One school of thought says that art is subjective. Therefore, a critique is nothing more than someone else’s opinion. This school of thought also argues that critiques might harm the artistic integrity of your work by injecting someone else’s ideas and visions into it.

The other school of thought says that art may be subjective, but other people’s opinions matter and can actually be helpful. This school believes that writers may be too close to their own work to view it objectively, so a second opinion would be beneficial.

I fall somewhere in the middle, but essentially, I think that critiques do far more good for your writing than harm. In fact, a critique can only harm your work if you let it. And let’s face it, ultimately, you’re the one who’s responsible for what you write.

Critiques with Care

It’s true that a critique is mostly someone else’s opinion about your work. But critiques also include ideas to improve your work – ideas that may not have occurred to you. Additionally, a good critic will point out mechanical errors – grammar and spelling mistakes that may have slipped past you.

If you’re going to submit or publish your work, chances are likely you’ll get some feedback anyway. There are always critics and readers who are happy to tell you what they really think of your writing. So you might as well get an advance look at how your writing comes across to someone else.

But proceed with caution. It’s not wise to get a critique from just anyone. And once you get your critique, you should take your time about implementing the suggestions and ideas that it offers.

Tips for Getting Beneficial or Professional Critiques

If you approach the whole thing with the goal of truly improving your writing, then these tips will provide some guidelines that you can use when you put your work up for review.

• Find a smart critic. It doesn’t have to be another writer but it can be. It should, however, be someone who is well-read in your genre.
• Find someone who is objective and diplomatic. it won’t do you any good if you give your writing to your mother and she gushes over it. Look for someone who will tell you the good and the bad.
• After receiving a critique, step away and take a breather. Give yourself some space to absorb the feedback and decide what you want to do with it.
• Weigh all critiques carefully. It’s your writing, so make your decisions with the understanding that much of a critique is simply well-informed opinion. Your job now is to pick and choose the suggestions that will truly make your work better.
• Don’t take yourself too seriously. Never let a critique hurt your feelings or drive you away from your passion. Strive to grow as a writer, take the suggestions that seem right on, and discard the rest.
• If you don’t know anyone who is well suited to critique your work, look into professional critiques and hire someone with experience.

Whether a critique will be beneficial or harmful depends entirely on you. Obviously, nobody can make you change what you’ve written, and it’s up to you to pick and choose what you revise. It’s true that young and novice writers may be confused by critiques and frustrated with the decision-making process. So get a few more opinions. Take it in stride. Spend some time away from the piece and come back to it in a few days or weeks with a fresh perspective and see if the critiques have new meaning for you. Don’t be afraid to ignore any suggestions that you just don’t feel right about.

You should also be gracious with your critic. Giving someone feedback on their writing is not an easy job and there are risks involved. Never get defensive of your work and don’t take personal offense when someone is trying to help you. If you don’t agree with their suggestions, then simply don’t use them. Say thank you and get back to work.

And keep on writing.

Are you looking for someone who can provide critiques on your writing? Do you want honest, objective feedback from an experienced writer and editor? Writing Forward offers professional critiques. Visit the professional critiques page to learn more.

Understanding the construction of language begins with learning the parts of speech. If you know that adverbs can be extraneous, then you can scan your writing to see if you are using too many adverbs, and you can check for adverbs that aren’t necessary, particularly adverb-verb combinations that can be replaced with a better, more descriptive, single verb (such as in the example above where “ran quickly” is replaced with “sprinted”).

Why do so many people rail against adverbs? Using our example again, think about which sentence evokes a stronger image. Most readers would agree that “She ran quickly” is vague whereas “She sprinted” is specific and easier to visualize.

Adverbs: How, When, and Where

Here’s a a quick definition of an adverb:

Adverbs are like adjectives in that they are modifiers, but they modify any other type of word or phrase except for nouns. Examples of adverbs include quickly and dark (as in dark red where the adverb dark modifies the adjective red).

An adverb is one of the eight parts of speech. Specifically, adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Adverbs may also modify sentences and clauses. So, how do you spot a adverb?

Adverbs often answer questions. How did she run? She ran quickly. Adverbs also answer when, where, and to what extent:

• She ran yesterday.
• She ran backwards.
• She ran eternally.

There are other ways to spot an adverb. They often have an -ly suffix attached to a word that originally was a noun (quickly). However,  just because a word ends with -ly does not mean it’s an adverb or that it is a derivative of a noun. Here’s a bit of trivia: the -ly suffix is related to the word like. How did she run? She ran passionately. She ran like passion.

