I write

A poem, reasons why I write I suppose, just popped into my head and started flowing. :)

i write to keep myself sane
I write to keep depression at bay
I write to live
I write to escape the crumbling reality we live in
I write to share the countless lives that flow through my mind
I write to share the worlds I create
I write to keep my insanity in check
I write to explore realities that we are unable to experience
I write to expand my mind
I write to continue onwards
I write to deal with grief
I write to deal with pain
I write to to write

Reviews

[Ranger Kessel]

Its good to write. Its like a catharsis of your own creation. Keep writing

[prymore]

Yes it is, thanks for the review. I'm always writing. :)

[JayG]

I, I, I, I, etc. There are 13 lines of you talking about you.

Think about it. How many people are out wondering why I write, or do anything? How many would be thrilled to hear about it? None.

Do you find yourself running to the computer to find out how the other people here feel today? More to the point, how many people here are hoping that you'll talk about yourself?

See the problem? Readers aren't seeking knowledge, or updates on your emotional state. They want you to toy with theirs. They want you to provide an emotional experience.

So don't tell them how you feel, make them feel it. The site is filled with Dismal Damsel and Murderous Marvin poems that are ignored, because writing them is therapy for the author, but they lack context for the reader, who cannot access your intent.

So, make your words LIVE. Instead of speaking of your depression, give the reader reason to be depressed, or joyous, or excited,or.... Don't say it's raining, make the reader feel the drops hitting their cheek.

Switch your writing from the fact-based and author-centric approach of nonfiction to the emotion=based and character-centric approach of poetry and fiction.

Mary Oliver can help. Download her, A Poetry Handbook, here: https://yes-pdf.com/book/1596

And visit the Shmoop site. Log in as Student, and then use the midpage button to select Poetry.

But whatever you do, hang in there, and keep on writing.

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/the-grumpy-old-writing-coach/

[prymore]

Okay then, well I just posted the poem because I nearly always post the poems here. I don't often write about myself, I'm usually too busy writing about the multitude of characters that crowd my mind every second. Thank you for the review, but I disagree with some of it. I did not go out to write this, a lot of my writing starts with a flood of words from my mind, the poem took shape that way. It just lists the reasons I write, don't know why I wrote it. The words flowed out of my mind the way they are, I only shaped it in the amount of lines, perhaps I shouldn't have shared it, but I think sometimes access to the raw mind and emotional state of a writer isn't a bad thing. Thank you for the criticism. I will follow the links and look, however poetry is not my main writing, novels of large expanse are. I belive I excel at creating a character and having the story follow their life as it plays out, usually taking place over enormous time periods. Thank you again, oh and I just woke up, so if this comment is confusing, or I misinterpreted the review, well, I'm tired, but wanted to comment on it once I read it. :)

[JayG]

• a lot of my writing starts with a flood of words from my mind.

That’s you talking about you, complaining, mostly. Poetry is a LOT more complicated. Do you really think that the people who get a degree centered on poetry learn nothing necessary to writing poetry—that with nothing more than the nonfiction report writing skills we’re given in school you’ll somehow magically create poetry that sings to the reader?

You write fiction, and say that’s your focus, but because you’ve not dug unto the skills of the profession, and are using the school-day skills we practiced by writing reports and essays, they read like a report. They have to, because you’re using skills designed to inform and explain, not entertain by providing an emotional experience. You’re working hard, and I respect that. But every profession is filled with specialized knowledge and techniques that aren’t optional. And that includes both poetry and fiction. It’s not a matter of talent, or how well you write. It’s that, universally, we leave our public education days knowing exactly as much about writing fiction and poetry as we know about astrophysics.

Unfortunately, we’re not aware of that, and make the natural assumption that writing is writing, and we have the technical part of that taken care of. But we literally have not a clue. And I say that as someone who wrote 6 unsold novels before I caught on and dug into the necessary skills. But once I did, a year later, I sold, Samantha and the Bear—and continued to sell what I submitted.

There’s no reason you can’t do the same. But it can’t happen till you stop explaining and reporting and learn how to place the reader into the persona of the protagonist, in real-time. The reader doesn’t want the weather report. They want to be made to feel the rain on the their cheek, not learn that it happened.

Do yourself a favor. Start reading that poetry book. It will make you want to read more. Then, try this one, on fiction. Copy/paste the address into the URL window of any Internet page and hit Return to get there.

https://archive.org/details/TechniquesOfTheSellingWriterCUsersvenkatmGoogleDrive4FilmMakingBsc_ChennaiFilmSchoolPractice_Others

It’s the best I’ve found to date. That book can make the act of writing so much fun you won’t have to get drunk to write.

And now…since my goal was to help, not upset you, and having said my piece, I’ll bow out and stop bothering you. 😇