Poet's Block

Chatterbox: Inkwell

Poet's Block

Poet's Block

I wasn't going to do this, and I don't want to, like at all, but I don't know what else to do.

I've been battling it for months. I'd gotten it to the point where I have ideas, or one or two, but the poem doesn't come. The rhymes and rhythms don't. The words don't.

Free verse is an option, but I live for the rhythym and rhyme that comes with rhyming poetry and the free verse doesn't come either.  What I do write, of both, is shallow, forced. I used to be able to pen something decent. Now even that is too hard. 

Does anyone have any tips or something that might help? This whole thing is a little gloomy but I'm almost at the point where I lose all hope of ever writing a poem again. I'm sorry, I don't know what else to say.

I'm really not trying to be so gloomy, I'm really sorry. Everyone on Cricket has been so nice, even though I've only been here a little. I am terrified of posting this but....

 

submitted by Blackfooted Bobcat, age Meow, Illinois
(April 9, 2020 - 9:18 pm)

I'm really not a poet, but maybe I can think of a way to help. Try writing down one simple, plain word such as "bed" and then write all the possible words you can think of that can rhyme with it. This is just an exercise to get your creative juices flowing, obviously you could just use a rhyming dictionary to figure out rhymes. 

Also, your whole post was very poetic. Honestly, that gave me the feels. I think you could be an incredible poet.

So yeah! I hope this helped...  

submitted by Majestic Mary, NOT A POET
(April 10, 2020 - 11:37 am)

I was kind of scared someone was going to say something like, "Just get over it," or something, or that writers block isn't real and I'm being weak or something. Thank you so much for being so nice! I'll certainly try your idea! I'm afraid that I don't have a rhyming dictionary, but I'll do it anyway. I'm highly doubt that I'm an incredible poet, but thank you!

submitted by Blackfooted Bobcat, age Meow, Illinois
(April 11, 2020 - 11:47 am)

(and top, by the way)

submitted by Top or else
(April 10, 2020 - 9:35 pm)

Hey there!! First of all, no one on here would ever criticize you for saying that you have writer's block, or for asking for help. Writer's/poet's block is a very real thing and most of the writers on here have probably gone through it at some point!

Second of all, I've also had writer's block for a very long time, years even, (believe me...it's been a while) but I believe I am pulling myself out of it now. I was pretty depressed about it for a while, and I think a lot of the problem was that I was comparing my writing to others' and thinking that I could never be that good, so why even try? And I was depressed about my skillset at the time and so I never wrote anything, because I thought it wasn't very good, and so I never practiced my skills and practicing is really the only way to get better. Your writing skills aren't going to go anywhere unless you actually write. After a while, more recently I guess, I kind of stopped comparing myself to others so much and grew some confidence in myself, and now I've started writing more. Some tips I might give you are: 

1) Don't wait for the poem to "come". Go after it. Write down every single idea you have that relates to that poem floating around in your head, and build off of that. 

2) Just start writing. Do it every day. Get a journal or a notebook or something and write down your thoughts, make lists of your favorite things, make lists of things you want to write poems about, make lists of words you like, and find words that rhyme (loosely or perfectly) with those words. 

3) Don't compare yourself to others. This is one of the worst things you can ever do. Your writing is your own; you are your own person; other people are completely different and there is no way your writing can be the same as someone else's unless you copy, and that isn't a good idea either.

4) Give yourself a break. Take a couple weeks where you don't force yourself to do writing, don't expect yourself to write. Find some other things to do and spend some time relaxing, and noticing the world around you.

5) Find poetry prompts online or get a book of poetry prompts! There are tons of them around and even one word can spark an idea sometimes. 

6) If you write something, even if you think it's bad, don't look down at it and think about how bad it is--try to only notice good things about it. Compliment yourself. Writing isn't easy for a lot of people.  

7) Practice practice practice. If you write every single day you are going to get better at writing every single day, even if it's just a little bit. 

8) Try free verse! Even if you prefer rhyming poetry, free verse can be much easier and it's often easier to make it flow. And you could write a free verse poetry that has a lot of loose rhymes in it but doesn't quite rhyme, that kind of poem is often very cool.

9) Listen to music that has inspirational and meaningful lyrics--I personally like Alessia Cara, a lot of her songs talk about just life and herself and her friends and things and have quite diverse and interesting lyrics. It might help inspire you. 