Another suffix we often see attached to adverbs is -wise. She ran clockwise around the track. As with -ly, the -wise ending does not guarantee that a word is an adverb, but it can be a good indicator.

Gerunds

Gerunds are verbs acting as nouns, and they end in -ing. In the following sentence, the word “running,” which one would expect to be a verb, functions as a noun:

Running is her favorite activity.

Gerunds acting as adverbs are relatively rare but they do occur, especially with expressions of profanity: She was effing running!

Comparative Adverbs

Ever wonder about words that help us make comparisons?

• She runs more (or less) than I do.
• Who runs the most (or the least)?
• She runs more quickly than I do.

These too are adverbs. Other comparative adverbs are created by adding suffixes, such as -er (She’s a faster runner) or -est (She’s the fastest runner).

Do you have any insights to add about adverbs? Do you have any questions about adverbs or any other parts of speech? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

When I was thirteen years old, I spontaneously started writing poetry. I was lying on my bedroom floor, talking on the phone with a notebook opened in front of me, and I suddenly wrote a poem.

Looking back, it was a strange thing to do. My main exposure to poetry at that point had been nursery rhymes, Dr. Suess, and Shel Silverstein, the poetry of my early childhood. I was an avid fiction reader, but I didn’t read much poetry back then.

I’ve always thought that those early poems were inspired and informed by music rather than literature. I was obsessed with music and song lyrics, and there’s really no other explanation for my early foray into poetry writing.

In school, we read poetry but it didn’t resonate with me. The poetry of academia was stiff, old-fashioned, and uninteresting to a teen girl in the 80s and early 90s. I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about because I wasn’t old enough to appreciate the classics.

Then, I became a young adult. Soon, the Internet arrived, and I found myself searching the web for poetry that was more like mine, poetry that was modern, edgy, and rhythmic. Poetry with flair and sass! This was around the time there was a “Girl Power” movement, and I was a young college student compelled by this new feminism.

So it’s no wonder that when I came across Maya Angelou’s poem “Phenomenal Woman,” I thought finally! It was the first poem I ever printed out and saved. For months, it hung over my desk. I read it over and over — to myself, to friends and family members. I was in love with that poem. And it inspired me to write many poems about the power and enchantment of womanhood. It instilled in me the hope that I could one day be a poet without having to write long, boring verses.

Take a few moments to listen to the poem through which I first discovered the remarkable talent that is Maya Angelou. In the video below, she reads “Phenomenal Woman” as the words show onscreen:

Maya Angelou

Who is this Maya Angelou? I wondered. Well, turns out that she’s a phenomenal woman herself. Her entire life and career takes you on a jaunt through the art of living the renaissance life.

Born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, she was nicknamed “Maya” by her older brother. The nickname was a shortened version of “My-a-sister.” The first 17 years of Angelou’s life are documented in her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She went on to write a total of six autobiographical volumes, which have won her great acclaim among both critics and readers.

Maya worked as the first black female cable car driver in San Francisco. She’s worked as a dancer, editor, actor, playwright, screenwriter, and songwriter. In the 1950s, she was a member of the Harlem Writer’s Guild. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and worked as the Northern Coordinator for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Since 1991, she’s taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and continues to make frequent appearances on the lecture circuit. In the late 90s, she became the first African American woman to direct a major motion picture (Down in the Delta).

She recited her exquisite poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. Not since Robert Frost read at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961 had a poet recited at a U.S. Presidential Inauguration. Maya Angelou met Oprah Winfrey in the late 70s. The two eventually became close friends with Angelou fulfilling the role of Oprah’s beloved mentor.

Her work has won her over 30 honorary degrees. She was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for her 1971 volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Diiie and has also been nominated for a Tony Award.

Phenomenal Woman, Phenomenal Poet

Dr. Angelou has inspired people, poets, and artists from all walks of life. She has broken cultural barriers and set new precedents for writers. Her work as an activist has moved the masses and she’s touched the hearts of millions.

What strikes me most about Maya Angelou is her warm spirit and positive attitude, her refusal to let life beat her (or any of us) down. Her work is uplifting and invigorating. Below, you can watch Dr. Angelou recite another favorite of mine, “Still I Rise.”

To learn more about this remarkable, phenomenal woman, visit her website, Maya Angelou. Be sure to check out the Media section, where you can peruse Maya’s photo and video galleries and see some of the highlights of her life and work.

