A Letter To An Aspiring Writer

To whom it may concern,

There are many ways an aspiring writer can improve their writing and thus become a better writer. One way is to read and write as much as you can. (Even if it ends up like complete crap). I have tons of poems that are unfinished. However, I always go back and read through the things that are unfinished to gain inspiration. The poem may be crap but there is always a sentence that I may be able to use in my other writings.

I also keep a daily log. If I think of something random, I jot it down. It may have to do with something I did or something that someone said or it may just be an interesting thing I came across. I have pages and pages of random crap that I wrote down. One of them was, "I will never understand, the things that I will never understand." It is now the title of one of my poems. Another thing was that I started jotting down my ideas on computer paper rather than in a notebook because the computer paper was more accessible. It was easier to grab and jot something down on before I forgot it. In doing this I thought of something. Since there are no lines on computer paper, no lines = less restrictions. In a notebook my writing was confined to writing between the lines, whereas computer paper is just a blank white space.

A writer, Neil Gaiman, says, "You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it." The other day I was sitting in class and we had to turn in our essays into our teaching assistant's mailbox. The teaching assistant's last name starts with a 'Z'. The teacher said that the Teaching Assistant's mailbox was "all the way at the bottom. I guess that is the life of a 'Z'" This became inspiration for a poem I wrote, "The Life of 'Z'". The poem did not turn out as well as I would have liked but it is something. The gears are turning in my head. However, sometime along the road more characteristics of the letter 'Z' might come to me, thus adding more to the poem. If you have nothing to write about, write about nothing. I most often find that I am afraid to write because I don't know how a poem is going to turn out. This is a big mistake. The more an aspiring writer writes, the better he or she becomes. I didn't realize this at first, but when I look at my older writings, there is a significant difference, and I found that I have come a long way.

I would also suggest using a dictionary or thesaurus. I use www.dictionary.com all the time when I am writing. As I am writing, if I find that words repeat a lot or the word I am using is not the exact word I want use, I usually underline the word so I know I have to change it. After I write the poem, I use a thesaurus and try to find the word that I am looking for. I do this more often than you think, and I believe other aspiring writers and writers do this also. However, a writer must not use too many 'big' or difficult words because the reader will have to keep looking up the meaning of the word. If the meaning of the word cannot be understood through the context of the piece, then the meaning of the piece (especially poetry) becomes lost. The reader loses focus and finds himself or herself rereading the piece.

The biggest problem that I have run into while trying to write a poem, is actually sitting down to write it. I usually just jot ideas down and come back to them later. What I found really interesting is when I jam these random thoughts together. I get some pretty interesting poems that have meaning but can be interpreted in many different ways. I may not even fully understand what they mean. Someone else may love my poem even though they don't completely understand what I am talking about.

"Poetry [and all of the other forms of literature] are created to pull at the emotional chords of the reader" reflecting what the author's beliefs are. However, I usually keep in mind that the reader has absolutely no connection to what I am writing. The reader may most often not like my poem if he or she cannot relate to it. If the reader can relate to the poem, it is more likely to draw them in and make them want to keep reading. The easiest theme of a poem that I can think for people to relate to is a love poem or a poem about sadness. There are a lot of things people can relate to out there. But remember, there are always people who will not like your poem no matter what. You could win a contest with one of your poems, and there is always someone out there that will hate it. They will tear it to shreds. (I have had writings that other people have torn to shreds). This always makes me become a better writer. Criticism, even if it is bad, is always a good thing. It always makes you try harder and look harder for inspiration to become a better writer.

In poems that I find difficult to understand, I usually ask the reader to ask themselves the question "why?" A poem that is hard to understand is usually hard to understand because the writer leaves something out that is generally assumed. The writer understands the full context, whereas, the reader only catches a glimpse. The writer may know what he or she is talking about because that instance or incident happened to them, but the reader may have no idea where they are coming from. Writers often make assumptions that the reader already knows something about what they are talking about in their writings. In other words, writers automatically assume that the reader is coming into their poem knowing what their poem is about or writing in general. Be clear and precise in your writings so the reader can completely understand what you are saying. If the poem is written to be ambiguous, the words must be clear also. Writers want to leave their readers with something to hang on to; something to think about after they get done reading their poem or writing.

All in all: Think, Write, and Read

Sincerely,

B. T. Lane