Writing Suggestions

We got a packet earlier in the semester with suggestions to keep in mind while writing poetry. Some were fairly simple bits of advice, others were a bit more complex, but for the most part I understood and agreed with many of the suggestions.

One that I had a harder time accepting was “Don’t worry about approval from a workshop. Imagine, instead, wining approval from professional poets.” I am not typically a poet and intend to revert to nearly full-time fiction after this semester (although I have enjoyed poetry and will likely still try it from time to time!) so I had a tougher time looking beyond the workshop. Although I think it’s true across all genres, professionals aren’t the only ones with opinions. Even though it made me feel that much more justified to hear that Stephen King thinks Stephanie Meyer “can’t write worth a damn,” I already knew that and didn’t need to hear it from him. I have a friend who writes amazing fiction and has never been published or otherwise recognized, but I don’t need someone well known to tell me that what she writes is good. And I don’t think I should gear my writing to the liking of “professionals” just because they are who they are. If I can write a poem that somebody can enjoy, who ISN’T a professional poet, or a poet at all, or maybe they have a particular distaste for poetry as some people do, then I think that would be more rewarding than pleasing some higher-ups. Not that I can’t be a terrible suck-up, but I would rather write something for a larger audience to relate to and enjoy. Besides that, my experience in workshops so far have been fairly serious, especially in this poetry workshop where everyone else is really quite good at what they do; I’m quite content trying to write something pleasing there.

~Nicole Bartow