There once was a man from... OR Fun with Writing

Another blog day.

Indecision? Not this month.

Today I'm prepared.

Read on.

I often write in my head. If it gets serious, I'll stop and search for something to write on. Sometimes I write real words, sometimes I think about the way something will look on the page. Sometimes things pop into my head pretty much fully formed.

If I stop to write on paper, I try to gather these up at the end of the day and put them on my desk. I usually have to clean off my desk more than once a week so I can tell what's important and what isn't. Sometimes what I write during this time is a keeper. Sometimes I look at it and stick it in the shredder because it doesn't quite make sense.

Other times during the day, I'll do a writing exercise. Sometimes I write these on paper or the computer. Sometimes, I just do them in my head. I love to write flash fiction or sometimes just a paragraph or two about a photograph. That's my favorite. My next favorite is writing a story or a stream-of-conscious thingie from a list of words, like "Wednesday Words," sometimes hosted at Elephant Child's blog here.

I also write poetry. I suck at it. Always have, and most likely always will. But a friend who was a real poet encouraged me to keep at it. He passed away a year or so ago, but I honor his memory by continuing my hand at it.

I especially like haiku, like the one at the top of this blog. It's short. It has rules. It's supposed to be about the natural world. I think. But I write it about anything. And I can do that in my head while I'm doing dishes or laundry or whatever.

Now, about that man in the title of this post. I also like to write limericks. I suck at those more than I suck at haiku. Here you go:

                There once was a man from Seattle

                Who once bought a boat he could paddle

                His wife lived in Maine

                His mother in Spain

                And his kids all wanted to tattle.

 Now you know why I write fluffy fiction - like the cotton below :) 

See you next month!



Comments

Alex J. Cavanaugh saidā€¦
No way I could write poetry that would make sense.
Rachna Chhabria saidā€¦
I envy people who write poetry. Like you I too start writing in my head.
Natalie Aguirre saidā€¦
I admire anyone who can write poetry. I can't.
Elephant's Child saidā€¦
Thank you so much for joining Words for Wednesday again. I do love the very different directions the prompts take people.
It sounds as if writing is integral to who you are. This reader thanks you - and all writers.
L. Diane Wolfe saidā€¦
I used to write poetry (or song lyrics as I called them) but it was never structured like a haiku or anything. That's hard to do.
Liza saidā€¦
I love using photographs to inspire writing. I also like using a word or two or a list of words. The first real fiction I tried to write came from a list of words in a blog contest. I was shocked what came out of me and decided to keep trying to write fiction. Before that, other than personal essays, I mostly wrote (relatively poor) poetry.

I'm sorry you lost your friend the poet...
H. R. Sinclair saidā€¦
It can be fun to write random stuff, just to keep things flowing. But I too have come back to things and have had no idea what they were about. šŸ˜‚
Carol Kilgore saidā€¦
Alex - Mine is nothing to cheer about.

Jemi - I think haiku is fun, even though I don't do it well.

Rachna - A hundred writers, a hundred different ways :)

Natalie - As you read, I don't do it well at all. Totally sticking to fiction except for fun here and there.

EC - I'm sure most writer will agree with me when I say I value readers just as much, if not more.

Diane - I wouldn't attempt to write lyrics or any type of freeform poetry. Scares me just thinking about it.

Liza - Whatever gets you going is what works for you.

H.R. - All part of the process, I think. Most days I don't know what I'm going to write until I sit down. Some days I can figure out where it comes from. Other days I have no idea.





Melissa saidā€¦
Your post made me think of all the little scraps and sticky notes I had, cluttering my desk back in the day. Inspiration would hit at the most inopportune times, and I would scribble phrases to paragraphs on anything that stood still long enough. I often chuckled to myself that, if anyone were to pick up those scraps and read them, they would think I'd lost my mind.
I used to do the same, jotting random words, phrases, and snippets onto paper. I should do it more, rather than letting those thoughts vanish into the ether. Who knows what gems will arise if I let them breathe?
Leigh Caron saidā€¦
I'm not the biggest fan of poetry...but sometimes a poem will come pop into my head won't go away so I write it down. It must come from another time when I was a poet because like I said...I not the biggest fan of poetry.
Carol Kilgore saidā€¦
Melissa - Usually I jot down more things at the beginning and end of a project. In the middle, things come more when I'm actually at the keyboard.

Lynda - You never know, LOL :)

Karen - I'm not a fan of poetry eithher. If it hadn't been at the urging of my friend, I would never have undertaken any of it at all.

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