Mentor: Pomology

[Todd]

Editing notes.
More than happy with your starting points / questions.
I’ll start with your final question. I am hoping to move my writing from a place of random bursts of creativity into a more connected process whereby I can more fully understand what and why things work and how to communicate my ideas and images to a greater level than I currently do, as I feel that I am thinking beyond my ability to communicate my thoughts. (Which I think my notes on this poem will well demonstrate this problem). I feel like I am over thinking and working my poems and this is making them seem forced and wooden at times. I want to loosen up a bit.[/color]

AJ, Thanks all the detail was very helpful. We'll use your poem as a scaffold to set our work together on. Again, I'd like to focus more on your process than on this particular poem--though, we'll be going over this one a lot. Let's start with the area I've quoted above.

First you mention that you have random bursts of creativity which implies that they are beyond your control and may even seem capricious in their timing.

I may be wrong in anything I say keep that in mind throughout. I'm just going to try a few different ideas and we'll see if any of them prove helpful. You feel you are thinking beyond your ability to execute. That may be, but from reading everything you've written I suspect your issue may be slightly different. I think when you key in later that you'd like your poems to be less forced, wooden and looser you're closer to the real issue.

You are doing a lot of heavy lifting and probably working against your creativity by plotting as tightly as you're doing. You're feeling the necessity to plot it through too strongly (makes it forced).

Here's what I'd suggest to start:

1) Give yourself the right to write crap. Do not be concerned if what you're writing is good. I can't emphasize this more. I'm not saying don't eventually edit. To get control of your process you've got to write a lot without editing. There will be some gems and directions that will happen organically that will surprise you. I think you will subconsciously take your writing up a level this way.

2) Don't worry about your plotting till you write just move through the poem as the concepts come to you.

Try these prompts for me with your poem:

Change the title to something related but radically different see where that takes you.

Make your current last line your first write the poem again.

Remove one of the senses from the poem (smell maybe) emphasize a different sense (let's say auditory).

Choose a different speaker for the poem radically different from who you've chosen now even if the current one is close to your normal writer's voice. How would this new speaker relate the poem?

Try this, take your time. Let's see if anything develops from it. The way that you move from random bursts to controlled process is to continue to just write, write, write and turn off your internal editor until you're ready to edit.

Again, not sure how helpful this will be AJ. But if you're game let's give it a shot together.

Best,

Todd