The Writing Process Blog Tour is a great way to introduce you to new
writers through their writing process. Thanks to an invitation from
Carole Burns, author of The Missing Woman (forthcoming next year from Parthian Books), I get to join in on the fun and bring other writers
with me! (Their bios are below.)
Okay, to the questions!
What am I working on?
It's
April, so it must be NaPoWriMo (short for National Poetry Writing
Month)! I'm not writing towards a book or anything, just enjoying
playing around and experimenting and not making sense. It's liberating!
Like releasing the stays in one's corset and breathing out.
Writing
a poem a day on anything I want feels incredibly luxurious, especially
after working so fixedly on Disturbance, my second poetry collection.
That was dark -- and this is play. So, yes, luxurious, and a little bit
naughty, like I'm getting away with something...
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
My
life, education, experiences, what I read, consume and digest, where
I've travelled and lived: all these things inform my writing. Since
these elements are unique, what I write is unique.
Oh, and I try to challenge myself to take risks with my writing. Hopefully this pays off in more intriguing poems!
Why do I write what I do?
Because it's my oxygen.
How does my writing process work?
I
gather my materials together: triggers (random words, titles) and
strictures (forms, rhymes) from my computer, my pen, my notebook. Then I
shut the computer, take my pen, open a page and start jotting things
down. I write and write, look up, look down, and write and write and
cross out and write until I cannot take the poem any further on its
paper journey.
Then I open the computer up again and transcribe
my scribblings, maybe edit as I go. Add. Subtract. Read it again and
again, and then once more for sense, for sound. And then I think, yes,
that must be it. Or, that's as far as it goes for today. Or, what is it?
Or, I'll come back for it another time. I get to the end and it might
not be the end.
This is part of the training: to be a good
listener to the poem, to train one's ear, to refine one's aesthetic
discernment as to what works.
Ivy
Up next:
•
Benjamin Dodds is a Sydney-based poet whose work appears in a variety
of journals and magazines. His first collection of poetry, Regulator,
has just been published by Puncher & Wattmann. His Writing Process
Blog post will appear April 21 on http://benjamindodds.wordpress.com
•
Clare Carlin's first book, Excursions, was shortlisted for the 2012
Australian/Vogel's Literary Award and won the 2008 Jim Hamilton Award.
She has been a journalist for 15 years, and has published short fiction.
Her Writing Process Blog post will appear April 21 on her website,
Pieced Work. http://www.piecedwork.com/journal
•
Will Ford: Performance poet/MC of poetry events, story writer, script
writer, director of short films and humorist. His Writing Process Blog
post may or may not appear April 21 on http://willdeanford.wordpress.com
Plus, check out Carole Burns's Writing Process Blog post:
http://offthepagebook.blogspot.co.uk
and Susie Wild's answers: http://susiewild.blogspot.co.uk
This entry was posted by Ivy
on Saturday, April 12, 2014 at 3:38 AM.
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