Take a tour around the web, check out some grammatically flawed public signs, peek into a mass market paperback book. You’re sure to find a grammar mistake or two (or two hundred).

Throughout my adult life, I’ve made a conscious effort to expand my knowledge of grammar, and the more I learn, the more I realize that proper grammar is a rare thing indeed.

Now, I’m not a member of the grammar police squad. I’m all for breaking and bending the rules, especially when doing so makes your writing stronger or when it lends to the artistic integrity of a piece. But to break the rules effectively, you really have to know them first.

Today is national grammar day. I say that to honor this working holiday, we writers (bloggers — that means you too!) make a commitment to work a little harder at mastering grammar. You don’t have to sign up for a course or spend your days reading grammar handbooks. Just make a bit more effort to pay attention to language, words, and sentence structure. Train yourself to review your work with a sharper eye. Pay close attention to what you don’t know. Next time you’re uncertain about a grammar issue, look it up and do it right instead of rewording your sentence.

National Grammar Day

National Grammar Day is a day to “Speak well! Write well! And on March 4, march forth and spread the word.” This year’s event is hosted by the one and only Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty (I’ve been telling you about her podcast for years!).

Tweet It!

Want to help make this a huge event online? Got Twitter? Use this hashtag to tweet about the event, contests people are having, and other grammar topics over the next few days: #grammarday

Head over to the National Grammar Day site and get tons of great grammar goodies:

• A National Grammar Day theme song
• A free National Grammar Day e-card
• Free teaching materials
• Winners from a language poetry contest
• Pictures of messed up signs from the Grammar Girl Flickr group
• A songwriting hall of shame playlist
• Links to John McIntyre’s grammar noir series
• Grammar T-shirts
• …and even more!

The occasion is brought to you by The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG), which is “for pen-toters appalled by wanton displays of Bad English,”

SPOGG is for people who crave good, clean English — sentences cast well and punctuated correctly. It’s about clarity. And who knows how many of the world’s huge problems could be solved if we had a little more of that?

SPOGG is free to join and you get entertaining newsletters about grammar, so do check it out.

How will you participate in National Grammar Day this year?

Many people cite spring as their favorite season. New life starts appearing and the sun starts its annual battle against gray, cloudy skies, a battle that the fiery star will win by summertime.

For those of you who are interested in specifics, the vernal (spring) equinox occurs this year on March 20. Astronomically, this equinox marks the halfway point between the longest night of the year (winter solstice) and the longest day of the year (summer solstice). It’s a reminder that brighter days are ahead.

How will springtime inspire your writing over the next few months?

National Grammar Day

Every March, writers, grammarians, and language lovers celebrate good grammar. March fourth is National Grammar Day:

Do you adore clean, correct sentences? Do ungrammatical advertisements make you cringe? We understand completely, and this is why the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar has designated March 4 as National Grammar Day.

This year, Mignon Fogarty–better known as Grammar Girl–is the official host.

We’ve been celebrating National Grammar Day here at Writing Forward since the blog first hit the web, and this year will be no exception. How do we celebrate?

“Speak well! Write well! And on March 4, march forth and spread the word.”

IndieReader.com Brings the Best Indie Books to Consumers

PRESS RELEASE

What do indie movies and indie music have that indie (aka self-published) books do not? Respect!

That changed in September ’09 with the launch of IndieReader.com, a new e-commerce website that sells—and provides a platform for—carefully selected self-published books. IndieReader aims to do for self-published books what Sundance did for the once underground independent film movement—create a venue to showcase the very best of the category and prove, once and for all, that quality books can exist—and flourish—outside traditional publishing channels.

Books are chosen for inclusion on the IndieReader site by a panel of editors, literary agents, and marketing professionals, and all categories of books are represented. There is an annual $99 fee for membership; in exchange, authors get a sales venue and a web page. Authors set their book’s retail price and receive 75% of the sales (the buyer pays for shipping). Authors have complete control over the editorial content of their web pages with no general restrictions on reviews, interviews, video, and audio.

Members of IndieReader.com benefit from an ongoing national publicity and marketing campaign that seeks to build brand recognition through traditional and web-driven media, regional events, and cross-promotion with other businesses that promote the self-publishing industry.  The site also has a monthly, online magazine called The Indie Reader, which has featured contributions by writers Joel Stein (Time magazine), novelists Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader) and Lisa Genova (Still Alice), columnist Dan Savage, designer Isaac Mizrahi and singer/songwriter Joshua Radin.

