Okay. I'm getting the hang of this a little...after taking 10 minutes to figure out how to create a new post!
I said I would give a little insight to my creative process. Well, in the past, I just wrote whatever came to mind. I still do that a lot. I think that's part of the creative process. However, I decided that I wanted to learn what other thoughts are out there and if they could help my writing go to a new level. So, I went to the library to call on my old friends...BOOKS! Whenever I have something on my mind or I'm going through something, my game plan is always the same--read about it! So, I found a book called Writing the Natural Way by Gabriele Lusser Rico.
She is an advocate of a process she calls "clustering." In school, we always called it "webbing," but it's the same no matter what it's called. You write a word or phrase in the middle of a page and circle it. Then you write words about it that come to mind. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. You circle those words and drawn lines to the center word. Off those words you cane write words that come to mind, circle them and draw a line to the word that prompted them.
If the time comes that your mind freezes, the author suggests that you trace over lines and circles already drawn.
You do this until something clicks in your brain; then you write! Just write. Try not to worry about form or punctuation or even grammar. You can fix that in the edit. That last part is the most difficult for me!
This process has, I feel, worked incredibly well for me. The poem in the post before was an assignment to cluster on the phrase "birds of a feather..." Today's poem was prompted by the assignment to cluster on a feeling you got from viewing the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood. Let me know what you think!
Reflections on American Gothic
Granted they are stiff,
As if made of Wood,
But they may be
real people with
the sun in their eyes.
Granted they seem hard,
As if made of stone,
But they may be
Real people with
A lot on their minds.
Granted they seem harsh,
Like sandpaper on skin,
But they may be
Real people with
A tragedy that day.
Granted, real people
Can have the visage
Of sandpaper, stone, and wood
And still be real people.
I said I would give a little insight to my creative process. Well, in the past, I just wrote whatever came to mind. I still do that a lot. I think that's part of the creative process. However, I decided that I wanted to learn what other thoughts are out there and if they could help my writing go to a new level. So, I went to the library to call on my old friends...BOOKS! Whenever I have something on my mind or I'm going through something, my game plan is always the same--read about it! So, I found a book called Writing the Natural Way by Gabriele Lusser Rico.
She is an advocate of a process she calls "clustering." In school, we always called it "webbing," but it's the same no matter what it's called. You write a word or phrase in the middle of a page and circle it. Then you write words about it that come to mind. It doesn't matter if it makes sense or not. You circle those words and drawn lines to the center word. Off those words you cane write words that come to mind, circle them and draw a line to the word that prompted them.
If the time comes that your mind freezes, the author suggests that you trace over lines and circles already drawn.
You do this until something clicks in your brain; then you write! Just write. Try not to worry about form or punctuation or even grammar. You can fix that in the edit. That last part is the most difficult for me!
This process has, I feel, worked incredibly well for me. The poem in the post before was an assignment to cluster on the phrase "birds of a feather..." Today's poem was prompted by the assignment to cluster on a feeling you got from viewing the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood. Let me know what you think!
Reflections on American Gothic
Granted they are stiff,
As if made of Wood,
But they may be
real people with
the sun in their eyes.
Granted they seem hard,
As if made of stone,
But they may be
Real people with
A lot on their minds.
Granted they seem harsh,
Like sandpaper on skin,
But they may be
Real people with
A tragedy that day.
Granted, real people
Can have the visage
Of sandpaper, stone, and wood
And still be real people.