Archive for the ‘Pep Talks’ Category:
Written on February 15th, 2015 by adminno shouts
We are half way through the month! Slightly more in fact as this is February – the shortest of all the months!
Now you may find that you are lagging behind – just not able to focus or find time to write. If this is you then do not panic. Instead find yourself a timer (pssst your phone) and do just ten minutes of writing before bed, or whilst you are waiting for your shower in the morning!
Do not worry about the quality at this point just write solidly for that ten minutes – it maybe one poem it maybe lots of little ones, it may end up being the beginnings of a story or something instead but just keep writing. Even if it comes out as a story remember you can write a shorter condensed narrative poem from it later on (we suggest you keep the story too!).
Those of you who are done and dusted and sitting around going “well that was easy” – GET. OFF. YOUR. BACKSIDES!!!! and start writing. Just keep on – yes you’ve done amazingly well but lets see what you are really made of! Go on double the poem count – I dare you! Remember you have a whole year in which to edit them after February is through!
And yes CRAZY punctuation and capitals is called for at this point in any writing challenge – the craziest bit is yet to come! Now everyone – back to writing!
Written on February 7th, 2015 by adminno shouts
One week into the poem a day writing challenge that is WoPoWriMo!
For those of you who are streaks ahead – fantastic but don’t slacken off now. Remember the story of the Tortoise and the Hare and just keep going! Finished all ready? AMAZING but don’t think you get away with it that easily!
You have two options – now you are warmed up you may find your productivity level remains high, if this is the case then continue making a writing time for yourself and work solidly on the poetry. Write and write – need more ideas of where to get poetry ideas? Never fear we have all the previous years exercises and tutorials on here under the link Exercises.
Some people however do feel they have a certain number of poems in them and once that is reached it is reached (until they re-charge, sometimes they fear they will never recharge but they always do!). If you are all poemed out then use the challenge to start sorting out the poems you already have – start typing up if you have written them in long hand, edit them, send off poems you already have to various places – who knows one of them may get published.
Those of you who haven’t finished! Don’t panic!!!! That is where most people are – just keep writing – if you are behind then keep writing as you can catch up! Even if you’ve not started yet! Come on give it a go – it is not too late 🙂
Written on January 31st, 2015 by adminno shouts
February is the month in which we here at WoPo run a poetry writing challenge. So for the next month there will be daily posts including writing exercises and guest bloggers and maybe a give away or two.
But why take part?
Sometimes it can be hard to carve yourself out a writing space or time, and sometimes without practice ideas either start to crowd the brain or disappear altogether. Writing challenges in general help you to develop a writing method. If this is your first such challenge then you may need to tweak it slightly to suit but keep with it!
Poem a day writing challenges can be extremely productive. You can follow the exercises posted here or just set yourself a certain amount of time to sit and just write – do not worry overly about the quality of the poem or piece of writing. You may not like what you are writing, think it is cheesy or too dramatic – write it anyway and then put it away for six weeks, maybe even make a box to post your poems in so you can’t go back and look at them.
You may find later on that the work is not as bad as you thought it was and a bit of editing will have it all ship shape and ready to go!
Perhaps you’ll need to merge poems or split them up into two or three separate pieces or just delete 2/3rds of what you have got.
What ever happens you will end up with more poems than you started with 🙂
Written on January 1st, 2015 by adminno shouts
It is a new year and that time of resolution making – so why not make a few writing ones?
One of the biggest problems writers tend to face, is making time for writing. Most writers, especially poets, tend to have full time jobs and/or families which take up the majority of their time. Very few get to write full time and even if they are, it is unlikely to be the writing they wont it to be – no instead they find themselves writing blog copy on gardening etc…
So now is the time to assess your life and work out where and how the writing is going to fit in!
One way of doing this is to be militant – I will be writing for 20 minutes a day come what may! Set your self a time and a space, even if that is your morning commute or just before you go to bed. Set a reminder on your phone and if need be, buy a timer. I personally have THE CHICKEN OF NO PROCRASTINATION!
Sign yourself up for a few writing challenges – there are many poem a day challenges and inspiration sites around, many of which we link to 🙂
Another piece of advice is always to have something you can write on, with you – this could be a note book or a phone, text yourself or scribble on a special notebook – what ever works for you.
Written on March 31st, 2014 by adminno shouts
It is almost time for National Poetry Writing Month, so sharpen your pencils, stretch your fingers and expand your minds!
Writing challenges can be incredibly useful, weather you are just starting out and need something to get you to sit down and actually start the writing or weather you are a seasoned writer who has just slipped of late and find the dreaded PROCRASTINATION or writers block, gnawing away at your lives.