Drunken Boat

Drunken Boat online journal of the arts recently launched its eleventh issue, which marks its change from an annual to a semiannual format.  In addition to a broad array of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, the issue features a folio of  photography and short nonfiction on the theme “Life in a Time of Contraction,” in which artists and writers focus on the effects of the global economic crisis.  Current United States Poet Laureate Kay Ryan is featured in a craft interview.  And Drunken Boat #11 also has an interesting folio of Sound Art– our first.

Read a longer introduction to the issue:
http://www.drunkenboat.com/db11/statement.php

This Month at Writing Forward

In honor of National Grammar Day, this month’s posts will focus on good grammar, spelling, and punctuation. There will  be a mix of creative writing articles too. Look for a spotlight on one of my favorite poets (I’m still trying to decide who I’ll choose), fresh writing ideas, and more.

Let’s Chat

Are you going to participate in National Grammar Day? If so, how are you going to celebrate and promote good grammar? What do you think about independent publishing? is it the future for writers? A trend for people who like to buck trends? Or will it become a permanent publishing path for artists who like to work outside the mainstream? Finally, because Drunken Boat is addressing the global economic crisis, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how this crisis affects writers (or does it?). Has the state of the economy had any impact on your writing? Does it inspire you?

Have a great spring season everyone, and keep on writing!

What if you could open your imagination to a whole new world of writing ideas?

Today’s journal prompts encourage you to wonder. Some of them are based on reality. Others ask you to step outside the realm of possibility (or likelihood) and leave reality as we know it behind.

Journal Writing

Journal writing is excellent for birthing new ideas and fleshing them out. Journal prompts help by giving you a launching pad – a place to start your writing session.

Most writers keep a journal close at all times. Through journal writing, we can discover the unexplored areas of our imaginations. We can use our journals to jot down simple ideas and see where they could take us. We can find out if a story idea has potential or if a poem wants to grow out of an image or a few, key words.

While it’s not mandatory for all writers to keep a journal, it sure is helpful. Journal writing will keep you writing on a regular schedule, help you hone your writing ideas, and provide a sacred writing space. Take the journal prompts below into your journal and see what happens.

Journal Prompts

You can focus on one of these or give all of them a try. Let your mind wander as you work through these journal prompts. Avoid single-sentence responses. Provide detailed answers and descriptions.

1. What if you suddenly came into possession of five million dollars cash?
2. What if you could choose a superpower? What would you choose and why? How would you use it?
3. What if there was world peace? What would the world look like?
4. What if you could go back to school and study anything you wanted?
5. What if you had an opportunity to travel to outer space?
6. What if you could change careers? You get to choose any profession and will be highly successful. What would you choose?
7. What if you could talk to animals?
8. What if you had a chance to travel anywhere in the world, but you had to visit one location for a whole year? Where would you go and why?
9. What if you woke up one day as a world (or local) leader? City mayor? State governor? President? Queen? What would you do for your community?
10. What if you wrote a wildly successful best-selling novel? What would it be about?

Have fun with these journal prompts, and then come back and tell us how they worked out for you.

Do you have any ideas for journal prompts? Questions? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Tanka

The form consists of five units. When Westernized, these units are often treated as separate lines, although traditional Japanese tanka occupied a single line. The first three units are referred to as kami-no-ku (upper phrase) and the second two units are called shimo-no-ku (lower phrase).

In our discussion of haiku, we learned the term mora, which can be loosely translated as a phonetic unit or syllable. Remember, the haiku has 17 syllables (5-7-5). The tanka, on the other hand, has 31 syllables (5-7-5-7-7). You’ll notice that the tanka’s kami-no-ku has the same structure as a haiku.

Like haiku, the tanka form goes beyond syllables and lines and may guide the poem’s content. According to Wikipedia, “Various forms of wordplay were commonly employed in tanka, including standardized descriptive words called makurakotoba, puns that functioned to unite two different images called kakekotoba, and kutsukaburi in which the beginning and ending syllables of a poem spelled out a significant word.”

