The Place For My Writers Notes

Original Posting 13 Nov 2009

Ekphrasis! The poor man was suffering from it, what could be done?

No, this is our word from an article in Writers Digest, February 2005, pages 41 to 43. The title is "The Fine Art of Poetry" by Miriam Sagan. And that odd word ekphrasis (say it five times in a row and it starts to roll trippingly off your tongue, eh?) apparently is an old term for making poetry based on a work of visual art. Sculpture, paintings, I suppose even music videos and advertisements are all fair targets to help you spark your poetry. "It's a time-honored technique of poetry to draw inspiration from other art forms. Often the imagination of another artist can truly fire a poet's desire for expression."

Apparently the term originally referred to the part of a poem that showed us something -- that drew an image. A description of Achilles shield or something like that. However, today it simply means a poem drawn from a particular piece of art -- or about a particular piece of art. There are no fixed formal constraints, and it's up to you as to whether you go to the museum or simply contemplate a reproduction. Nowadays, you might even take a look at Google images or some such digital repository and see what catches your eye there.

Miriam suggests a field trip. Dedicate some time to a poetry field trip. A museum, a park, that funny public sculpture in front of a corporate headquarters or perhaps the art hanging in a shopping mall? Take some time, look around, see the pieces and their setting and the people. Relax, look, let yourself respond and feel. Make some notes.

Next, "enter the scene and describe it." Describe the piece and the setting. Think about the words you're using, the colors, the lighting, the sounds, the smells -- and pick out the parts that really need to be there.

Miriam suggests starting with objective description. Then let your imagination take sway. "What do you imagine about the piece or the artist? Can you place yourself in the scene?" Interlace objective bits, sketching what you see in words, with your own inward description. Spend some time at this -- 20 minutes or so. You may feel as if you reach a natural stopping point. Give yourself a minute or two to make sure.

This is a journey of exploration. Clearly, ekphrasis already has a theme -- the piece of art in front of you. But feel free to welcome unexpected twists. Your poem does not have to be just a word sketch of the painting -- it's a painting, plus you.

There's a sidebar, that gives 12 steps to writing an ekphrasis poem:

1. Select your piece of art.
2. Take plenty of time to be alone with it and absorb it.
3. Draft some notes.
4. Observe color, forms, materials.
5. Notice how it makes you feel.
6. Add some historical or biographical material about the artist if you like.
7. Start drafting the poem.
8. Allow yourself to move back and forth between subjective reactions and objective observations.
9. Step out of the frame of the art if you like and observe the passing scene or your own reaction.
10. If you haven't been writing in lines of poetry, break the prose where you'd naturally take breaths.
11. Let the poem sit and revise it after a few days (but don't edit out the freshness of your initial response).
12. Enjoy -- and remember you can do this whenever you need a little inspiration.

So there you have it. Ekphrasis really isn't something you suffer from, it's just another way of inciting you to poetry with a little dash of art. So go ahead and try it.

Write!

Original Posting 8 June 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Don't be afraid to share the specific details of whatever compelled you to head for the keyboard. Bring that experience to life for your readers -- make them feel what you felt, as powerfully as you felt it." David A. Fryxell

There are a couple of points about this quote. The first one is that you should feel inspired -- compelled to write. Get excited about it. You need to feel things, to be moved deeply, to laugh, to cry, to be enthused by your own ideas. And then you show that to your readers. All the craft tricks -- the characters, the dialogue, the plot structure, all of that -- are ways to help the reader get excited. Ways to bring your inspiration, your excitement, your enthusiasm to the reader. Sure, some of them won't feel it quite the same way that you did. But that's OK. Because some of them will feel it powerfully. And sharing experience is what it's all about.

So feel. And write.

Original posting 16 May 2009

Writers' Digest, August 2006, pages 30, 32 and 33, have an article by Joe Ortiz with some discussion of creativity followed by six -- a half-dozen! -- exercises. The title of the article is, "Supercharge Your Creativity."

From drama and painting: A Painting As a Scene in a Drama

To get students to create dramatic action in their plays, playwright August Wilson asked them to describe a painting, then explain what was going on in the picture and evolve a story.

Your task: "Think of a famous painting or any other image you know from memory. Or find a photo of a painting in a book (one with people in it will serve best). Imagine the situation as a scene in a novel. Write one clear sentence describing how the characters arrived in their current state. Write a second sentence from one character's point of view. And write a final sentence about the scene that follows. Take five minutes."

So start with a painting or photograph. This situation is a scene in your novel. In one sentence, tell us how the characters got into their current state. Then in one sentence, look at the current state from one character's point of view. And then in one sentence, tell us what happens next. Three sentences -- how did we get here, where are we now, and what happens next. Five minutes.

Write.

Original posting 30 April 2009

Writers' Digest, October 2004, pages 26 to 33, has a collection of short "nuggets of wisdom" related to getting published. Maria Schneider is the author of the compilation. Take a deep breath, and here we go:

"Every writer works differently. I know some writers who know exactly what happens from start to finish in a very short space of time and are able to write a very quick draft. Then they'll spend a long time polishing and filling out characters. But I don't like to work like that. I would rather not know what happens next or how it ends. I think it keeps it more interesting for me. And I think if I don't know what's going to happen at the end, then, hopefully, the readers won't know either." Marian Keyes

Writing by the seat of your pants? Or plotting, planning, and character sheets? How do you start, how do you get to the end, and how do you revise and rewrite? Some people prefer dashing off into the wilderness, and then figuring out how to guide the reader into that heart of darkness. Others like to lay out the plans and itinerary first, and then fill in the missing parts.

And there are those who change their methods as they go. Some do their first work relying on inspiration and muse and all that stuff, but then start a more craft approach as they get into doing further work. Others may lay out plans and plots, and then set them aside in the blaze of writing. Or there are those such as Lois McMaster Bujold who do both -- writing the story on one hand, but also writing a journal/plan/superstructure alongside with the other hand. According to her own estimation, that hidden book weighs in at least as heavy as the one that gets published.

How do you handle the ideas and the writing? Why?

(considering the cautionary tale of the centipede who was asked which foot he started walking with, and in contemplation of an answer to this vexation, discovered that he could no longer walk...)