And there's this quote that I really like: "You're not stuck. You're just committed to certain patterns of behavior because they helped you in the past. Now those behaviors have become more harmful than helpful. The reason why you can't move forward is because you keep applying an old formula to a new level in your life. Change the formula to get a different result." --Emily Maroutian 

I hope this helped :P 

submitted by Leafy, age No, not a cat
(April 12, 2020 - 12:34 pm)

Wow, this is really helpful! I have been trying to go after the poem, and it hadn't been getting anywhere until I actually managed to write something! Okay, it was really awful, but it's something. (I realise you suggested I didn't focus on how bad it was but try to find something good in it. I'm not sure if there was anything though.) I have tried freeverse, but it's not good either. Thank you so much for this detailed reply! And Majestic Mary (please let me have gotten your name right) I did try your idea and I think it might have helped.

submitted by Blackfooted Bobcat, age Meow, Illinois
(April 12, 2020 - 5:12 pm)

I have also been struggling with poet's block recently. I've been trying to write a poem every day for NaPoWriMo, and I've gotten discouraged when I can't think of anything. So here are a couple tips that have helped me (and I do agree with everything Majestic Mary and Leafy said already!):

1) Force yourself to write something, anything, even if it's as simple and horrible as "the sky was blue/the sea was too." Sometimes just getting yourself started can get your juices flowing.

2) Write a type of poem with a set rhyme/rhythm pattern, like a limerick. I tried this the other day, and it really helped!

3) Think about a poem while doing something else, like walking your dog or washing dishes. Staring at a blank piece of paper or computer screen can be really stressful, and sometimes just thinking about it elsewhere can give you the freedom to get started.

I hope this helped. Good luck!!

submitted by Kitten, she/her/hers
(April 12, 2020 - 8:41 pm)

I think I have a right to say something about this, since I've been there myself. Though, remember, in most particulars it's different for everybody.

From age eight onward I wrote a whole lot, both prose and poetry. Some of the stuff actually isn't so bad, even now. Some of it lives at the bottom of drawers and other dark places, and if I ever resurrect it it will be merely to show that it's okay to write horrible as long as you improve.

At about age thirteen, almost immediately after writing my best story of that period, I stopped writing at all for about two years. I still don't know why, exactly. Stuff just wouldn't come. There a great book on writing out there called Storycraft, though it's not solely about writing in general. The author said that you have to have something to say before you can write. Maybe your problem is that you have nothing to write about.

At any rate, it is sure that expeience is needed before the word, as well as ideas about the world, perceptions of beauty, and a certain amount of misery. It may be you've said all you have to say so far. If you're about as old as I was then, the absolute best thing you can do to improve your writing is to grow your mind and imagination to a much higher level, where poetry will become an expression of the new beauties you discover. But whether you should write during that process, I can't say. It would be different for different people.

Maybe try a period of not writing. If you are unable to improve at writing at all, neither in style nor ideas, the practice isn't helping you. Alternatively you might try another thing I did, which was to go into an in-depth study of writing. The study will build you a library of literary devices and ideas to draw from. But if you do, there is this danger, that you will forget what you love about writing. Many think that to be a good writer rather than trying to share something beautiful with other people, you have avoid lots of clinches and twist tropes, and doing that makes you good. Even more think that you have to have some sort of acceptable moral, sometimes SJW, sometimes Christian, and that that moral is the only justification for your story's existence. When you find these people, block your ears and leave. No amount of clever set-ups or good morals will ever make you a better writer. If you write about what is beautiful, all these other things will be added to you. I only say it at length because I was lost in that pit for awhile, and I don't want anyone else to be.  

With me, I started writing again about two years ago. I procrastinate a good bit, still, and I haven't yet got a single reasonably lengthy piece to a level of perfection acceptable to me. It takes a lot of guts to keep writing when you really don't want to. But the second time around I knew in my gut that I really wanted to write and that writing was the right thing for me to do right then, which I don't think I did the first time (I may be mistaken). At any rate, taking a break doesn't seem to have destroyed my writing abilities, or been too much of a waste. I've now got seven or more stories in the wings, one of which I intend to attempt to publish in Cricket Magazine, and I'm planning out how to market some of the coming ones. But I can't say too much about what I'm doing now, because I really don't know, yet.

I don't know whether you're religious, but please attend to my last point anyway: God made me a story writer, and you a poet, and though He never says what He's going to do exactly, He knows what He's doing alright. So have some fun as well as serious stuff, and don't worry about it too much. Tomorrow will take care of itself.

May you be a wonderful and famous writer. 

-Xa'opve

submitted by Xa'opve, age 17, Idea Farm
(May 2, 2020 - 3:12 pm)