Exploring Tanka

American Tanka is a literary journal dedicated to English-language tanka. Visit their tanka samples page to experience tanka poetry firsthand. You’ll see that these samples don’t strictly adhere to the syllable pattern 5-7-5-7-7. It’s not uncommon for forms and types of poems to stray from their original structure when they are adopted into different languages. The journal explains:

Many writers of English-language tanka use less than 31 syllables to achieve the form in English. American Tanka publishes tanka of five lines that are concise and evocative, are true to the purpose and spirit of tanka, and echo the original Japanese rhythm and structure.

In addition to an entire journal devoted to English-language tanka, there’s a society. The Tanka Society of America “aims to further the writing, reading, study, and appreciation of tanka poetry in English.”

Exploring Other Types of Poems

Have you ever tried writing a haiku or a tanka?

I find that my creativity stays fresh when I’m constantly dabbling in new forms or different media. Generally, I stick to free-form poetry, but after researching and writing about haiku, I spent some time composing haiku and found it fun and refreshing.

I’ve yet to try my hand at tanka, but it’s the first thing I’m going to do when I finish writing this post. I may even revisit my haiku and see if I can build upon those poems to make tanka.

What about you? Are you interested in writing a tanka poem? Are there any other types of poems you enjoy writing or would like to see featured here? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Sources:

Wikipedia (Tanka)
American Tanka
Tanka Society of America

People have been trying to answer that question for centuries, but we still don’t have a definitive answer. We know art is borne of creativity. It’s meant to impact whoever is experiencing it. And it comes from a place within the artist that we don’t truly understand.

Art remains a mystery, both in its definition and its origin. Why is art a cornerstone of every single culture on Earth? Why do some people flock to artistry while others prefer to sit in the audience? Who do people need art, whether it’s music, literature, films, paintings, sculptures, or dance?

Does Art Matter?

We all know what commercialism is. It’s the intent to make money. Preferably, lots of it. Traditionally, art was safe from commercialism. Big business just wasn’t interested, and artists could freely create. The market was free and it decided who succeeded and who didn’t. Fine art rose to the top.

But once the money makers filled up all the shelves in the grocery markets and lined all the racks in the department stores, they turned to art. And they commercialized it. Screenplays were streamlined into formulas. Big publishing houses figured out which books would turn the fastest and easiest profits. Clear Channel bought up all the radio stations and started using bottom lines and internal agendas to decide which songs the public would listen to. And artists took jobs at advertising agencies. Filmmakers created 30-second mini-movies called commercials. Songwriters penned jingles. Writers crafted slogans. And illustrators developed logos.

In a world driven by commerce, art became a commodity. Some artists cried out in protest, claiming that commercialized art was dumbing down the masses. The purpose of commercial art is not to get people to think or feel. It doesn’t care if it changes the world or makes a profound statement about humanity or nature. All it wants to do is get people to buy.

Fine Art vs. Commercial Art

Everything we humans create has some basic purpose. Commercial art exists to make money. Its motivation is revenue. Fine art exists because people need to articulate their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Its motivation is expression.

While the definitions of commercial and fine art are pretty clear, the lines between them are actually so blurry, it can be difficult to tell the difference. If you and I worked our way through the Times bestseller list in an attempt to classify each book as either commercial or artistic, I bet we’d disagree a few times.

So, can we define that gray area that connects yet separates fine and commercial art?

Art, Commerce, and Creative Writing

Sometimes I talk to writers who have wild ideas about the stories they want to tell. Their imaginations are bustling with characters, scenes, and themes that are inspired, unique, and original. But they’ll say, “Nah, it’ll never sell.” And about once a week, I get an email from some college kid who tells me, “I think my story idea will be a bestseller.”

Is One Better Than The Other?

You have to answer that question for yourself. Personally, I love all types of art. I think sometimes the big money makers were genuinely inspired by something other than money. And occasionally, the art that was supposed to make a mint barely turns a dime. The world keeps on spinning.

When Michael Jackson was making Thriller, his goal was to create the biggest selling album of all time. I don’t think anybody’s questioning the artistic integrity of Thriller or Michael Jackson, and he completely surpassed his own ambitions with that record.

On the other hand, J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone when she was at rock bottom. She had nothing left to lose, so she decided to do what she wanted to do and be happy with her art. Nobody could have guessed that Harry Potter would have found success beyond the sub-genre, children’s fantasy. But it became a worldwide phenomenon.

What Motivates You?

Artists like Michael Jackson and J.K. Rowling are highly visible. We all know their stories, their motivations, and how they found success. But there are millions more artists just like them who haven’t gained international fame. Some are vying for commercial success. They want to be stars. Others want to express their visions. They want to share some piece of themselves with the world. All over the planet, they are making their art.

