Improve Your Poem Instantly: In 3 Easy Steps

09Jan 2021 by admin

“Being a poet is a job of utility and creativity— using what makes up their entire being in order to make a living. ” – dimitrireyespoet.com

These are poetry tips I give every poet in my Patreon community and my clients.
Now you can benefit from these lessons as well!
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Improve Your Poem Instantly in 3 Easy Steps

1) Purpose

Each poem needs to run its course and add to a conversation whether that’d be conversational, theoretical, emotional, etc. This means even more when looked at amongst your other poems, either in a submission or even a book. This allows the reader to “get a read” on what/who your speaker is about.

Style, voice, and how you utilize various techniques assist in developing what makes your voice unique but this is in a constant state of change. What stays the same is the question you should ask yourself after every poem you write: What is the Purpose of this poem?

I then break it down into 3 categories that states its general purpose, what you want the audience to know, and what you want them to learn.

Click on the Purpose Triangle to learn more about the differences between the General, Audience, and Speaker’s Purposes.

2) Get Writing

Writers never stop learning and for a long time, they can get better if they stay a committed student to their practice. Aside from classes, workshops, conversations, lectures, readings, and books, a writer can hone their craft by doing the work of writing. I suggest to all those interested in writing that developing a routine is important.

To do so, it’s helpful to know what kind of writer you are. This helps you have less friction and realigns your focus when you are trying to get inspired, revise, or generate new material.

Do you work well in the daytime or at night?

Do you have a writing routine?

Do you set yourself up for success
when you are trying to cultivate a good writing space?

3) Read Work Aloud

Whether I’m drafting poems or revising them, reading the work aloud is always on my agenda. And this goes for all written work— a connection I first made in my time as an educator teaching various levels from early learners to students pursuing their Bachelor’s degrees.

When reading silently, it is easy for your subconscious to glaze over past mistakes. When reading it aloud, the connection of text to speech will cause us to trip over our words. This is an easy way to catch mistakes during the revision process.

Additionally, when reading work aloud, you may mistake one word for another. When doing this, as the writer, you then have the choice of changing the word so it may feel more natural.

Though I do not have a video or blog about this (yet!) there’s a video on my YouTube channel that illustrates me going through a draft process with some revision.

On the other hand, these two videos with my guest, Minimalist Vegan Lifestyle, includes the practice of reading work aloud in order to find other solutions.