Everyone’s a poet
Or at least, that’s true this month! At its heart, a poem is often a story using emotion rather than narrative structure to draw the reader in.
One of the ways we prove the humanity of our characters – fiction or non- is by helping the reader connect to them emotionally. And we write because we want to make people feel things: excitement, grief, love, fear, etc. The ability to deliberately convey or create emotion is usually what separates a personal essay from a diary entry or a story from a list of events. (“And then she… and then I…”)
But you can’t convey emotions you don’t know about or havent identified. So get ready to strip away the narrative layers of your story and get down to emotional business, because this month, we plan to make poets out of each and every one of you.
Ready?
September’s assignment is: write a poem using your story as inspiration (Maximum wordcount: 1,000)
There is no form requirement. That means you don’t have to write a sonnet, or a sestina, or whatever – but you’re free to, and if you’re the kind of person who benefits from strict structural requirements, you might want to. Don’t worry – we have a ton of tutorials for various forms.
The whys and hows:
We’ve had you expand your story to 2,000 words and we’ve asked you to distill it down to 100. But both of those tasks require you to focus on the events of the story. This is a different kind of deep dive into your work. We want you to pull out a moment or feeling and really examine it. This will give you an opportunity to focus on what makes the reader care about your story and your characters.
That means you’re going to write a poem about that moment, whether it be an event or a personal realization that a character has, or through the eyes of a character experiencing the story and events on a firsthand basis. What might your POV character write, thinking about another character? What visual moment in your story do you think could be better described if you weren’t tied to grammar in the same way you are when writing prose? This is your chance to pull out those gems, polish them up, and write.
Not sure where to start? Here are a couple suggestions.
- Start by choosing a moment, emotion, and point of view
- Try picking a poetry form that someone in your story would be familiar with, if you’re going to write in their voice
- The poem you’re writing doesn’t have to be about an event in your story; it could be one character describing another, or describing their feelings.
Example
Let’s take a well-known fairy tale—Cinderella. (For simplicity’s sake, I’m using the Perrault version, because it is one of the most familiar variations.) We’re not going to retell the entire story; instead, let’s focus on one moment: the moment she loses her shoe as she’s fleeing the ball.
There are a number of ways to approach this moment, but I like to write close, personal poems, so I’m going to write with Cinderella narrating, rather than the third-person POV of the original story.
The waltz stutters, interrupted by
a clamoring litter of bells,
the syncopated clatter of crystal
Out of time, I pause, glittering, to reflect
the future behind me,
the inescapable past before me.
Still dreaming, I litter:
leave a piece of myself
unshattered on the stair, glittering.
OK, now let’s break it down. I start by setting the scene and giving a bit of context: there’s music and dancing and the sound of the clock. I could have said midnight but didn’t, because it’s not important in this moment what time it is, only that we’re out of time. Which leads to the next stanza, and to Cinderella’s feelings. I imagine she’s both scared and elated, exhausted from the dancing but energized by the experience, possibly conflicted, and probably regretting what she believes she can’t have. She’s caught in this moment between past and future, and I reversed the two because she’s literally facing away from what she wants and toward what she’s fleeing for the entirety of the story. That image fascinates me, and is one of the ones that I think really sticks out in the story. I conclude with a familiar snapshot: the shoe on the stair, waiting. How does this object relate to the emotions Cinderella is experiencing? She leaves it behind, just like she must leave the entire evening behind, but in my interpretation, she hasn’t given up hope. In this case, I don’t mention the object (the shoe) directly, but instead subsitute it as a metaphor.
That’s the basis of the poem. But poetry is more than just that narrative. In fact, here’s my first draft. What changes can you see?
In the glitter of lamplight
a waltz stutters, interrupted by
the tolling of bells and
the syncopated clatter of glass.
I pause, glittering, to reflect
on the possible future behind me,
the inescapable past before me.
Even if I knew what I wanted
The steps are leading me away.
Still dreaming, I leave a piece of myself
unshattered on the stair.
The first change is, well, that draft is just a short paragraph broken up by hitting enter a lot. That doesn’t make it a poem.
So what I did was find the best moments in that draft, the darlings, and use poetic techniques to dial them up to 11, while letting the rest fade out. One technique I used was consonance, the repetition of sounds. Glitter, stutter, litter, clamor, clatter, crystal, shatter. This keeps my poem feeling like a coherent whole. Then I used one of this month’s poetry slam techniques, and recycled some of these words with different meanings. I also doubled up on meaning in several places: what does “out of time” mean? It’s both literal (the clock has struck midnight) and figurative, setting Cinderella herself outside time, between past and present. And in that stanza Cinderella reflects – both thinking and in the sense that she’s a metaphorical mirror, becoming glass. So by the time there’s a piece of herself unshattered, the glass is a metaphor for her potential.
