’t trying to be anything other than what she was, and in that, she got in touch with her own emotional truth in that moment, and that was the beginning of a journey into writing for years to come.
I have also had the opposite experience. Very recently I wrote something that I thought was atrocious. I put it onto this website, and didn’t post about it anywhere else, I did not really want anyone to see, but wanted to continue to acclimate myself to the vulnerability of sharing my work even when I did not like it, and several months later, after the piece was long forgotten, I found it again, here on Napkin Notes, and read it, and realized, that it was extremely rooted in the emotional truth of what I was experiencing, and very inciteful to me as to how much my mental and emotional health had improved since then. I was so grateful for that point in time having been documented. I was grateful for that version of me to have decided that in spite of their feelings of indifference towards their work, for creating it none the less, and sharing it.
This also brings up the very important distinction between creation and critique. Creation and analysis of your work HAVE to remain as separate processes. If for every word you write you delete three, you will never get to the heart of what it is that you are trying to say, hold tight to the feeling, to the essence of what it is that you wish to speak on, and then let the tap run, even if its running cold now, give it time and your words will soon be piping hot. Even if there’s mud in the water at first, let it run clear. And after, and I mean days, weeks, months later, you can go back with that critical brain that we love so much, and change what you wish, and really examine your work. But if you never try you’re never going to know. And who’s to say, your least favorite work is someone else’s lifeline. My favorite story is about how Mary Oliver wrote Wild Geese. She was teaching a workshop on free verse, and wrote it as an example to show her students. She didn’t think much of it, and it went on to be a poem that has saved lives, including mine.
Share your work as it is, right now, to whomever will listen, and if no one will listen, share it anyway. There is one final step in the creative process, and that is sharing your work. For some, this is unnecessary, as their writing is simply a form of self expression, or mode of therapy, or simply for their own pleasure. But for others, there is so much value in sharing your work. It is an empowering experience to put your point of view into words and have the courage to put it out in its most integrous form. For me, when I read something that I relate to, or see someone else speaking of my such specific ache, I feel a deep sense of relief in being in community with this person, even across space, or time. I know that I am not alone in what I am experiencing, and to be the generator of that experience for others, to share your words and know that even if it is not now, or not expressed, someone could see your words and apart of their soul begins to light up, begins to hum, that exchange, and connection, is the creation of this immortal human experience.
And maybe, your words will prompt another to write a poem, to notice the person next to them on the bus, or change in some insignificant way. This being apart of the human exchange, the economy of thought, this vulnerable and empowering expression of self, is so powerful. Even if you do not see the audience, even if you feel as if you are shouting into a void, for yourself, for a future version of you, for your children, your friends, simply for the act of sharing, in and of itself, share! It isn’t a means to any end, it is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.
Ps: I stole that last sentence, from Anthem by Ayn Rand (lovely book).
