No, not really, but I thought it a fitting a title because of this month’s prompt.
Also, shock value! ;-P
Okay, to the point… or, prompt.
“What are your thoughts on reading or writing books in non-novel formats? Are there any you’ve particularly enjoyed?”
This is actually well timed.
This past Friday my church was having a fish fry. To be fair, I must say I did not want to go. I had kind of spent 4 hours practicing old 60s songs for a play so i kind of just wanted to chill at home. But I did go, and ended up playing bingo with my siblings and some other people. It turned out they had prizes for the winners. I won, and got a lovely antique collection of american poetry.
This is one of my all time favorite non-novel formats for creative writing.
I grew up memorizing and studying classic poetry.
My all time favorite poet is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Almost every single one of my favorite poems he has written.
For the longest time poetry was my number one form of writing.
I’ve actually won a couple poetry contests.
I love the different rhythms of poetry, and how the author’s style differs depending on the subject matter.
For instance, Paul Revere’s Ride differs from The Psalm of Life not only on subject, but in the sound of the poem (BTW Paul Revere’s Ride is my all time favorite poem).
Poetry is a chance to be descriptive without describing a thing, if you like to do that. I love poems on a single object, or view, that turns this ordinary object into something magical by not saying what it is about.
When writing a novel, you can’t just ramble on about a window without specifying it is a window. In poetry, you have more freedom. You don’t have to say it’s a window.
The way I see it, poetry is permission to be vague and over descriptive all at once.
It is permission to use more adjectives then is permissible in novels.
When you write poetry, you can throw a hood over your writers eyes, give them a bunch of descriptive passionate words, and let them draw the pictures.
It takes the pressure off writers who ask their proof readers “do you picture this? Do I need less adjectives, more adjectives?”
In poetry, there is no right or wrong answer.
There’s what the author thinks, and what this reader thinks, and that reader…
Well, that’s what i think anyway.
Poetry is a beautiful mixture of words into a certain pattern. It could be a rhyming couplet, a haiku, or just some abstract idea that has a kind of rhythm that sounds good to.
I typically use the latter.
The point is, in poetry you have real freedom of expression, even more so then when you write a story.
In a story, you want to keep your readers attention through out it. you need a certain amount of characters, a certain amount of action,a begging middle and end.
In poetry, anything goes.
What about you? Who’s your favorite poet? poem? have you ever tried your hand at writing poetry/ Why or why not?
And I’m sorry, I couldn’t find a whole long schedule for this month. If any one know’s where to find that if you are posting one of the first couple days, I’d appreciate learning that.
I did figure out who’s posting tomorrow, and of course I’ve got the TCWT blog.
Please be sure to check out both!
March 9th – http://rcubedreadsreviews.blogspot.com/
TCWT Blog – https://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/
You
The road goes on 
This reminds me very much of my grandfather, who is a poet himself! You definitely receive a lot of liberties when you start to write in another format, especially poetry—it’s a way to write about something you couldn’t say otherwise, and that’s beautiful. Very valid point!
Also, you can find the rest of the schedule here: https://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/blog-chain/
Thank you! Some of my earliest works were poetry, and it has always been one of my favorite writing forms.
And thanks for linking the schedule!
I love this! Honestly, I’ve wanted to get more into poetry for a while now. I love how limitless it all feels, though I often have a hard time enjoying a poem–I try so hard to “get” what its saying (which in itself is pretty subjective) that I don’t think I appreciate the words and the rhythm as much as I should. But I’m definitely working on it.
One of my favorites is Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.