Or at least that’s what I’d say if I were defending this as part of a MFA program.
So: what does writing this poem contribute to my ability to write the story as a whole? I have a lot more insight into Cinderella’s emotional state at a crucial point in the story, the stakes—what the character stands to lose or gain—are more clear to me, and I’m going to be more able to convince the reader to be invested in the outcome. Maybe I started this story thinking that it was about getting the prince. And it was, but it’s also and more importantly and relatably, about what Cinderella has to do and become to escape a past that keeps dragging her back into its clutches. That’s relatable. Relatable things are easier to care about. And ultimately, that’s what we want: for the reader to care.
Resources
We’ve got tons of poetry resources in our writing help section in the poetry slam archive. Check it out if you want suggestions and tutorials on poetic technique (this year we’ve been especially focused on technique) or form (2019 and prior posts will usually be tutorials on different poetic forms, including whatever you need to know about meter, rhyme, etc. to write those forms).
If you’re not sure what makes a poem a poem, or how to read poetry at all, you can start with our primer on critiquing poetry.
If you’re looking for some quick references – especially on specific poetry forms and techniques – check out our annual poetry roundups:
And here are a couple of our favorite poetry technique posts, which apply no matter what form you’re contemplating:
Now that we’ve given you more resources than you can shake a stick at, go forth and write!
A few tips and tricks we learned on the way:
- If a story is like a movie, a poem is more like a snapshot. You can’t rely on a plot arc to keep readers engaged; instead, you’ll need to focus on emotional impact. Zoom in.
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Voice and point of view are as important for your poem as they are for your story, if not more. Think about how you can use voice to convey emotion. Word choice matters!
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Use poetic devices and techniques: think about how the words sound. Try a little consonance or alliteration; think about rhythm. Read your poem out loud—does it flow or do you trip up?
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Don’t just write, read. Check out The Academy of American Poets or Poetry Magazine for inspiration.
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Narrow the focus: Don’t retell your story. While narrative poetry is definitely a thing, we’re not looking for epics. The point of this exercise is to focus on a particular moment, character, or emotion that is crucial to your story or essay. This might be the most significant moment in your story, or it might be a single conversation or exchange.
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Identify the emotion or image you’re focusing on! What do you want your reader to walk away with after reading your story (not your poem)? That might be what you’re looking for as the focus of your poem.
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What do you want them to feel? While your story might (and should) encompass a range of emotions, you might want to concentrate on just one for this exercise. Name it (in your head)—anger, sorrow, confusion, joy, love, hope—and choose vocabulary that draws your reader into that feeling.
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What visual image do you want to stick with them? Focus on that and center it in a poem.
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Need a second pair of eyes to see what you might have missed? Don’t be afraid to ask for help in the Coffeehouse!
Good luck!
Loading InLinkz ...Hindsight!
In case you missed it, here's a look back (see what we did there?) at the exercises in our 2020 workshop.
January: Write a story or essay in 1,000 words
February: Write the same piece in 100 words
March: Retain just 25 adjectives and adverbs from your original 1,000 word story
April: Write your story or essay using only dialogue
May: Write your story or essay from a different point of view
June: Write your story or essay in 2,000 words
July: Write your story or essay out of chronological order
August: Record your story or essay and transcribe it
September: Write your story or essay using a different voice
October: Write a poem using your story or essay as inspiration
November: Write a version of your story set in an alternate universe.
December: Write the final version of your story or essay in 1000 words.
About the author:
Christine Hanolsy is a (primarily) science fiction and fantasy writer who simply cannot resist a love story. She joined the YeahWrite team in 2014 as the microstory editor and stepped into the role of Editor-In-Chief in 2020. Christine was a 2015 BlogHer Voices of the Year award recipient and Community Keynote speaker for her YeahWrite essay, “Rights and Privileges.” Her short fiction has been published in a number of anthologies and periodicals and her creative nonfiction at Dead Housekeeping and in the Timberline Review. Outside of YeahWrite, Christine’s past roles have included Russian language scholar, composer, interpreter, and general cat herder. Find her online at christinehanolsy.com.
About the author:
Rowan submitted exactly one piece of microfiction to YeahWrite before being consumed by the editorial darkside. She spent some time working hard as our Submissions Editor before becoming YeahWrite’s Managing Editor in 2016. She was a BlogHer Voice of the Year in 2017 for her work on intersectional feminism, but she suggests you find and follow WOC instead. In real life she’s been at various times an attorney, aerialist, professional knitter, artist, graphic designer (yes, they’re different things), editor, secretary, tailor, and martial artist. It bothers her vaguely that the preceding list isn’t alphabetized, but the Oxford comma makes up for it. She lives in Portlandia with a menagerie which includes at least one other human. She tells lies at textwall and uncomfortable truths at CrossKnit.
