How do you go about your craft?
Rosemary at Poets and Storytellers United asks us how we go about crafting our poems or stories.
photo by dsnake1
How do you go about your craft?
A fellow blogger once asked these questions in her post:
I think she has some very valid questions here. And it is not easy to self-examine ourselves.
I do not earn my living from writing, and I think writing emails, excuses and threats doesn't count. But writing, especially poetry, has always been a part of me, like breathing and eating, ever since I won a book prize during my primary school days.
I remembered Bukowski writing about him banging out his poems on a typewriter in rented rooms, smoke and a glass of wine in hand. I do not have a writing desk where each morning, after a coffee, I sit down to write. I have a very cluttered table with books, toys and a computer where I edit my work. So no, I guess I do not have a writing practice. Yet.
What I do is quite spontaneous, I write what I fancy, whatever the flavour of the moment is. Politics, nature, crime, people. Or a prompt catches my interest. I keep a notebook and pencil handy so that whenever some magical lines or a wild idea hits me, I am able to record it down. When I was a correspondent for my company's newsletter some time back, I did take writing more seriously, probably because there are deadlines and editors chasing you for the copy.
I am probably not a disciplined writer. Nor a very organised one. If I set out to write something and walk into a wall, I will put it aside and do something else, like button mashing some video games console.
There may be chaos in method, but there will always be a poem.
written : March 2010
Revised : 13/08/2022
*****************
316 words
"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again."
- Oscar Wilde
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022
How do you go about your craft?
A fellow blogger once asked these questions in her post:
"Do you have a writing practice? What’s it like? How has it helped you become a better writer? If you’re thinking about starting a writing practice, how do you envision it? What would work for you?"
I think she has some very valid questions here. And it is not easy to self-examine ourselves.
I do not earn my living from writing, and I think writing emails, excuses and threats doesn't count. But writing, especially poetry, has always been a part of me, like breathing and eating, ever since I won a book prize during my primary school days.
I remembered Bukowski writing about him banging out his poems on a typewriter in rented rooms, smoke and a glass of wine in hand. I do not have a writing desk where each morning, after a coffee, I sit down to write. I have a very cluttered table with books, toys and a computer where I edit my work. So no, I guess I do not have a writing practice. Yet.
What I do is quite spontaneous, I write what I fancy, whatever the flavour of the moment is. Politics, nature, crime, people. Or a prompt catches my interest. I keep a notebook and pencil handy so that whenever some magical lines or a wild idea hits me, I am able to record it down. When I was a correspondent for my company's newsletter some time back, I did take writing more seriously, probably because there are deadlines and editors chasing you for the copy.
I am probably not a disciplined writer. Nor a very organised one. If I set out to write something and walk into a wall, I will put it aside and do something else, like button mashing some video games console.
There may be chaos in method, but there will always be a poem.
written : March 2010
Revised : 13/08/2022
*****************
316 words
"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again."
- Oscar Wilde
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2022
posted by dsnake1 at 12:39 AM
10 comments
