Prose to Poetry

Hey, Wednesday calling. So, I study Poetry as part of my Writing course and we tried out a new technique that I think you guys should try. Step 1: Pick a word, phrase, image, anything as long as it’s concrete. Step 2: Pick out words that come to mind when thinking of the sound, smell, touch and taste of that concrete thing. Eg: the smell of a landscape as grass/dew. Then think of words that asssosciate with the other words. (I recommend a mind map) Step 3: Using the words and inspiration gained aforementioned, write a piece of prose, as fast as you can. Step 4: In our workshop we had other people do this step, but you can do this yourself. In the prose, i. delete unnecessary words ii. underline phrases with particularly beautiful imagery iii. insert line breaks into the prose (marked with a “/”) iv. highlight the emotional core of the poem Step 5: Rewrite or edit with all those points included. Therefore, I challenge you to do the same! Go! ~W

From the Ficly archive