How to be a Better Writer
If you don’t understand yourself you don’t understand anybody else. ~ Nikki Giovanni
Years ago, I audited a creative writing class at Virginia Tech, taught by renowned poet Nikki Giovanni. I remember my excitement when I learned the word “audit” and what it meant, apart from its IRS context: that you could sit in on a university class for free if you had permission from the class professor. I learned that you don’t get credits when you audit a class, but as a mostly self-taught learner, and single parent raising two sons on an income that fell below the poverty line, getting credits was the last thing on my mind.
I remember the poems I was working on back then, reading them out loud in class, and getting feedback from the other students and Nikki. But mostly, I remember two specific things Nikki said that have had a lasting impact on me.
“You don’t need punctuation. Let the line break tell the reader where to pause,” she told us. Even though, in my current Writer’s Workshop we continue to wrangle about the use of punctuation in poetry (I’m the only one that doesn’t use it), Nikki’s advice didn’t so much inform me as it validated what I was already doing.
The other thing she said that was well worth the hour commute to her Blacksburg class was (and I’m paraphrasing), “If you want to be a good writer, live a full life.” In other words, you have to live life in order to have something to write about.
Whenever I feel creatively deficient, I eventually remember Nikki’s words and push myself away from my computer or notebook the way I would from a dinner table if I was overfull.
As a writer, I can often over-ride writing inertia by writing, but often the results tend to feel lifeless. When my writing doesn’t flow for more than a few days, I know I need a change of scenery. I know I need to put it aside, resist my reclusive tendencies and go out into the world and mingle.
Photo: I call the above photo “Time-out.” It was taken by my son Josh and is a self-portrait of his journal. He has them made for him so that they will stretch to accommodate his art form. For a few peeks inside one go HERE.
August 15th, 2006 12:48 am
I love that 2nd piece of advice by Nikk Giovanni…And I agree with you…It’s why I am finding this “confinement” so very hard….I am unable to have any encounters out in the world and must relay(?) on making something happen here in my home. I think it’s great that you get out there Colleen, And “Live Life”…!
August 15th, 2006 8:27 am
Thanks for sharing this experience and advice. Although I have not written a “lot” of poetry in my lifetime, I have always had to ponder the “punctuation” dilemma when writing. I have written my share of music through the years. And for me that writing is dominated by emotions and feelings and you just play and write what you feel with no particular guidelines for the most part. Totally unschooled in the technical aspects of writing poetry for the most part, again it seems to me that it should also come from emotions and feelings. Consequently, damn the punctuation. But unfortunately after I do write some bit of poetry, I find myself trying to grade it like a 5th grade teacher. Should there be a comma here? Maybe a semi-colon? Do those two lines make a complete sentence? I shall certainly take the advice of you and Nikki and relieve myself of the punctuation burden.
And as for living a full life, that is a given I would think. I have always related to poetry for the most part as the bared soul of its owner. And in some sense, the soul is a cauldron of life’s experiences it would seem. Thus, a full life….a full cauldron.
PS… Your son’s photo instantly reminded me of the movie “Dances With Wolves” when his Sioux Indian friends rescue him and in the closing scene of that encounter we see John Dunbar’s (Kevin Costner) personal journal floating down the river. Actually, there seems to be poetry in that photo just waiting to be penned.
August 15th, 2006 8:56 am
I love that photo too Alan. He was actually taking a break from the hectic pace of life to go swimming in the river by himself. He actually has his journals made for him so that tthey can stretch because they are collage journals and tend to get fat.
I’m unschooled in the technical aspects of writing poetry as well, but it’s in me in primal way, like music is for you. Here’s a short essay I wrote about that, which is in my poetry collection “Muses Like Moonlight.” My friend Fred (who is a character in it) posted it on his blog a year or so ago. http://www.fragmentsfromfloyd.com/fragments/2004/05/other_writers_from_floyd.html
Naomi, Your comment really struck me in a few ways. One is that the way I live is not so very far from how you live. Because of Chronic Fatigue (or whatever name you want to give it) I have limited stores of energy and have to space my actitivites out and say NO to many. I live home more than most. But I also felt grateful for the fact that I CAN get out… and do … probably much more than you. I know you’ve lived a very FULL life that you can draw on now. I hope you’re keeping your spirits up and feeling better everyday!
August 15th, 2006 10:06 am
Sorry about the cryptic comment on you and scrabble. You just blended the words and photos so well, I meant your vocabulary was rish and full and therefore, you would always have a word to put down.
August 15th, 2006 10:06 am
Hi Colleen: A very insightful post and I, too, love the picture that your son took…he must have a poetic soul.
I am going to ask a small favor of you. I met a neat lady in Alaska, she is a writer (some published children’s books) and an arist and she and a friend have a business called “Two Fleas”. I helped her to set up a blog and she’s just started…called Twofleas. Would you mind checking it out and just giving her a word of encouragement. I think the two of you have much in common. Thanks a lot. Ginnie
August 15th, 2006 10:35 am
Thanks, Tabor!
Gini, I’d love to visit twofleas. Do you have a blog address for her?
