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There's always room for improvement...
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There's always room for improvement... |
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Android 17
since 2001-07-21
Posts 664Winnipeg |
Hmmmm...this is an english/literature forum...correcrt? Well, if so...could I get some tips one improving my writing/poems? Everyone tells me that I'm good...but I know better! |
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| © Copyright 2001 Alex-lee Hryhorczuk - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
Honestly - to incorporate improvement of your writing I suggest you post some poems in the critical analysis forum... improving your writing requires more than advice from a forum - it takes active involvement and the ability to accept criticism and suggestions for improvement - and the ability to discern if the person giving the advice is talking sense or not  Read - read all the poetry you can - from the classics to the new...if you want to write short stories or novels - I strongly recommend a writing class... no time to write more - I would go on and on if I could...but feel free to ask me to expand on anything of the above if you want.  K |
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Jamie Member Elite
since 2000-06-26
Posts 3168Blue Heaven |
Would you please expand on all the above K? JHK>LK There is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar. |
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Midnitesun
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647Gaia |
Yes...I would like to see more action in this expansion tank.This is my first visit here, and it leaves me very thirsty, so I'll go expand my horizons with a fizzy grownup beverage, and return another time to this filling station, where rhyme and time are given space to wax poeticly, dripping all over the page awaiting clean-up. How's that for a run-on? I really do have some real questions about "proper" English grammer...er....grammar? |
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
You're a pain Jamie...now that is a commonly-used, idiomatic metaphor, often expressed in many Western nations...hehehehehe... Midnitesun - well..we need some excitement in here (as I'm sure you've noticed  so feel free to ramble on here to your heart's content... K |
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Sven
since 1999-11-23
Posts 14937East Lansing, MI USA |
I'll expound on the reading section of the program if I may Madame Moderator??? Reading other poetry is very important. It gives you ideas, takes your work in directions that you might never have thought of. It shows you what's worked, what hasn't worked, and what might have worked. Like K said, you should read as much poetry as possible. Everyone and anyone. From Poe to Cummings, from Ovid to Sylvia Plath, and everyone in between. Let the words fill you, let them speak to you, it's like being in a class with the poet, they're speaking to you from the page. Learn from them. I like to go to the library, and just pick out 5 or 10 books of poetry by different poets and just take them home and read them. All kinds of poets, from all kinds of traditions and walks of life. Anthologies are great here, they give you good cross-sections of many poets. You read the book, and if you find a few poets that you want to know more about, you go back to the library to see if they have more by that particular poet. I've read lots of poetry. I read Cummings in high school and haven't stopped. A lot of what I write has his influence in it. Dickinson too, and James Joyce. I'll read any kind of poetry, and I've got tons of it in my library right now. It all gets read, it gives me ideas, and helps me to learn from the best. . . So, read everything that you can get your hands on. . . take notes. . .see what they did, learn from them. . . you'll get better, and maybe one day, you'll join them on that shelf. --------------------------------------------------------------- To the world, you may only be one person. But to one person, you may be the world. [This message has been edited by Sven (edited 09-25-2001).] |
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Jamie Member Elite
since 2000-06-26
Posts 3168Blue Heaven |
A pain? Me?? I'm innocent I tell you. You know how I am truly interested.  There is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar. |
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
Well - I think Sven has expounded pretty well don't you? K |
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Jamie Member Elite
since 2000-06-26
Posts 3168Blue Heaven |
yea--- but his typing isn't near as pretty as yours...heh |
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Sven
since 1999-11-23
Posts 14937East Lansing, MI USA |
humph. . . I'd say that my typing is very pretty thank you!!!!  I do believe that I've been insulted. . . Sir, I demand satisfaction!! (LOL)  --------------------------------------------------------- To the world, you may only be one person. But to one person, you may be the world. |
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Bec Member
since 2001-02-23
Posts 475Canberra |
I'm in the midst of a communication degree at university, and I'm taking a lot of writing courses. All my tutors and lecturers tell us that if we want to improve our own work, read widely the work of others. You can sample other styles, try them on and find what works for you. The past is a foreign country - they do things differently there ~ Unknown |
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Android 17
since 2001-07-21
Posts 664Winnipeg |
Hmmmm...thanks y'all! But I look at my up and coming ideas and think it's nothing to match the competition. I think of ideas that'll be good now---not in the future. I wish I could write 6 months worth of story into 5 minutes...but oh well! "Fighting was the only thing I was good at...but I at least I always fought for what I beleived in..." |
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
You'll never be able to avoid the competition and honestly...while good ideas are obviously essential, you have to try; you have to start somewhere. My creative writing tutor this year (a successful novelist and short story author with 20 years experience) still gets stuck for ideas...he has one story he's been trying to write for 10 years! Ignore the competition in terms of thinking of how you can't succeed simply because others are out there and 'better' than you. Use the competition for your advantage - look at what their doing...learn from them.. K |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
Looking back at this - I wanted to take a moemnt to agree with Kamla (a uniquely historic event, I'm sure). Definitely focus on the 'competition' as you would a textbook - THEY are your research, the manner through which you can improve your writing, and possibly develop new ideas from. I do kind of disagree with what's said above as far as a writing class. If you want to find out the rules of "a" and "an" a writing class (or rather an English class) might be very helpful. But the best way to improve your writing (as many many many authors have said, and that I've seen in my own experience with my own writing) is two things: Read. Write. Do those, and you'll improve your writing far more, I think, than by attending a writing class. C (agreement and arguement in one post - man that feels refreshing)  [This message has been edited by Christopher (01-14-2002 07:36 AM).] |
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
And just how many writing classes have you attended C? - just so we can all validate your opinion... Eheheheheheeeee.... K |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
interesting... just running through some older stuff here (actually looking for a specific reply, but can't remember the particular post, lol) and realized i hadn't replied! K - i have been, all told, since High School, to a grand total of exactly one writing class. in addition, i wasted a lot of money on a year's subscription to Writers Digest magazine. (i say wasted, because i could have spent the three bucks on a single issue, which would have given me the same info a year's worth did). |
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