What I find most useful in preparing myself, is making sure I have a space and a time in which to write. That does not mean a lovely neat desk, though it can and that is nice and if you have that set up then go with it. But it can be a seat on the train or your phone by your bed. What ever it is, just make sure that you have identified it and have set it aside.
Of course you maybe be lucky and get struck by inspiration lightning – the more you write and observe the world the more likely this is to happen! This is why it is handy to have some sort of writing device on you, that can be a paper note pad (you can get tiny ones for pockets) or a laptop, tablet or phone, what ever it is make sure you always have it on you for when an idea strikes or you hear that perfect opening line etc…
Written on February 28th, 2014 by adminno shouts
That is it peeps! Well done to all those who have taken part. Thank you to the guest bloggers for your inspiring words and to those who gave books for the give aways.
But the end is never the end, for some there is the editing to come, for others submissions or blogging about what they have achieved but all should take note that they can write and should write. It is supposed to be good for the soul
Keep writing, hopefully the challenge has helped set up some sort of writing routine for you.
And to celebrate do not forget your web-badge of completion!
For those of you who have the poetry bug the next Poem a Day challenge is in April for NaPoWriMo, we will also be posting general exercises and tips for you through out the rest of the year – good luck and keep writing!
Written on February 21st, 2014 by adminno shouts
It is the home leg of the WoPo poem a day challenge, some of you are almost there, some have barely begun and others have stormed through and finished and writing extra poems. Firstly, you have all done fantastically! To have create just one poem is an achievement and remember races are often won during that last leg – so keep going, there is still another week and an awful lot can happen in a week.
Secondly, those of you who have finished, sorry but you have not! There is still work to be done. This work is editing and structuring you poems, maybe once in a blue moon you are lucky and produce something that is almost a finished poem but not normally. And one in a million chances says you might even write something that is perfect first time but it is unlikely so if you are finished it is time to get that editing hat on and go back over the poems you did, right at the very beginning of the challenge.
Thirdly, everybody keep writing!
Written on February 14th, 2014 by adminno shouts
It is half way through February and it is also V day! That’s right it is victory day because even if yo are behind on the challenge, you are writing and you have constructed poems, you have material to work with. Do not despair and give up either as there is still a lot of month left and it is possible to catch up!
And as always there are those who have already finished the challenge – to you we say – FANTASTIC! WELL DONE and KEEP WRITING! Now you have found your groove, now you have a system for getting the writing done. Do not loose that, keep going and see how much you can produced in the month.
If you are struggling though, take a deep breath and get a pen and have a rummage around the archives, there are lots of different writing challenges and inspirational pieces from poets.
Good luck everyone and keep writing!
Written on February 7th, 2014 by adminno shouts
The first week has zoomed by in a cloud of manic writing and/or despair, we have more gust bloggers to come and some delectable give aways!
The main advice for everyone at this point is – KEEP WRITING! – and to help with the motivation here is a web badge. You can put this image on your website or use as an avatar (profile pic) in social media.
If you’d like to put it onto your blog or web site, just copy and paste this HTML into a blog post or your site template:
<a href="http://wopowrimo.wigglypets.co.uk/" alt="WoPoWriMo">
<img src="http://wopowrimo.wigglypets.co.uk/resources/2013/Creativitea.png"
width="128" height="194" />
</a>
For those who want to just the image here is the code you need. If you feel happier with just copying the image from the site you are welcome to do that as well.
<img
src="http://wopowrimo.wigglypets.co.uk/resources/2013/Creativitea.png"
width="128" height="194"
I'm releasing the image under a Creative Commons licence, so you can copy it and distribute it under these terms:
Creativi-Tea by Sarah Snell-Pym is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Now get writing!
(And yes this is the same on from last year – there were requests to bring it back!)
Written on January 1st, 2014 by adminno shouts
2014 has began and it is time to start a fresh with the writing, if you are anything like us here at WoPo you will find that during the year your poetic focus drifts. January is the perfect time to fix this!
Look at your daily commitments, and slot yourself in for a writing space – each and every day. It only has to be five minutes but it has to happen. This will help you get into a routine. You may not write much at first but as the days pass you will find it easier to slip into the writing zone.
Ideas will then likely start occurring when it is not your writing time, to deal with this text yourself the idea or carry a small pocket note book to jot things down in. If you are stuck for ideas, do not fret, there are always plenty of exercises on this blog to help you.
HAPPY NEW YEAR – now get writing 🙂
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