You Imagine discussion

As writers, how do we figure out what form a particular thought, idea, subject wants to be? When is it a story and when is it a poem? What about that hazy territory we call prose poetry?

I would love to hear what others have to say about process. Do you start out writing a poem, or does the piece itself decide what it wants to be?

first:

1.look around the room for an inspiration

2.take an idea, i.e., a paper

3. write about it

no planning, no plot, no characters!!! isn't that easy?

Indeed, that does sound straight-forward, Eileen! The part where I get tripped up is the process of getting the poem where it needs to be ... developing, revising, polishing.

This is very subjective of course, but I often find that the first draft of a poem is like a sketch and needs development and honing before the words really sing off the page.

Thoughts anyone?

I wrote poetry for twenty years and then one day I sat down and wrote two novels. About ten years later I sat down and wrote a collection of short stories. The bottom line is they're just words. I write down one and then I follow it with another one. I'm not being flippant but, at the end of the day, that's all they are. I always thought of myself as a poet but not everything can be crammed into a poem. Nowadays I actually write quite structured poetry but I never consider the shape till the words are on the paper. That's why I'll never write a sonnet. So, I have a simple rule: words first, structure later. Once you get the words out of your head it's pretty obvious what you've got. Strangely enough I've never written a prose poem as yet but there's time.