August 15th, 2006 10:45 am
I wish I had the confidence in my pictures that you have in your writing. I keep chickening out of every contest even though Martin keeps pushing me. I think I am scared of rejection over something so personal.
I love your writing so the audit must’ve served you well! I start my photo classes next month!
Martin worked in Abingdon with a poet from Radford U that I keep meaning to ask you if you knew….I bet you do….I will remind myself to ask him again the fellows name. Martin said he was very nice.
August 15th, 2006 11:02 am
I remember seing Josh’s journals before. They are wonderful and I’d love to be able to page through one.
August 15th, 2006 11:29 am
Sometimes life is just slow (thank goodness) and other times it moves too fast. I am thinking about starting a list of topics for posts as things happen, for it seems that thoughts and pictures and events come in “clumps” like crabgrass. Perhaps with a reminder of ideas it will be easier to fill in those blank spots.
August 15th, 2006 2:05 pm
I love the picture and the quote!
I often wonder how much fun it would be to have a cup of tea and lengthy conversation with you at a Coffee House.
I’d say let’s play a game of scrabble but I know you’d kick my butt.
Happy Tuesday!
August 15th, 2006 2:40 pm
The second piece of advice is one of those things I know to be true, but tend to forget. Your post today served as a very useful reminder, and timely, at that. Did you know you were speaking to me directly, or is that just an innate talent of yours?
August 15th, 2006 2:55 pm
You are such an inspiration for me! you know English is not my mother tongue. It is sort of a challenge/brain cell sport for me to write in English. I love it. I want to do it and it keeps me going. Only my vocabulary is limited and it is my constant limitation. How to go around it? can’t always express myself the way I want to because of this handicap. But it has been my choice. To reach people. To communicate. And the feedback (comments) is what pleases me most… thanks for your (always) open eyes to read between the lines. For your willingness to understand other bloggers. For reading my blog.
August 15th, 2006 5:48 pm
Great post, Colleen and I so agree on the “get out there and live life.”
It’s all the sights, sounds, smells that stirs that imagination and inspiration deep within us. Not partaking of what’s “out” there causes us to become stagnant.
August 16th, 2006 12:29 am
Great advice. Live large, love large, write large.
August 16th, 2006 2:25 am
One of my personal mantras is that “Nothing is wasted.” During years of upheaval when I couldn’t write and life was pretty much hitting me in the face, I didn’t realize just what a gift I was receiving. Before the upheaval there were levels of darkness in myself that I couldn’t reach, that scared me half to death when I tried. I saw my inability to harness that power as a deficit in my own craft. When I returned to fiction I found that I could suddenly, finally reach that place.
Robert Frost: “Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat.”
August 16th, 2006 9:41 am
Thanks for sharing.
I was wondering last night, if you have always written and made time for it. I guess you did. Even with little kids.
I was up at midnite writing in my journal, because I could not sleep until I did. And, finally everyone was in bed and I could write in peace.
August 16th, 2006 9:57 am
I started writing seriously when I was a full time mother. It was a natural life rhythm that suited me, as opposed to a 9-5 job, and I found I could fit in writing while I was home with my sons. The first thing I ever had published was in “Mothering” magazine (a parenting bible to me) during this time (25 years ago!). It was the first time I seriously submitted anything anywhere, so I took it getting accepted as a sign to write more!
August 16th, 2006 12:42 pm
To add to, “get out there and live life,” I’ve just finished a book that I touched on today at PPP of View; about living – about writing – about creating who we are (or whatever we are creatively working on). Author Eleanor Wiley makes the point in “There Are No Mistakes,” that there is no right or wrong way to live, to write or to create. Just be.
August 16th, 2006 1:04 pm
OOOH. The post I just finished writing about Dan ends with “just be.” I plan on posting it on Friday.
August 16th, 2006 8:07 pm
I’m with her on everything but line breaks and punctuation. I’m a formalist. There is meter, and that’s what determines wheret he line breaks. If the sentence ends in the middle of the line, that’s how you read it. The meter starts working in the background and gives the words texture. Add rhyme and là-bas vous allez! That’s what distinguishes the flow of words from prose.
But, like I said, I’m a formalist, as much as that would seems counter to my nature as manifest in my haircut and clothing choices. And especially in my shoes.
August 16th, 2006 11:07 pm
Another great post. I’ve been feeling a little bad because the Uganda project means I’m not going to have as much time to work on my writing in Sept, but then I realized after September I’ll have an entire new set of friends and experiences to write about.
August 17th, 2006 2:16 pm
I agree, Rick, that meter determines line break. I didn’t mean that the line should end where a period would, but that a line break can indicate when you want a pause in the rhythm. If you’re pausing the meter, ending a line, and there is a period, the period seems redundant to me. I’ve always considered myself somewhat of a folk poet which I guess could mean formalist-not.
May 25th, 2014 1:10 pm
[…] Post notes: To read more about Artemis and its history, click HERE. Listen to Nikki read Ego Tripping HERE. Read a post about my experience sitting in on Nikki’s classes HERE. […]