The problem with writing poetry

[mllelaurel]

...Or 'poetry that's going to be workshopped' at any rate.

It has to be personal enough, to capture the reader's interest, but not so personal that I'm metaphorically stripping in the middle of class. It has to be emotional, without being emo. This is not so much the class's requirement as my own. I firmly believe in eschewing sentimentality in my fiction, and I don't see why that should be any different in my poetry. If the situation I'm writing about is emotional, I want to let it speak for itself, rather than manipulating the reader. But that brings me back to the question of personal.

To make a long story short, I have no subject matter. I can pick a random event from my life and write about that, but if it's not too personal, it could end up not personal enough - trite. I could take a fictional story of mine and use that, but it could end up cliche and bad, if I condense it that much. Also, fantasy/sci fi does not lend itself well to poetry. I could...

Fuck it, I'm just making excuses. It's time to step back, let the writer's block run its course, then pick things up again. Maybe if I write something else, or at least work on RP tags, I'll get back into shape, so to speak.

Comments

[ee970.livejournal.com]

good luck... I don't believe in poetry. I know some folks love it, (much) less folks are really great at it, but... give me prose any day of the week. I resented being forced to write poetry and being graded on not being artistic enough. Of course maybe people who hated writing fiction hated that part of english class... *shrug*


/random

[mllelaurel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm much more of a prose person, myself. It goes with the whole eschewing sentimentality thing. However, apparently I don't suck at poetry, and I never used to get writer's block on it, till now.

[ee970.livejournal.com]

huh... kill the block! :D I have a weak spot for sentimentality (mm, sappy stories~) but in poetry, especially that that say, I, wrote, no one cares about me. So who the hell would want to write my angsty poetry? At least a story, you can build a way for someone to care about the characters before you piss readers off with your emo passive-aggressive bitching... :P

heheh, really, I am not smart and cultured enough to appreciate poetry.. it's like modern art and modern dance... *shakes head* But you are smart! So you can win! And get As! FIGHTO~~ ORA ORA BURNINGU

(sorry, I think ...i dunno what's wrong with me. >.<)