Alessander's profile

My other profile made me sound like a prudish dick, so let me start again. My name is Alessander, and I’m 28 y/o. I mainly write poetry, though from time to time, I’ll dabble in other forms. I have too many influences to name, but here are a few major ones: Keats, Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Dante, Bukowski, Larkin. I have a few tips for “beginning writers” that may help, as they helped me.    

General Tips For Novice Writers. Golden Rule: SHOW DON’T TELL

1) Most teenagers, or early twenties artists are very self-centered. So as an exercise, try writing a poem without the first person “I.”

2) Most greenhorns think they can “express” themselves by using enough adjectives and adverbs, so my advice – use them minimally – I would …

My other profile made me sound like a prudish dick, so let me start again. My name is Alessander, and I’m 28 y/o. I mainly write poetry, though from time to time, I’ll dabble in other forms. I have too many influences to name, but here are a few major ones: Keats, Yeats, Frost, Stevens, Dante, Bukowski, Larkin. I have a few tips for “beginning writers” that may help, as they helped me.    

General Tips For Novice Writers. Golden Rule: SHOW DON’T TELL

1) Most teenagers, or early twenties artists are very self-centered. So as an exercise, try writing a poem without the first person “I.”

2) Most greenhorns think they can “express” themselves by using enough adjectives and adverbs, so my advice – use them minimally – I would even try writing a work without any adjectives and adverbs.

3) The difference between poetry and most other forms is IMAGES (and as I said B4, most amateurs try to substitute images with adjectives and adverbs – don’t). An older, wiser, and very published writer (Ron Koertge) once gave me the rule of thumb: “one image per stanza.”

4) Frost once said, “a poet can only use the word “beautiful” three times in his or her writing career” and I would like-wise advocate minimal to no use of “Abstract” language; here are the usual suspects (of which I was also once guilty of: Soul, Pain, Agony, Spirit, Joy, Tears, Love, Hate, Beautiful, Freedom, Justice, God, most words that end with -ion, or -ity, (i.e. obsess-ion, serendip-ity) and many, many more. Sometimes it’s impossible not to use them (with the exception of SOUL), but try to avoid them at all costs. They are “airy” nothings that convert poems into goth journals, political rants, religious sermons, or all of the above!

5) IF you must rhyme, Do Not sacrifice the syntax of a sentence just to fit the rhyme. I.E. “aches my heart so I felt once, ” or something along those lines. That’s o.k. for Yoda, but not writers. Write more or less how you speak in real life. This also includes abstaining from archaic or overly academic diction. If you seriously use “adieu, ” you should be shot. “Vain-glorious, ” “bemoan, ” “bosom, ” “thou, ” etc, likewise. Also refrain from using “filler” words like “did” “do” (“my heart did weep”). In the past, they were used for the purpose of keeping a meter, but now they are not allowed by the gods of poetry. Complain to them. And I would also greatly advise that the lines be approximately close syllable wise (at the very least). If not, it simply seems like you’re just stretching out the lines to fit your rhyme scheme, and what’s the challenge in that? In addition, try to employ unique rhymes. As Alexander Pope mocked long before:

Where’er you find ‘the cooling western breeze, ’
In the next line, it ‘whispers through the trees’:
If crystal streams ‘with pleasing murmurs creep’:
The reader’s threaten’d (not in vain) with ‘sleep.’

English is more impoverished than Romance languages when it comes to words that rhyme, but you can see it as a challenge.

6) No one can teach you how to feel, recognize stirring subject matter, be ironic or witty, or select moving metaphors, allusions, similes, etc…or even if all those click, how to word it in just the right way. That’s just gotta come from you; and in the end, that is what distinguishes good writers from just writers. All I can say is that if you grow as a person, reflect a lot, read and analyze other masterpieces on a regular basis, and make yourself susceptible to inspiration (preferably sans drugs, alcohol), then it will help.

Without fail, some will read this and say “Screw rules! I write from my heart, ” something or other. Well, Charlie Brown, I got news for you: You are a blogger, not a poet. And in all likelihood, you desire compliments not critiques. And if you say, “I know all this already, but I’m still gonna do my own thing anyways” – that’s cool too – poetry needs tinkerers and innovators like e.e. cummings, Gertrude Stein, Hopkins, or Rimbaud. But here comes the cliché, “in order to break the rules, one must first know them, ” Rebels With a Cause, so to speak. Well, these are merely some very general guidelines that helped me as a writer hopefully, they can similarly quicken your own progression. Good Luck. May the Force be with you.