I wonder how many artists have contemplated their motivations. I wonder if you have. Do you give much thought to whether your work will make you rich someday? Do you continue to create because you simply have to? Or are you somewhere in the middle, hoping to be able to find a way for your creative writing to pay the bills while sticking to your vision?

I don’t particularly care whether a piece of art was motivated by love or money. If Michael Jackson’s playing, you’ll find me on the dance floor. And I’ve read every single Harry Potter book. My music, book, and film collections are a healthy mix of big hits and underground or counterculture favorites. When I’m in the audience, it’s not about what motivated the artist. It’s about how the art affects me.

But when I’m sitting at my desk writing a poem or drafting a short story, I care very much about the artist’s motivation.

So, what’s yours?

The web is an enormous resource center, playground, and time suck.

We’ve all been there: You hop on the web to look up a quick fact, check your email, or post an update to one of your (many) social media profiles. But what was supposed to be a two-minute action item stretches into a two-hour adventure as you click through an endless stretch of videos, articles, and Lolcats.

I Can Haz Writing Ideas wit My Cheezburger

Distractions affect everybody but writers are especially susceptible. As we sit crafting our prose, sometimes the muse escapes us and we’re tempted to venture away from our writing to find her again. The strongest among us will be able to resist the alluring pull of the internet’s dazzling distractions. But most of us, in moments of great weakness and in times of desperate procrastination, will succumb to the clicking, often forgetting about the muse completely.

Now, I’m not going to encourage anyone to dawdle. But a little procrastination can be helpful. In fact, I’ve come up with lots of great ideas for blog posts while watching music videos. I’ve concocted story ideas from images I peruse on iStockPhoto. Tweets on Twitter have inspired poems. There is no limit to the writing ideas that can be found while randomly surfing around the internet.

Now, I’m pretty good about restraining from distractions, but when I do succumb, I put procrastination to work for me!

I Made a Stash File

As I navigate around the internet while avoiding inevitable tasks, I come across fascinating stuff — stuff I’d like to use — but later (because, you know, right now I’m working on something, sort of). I used to use my web browser to bookmark interesting sites so I could revisit them later. Eventually, I switched to social bookmarking. I was starring articles in my reader and using StumbleUpon.

Things started getting spread out. If I wanted to go back to an illustration of an alien I saw three months ago or a mesmerizing poem I found a few weeks back, I might have to scroll through all my browser bookmarks, and then log in to three or four different accounts looking for the item of interest. The system wasn’t working for me.

Then I made a stash file.

Sometimes the Simplest Solutions Are the Best

It started with a text file. I found a particular site that I wanted to use as inspiration for a poem, but I didn’t want to lose the URL or forget where I’d stored it. So, I opened my text editor. I copied and pasted the URL along with a quick note to myself and saved the file to my desktop. Later, when I was ready, I knew exactly where to find it.

I started using that same file for other writing ideas that I found online. Then, I decided to expand my stash file. I created a folder on my desktop and moved the text file into it. Now I could save images to the folder. But for some of the images, I wanted to make notes. So I added a Word document to the folder (Word lets you copy and paste images directly to the document).

Now my stash file is bustling with writing ideas. I still use my other bookmarking systems, but for ideas and inspiration, I strictly use my stash file, and I love it. Sure, paper notebooks feel like home, but when you’re collecting ideas in the digital realm, you need a digital way to store them. I mean, who wants to hand-write URLs?

Tips for Stashing Your Collection of Ideas and Inspiration

You’ll need the following:

• A desktop folder containing a text file and an MS Word file
• The ability to copy and paste
• Some time to waste

Over time, I’ve found a few ways to make this little system quite effective. For example, once I use an idea, I can delete it. This keeps the files short and easy to peruse. I’ve also thought about creating a third document that I can label “used ideas.” Then, I can just move stuff to that document and it will be there in case I need to refer back to it later.

My favorite feature in this system is that I can easily search through the material to quickly find what I’m looking for. It doesn’t matter if my documents grow to 10 pages or 100 pages because I use the Find feature. That’s when you hit control-F (command-F for Mac users) and then enter a word or phrase to search for. Within seconds I can find an item that’s buried in a document. Easy as pie.

How Do You Harvest and Store Writing Ideas?

I’m always looking for efficient ways to keep track of all the great writing ideas I come across. How do you do it?

I know some writers are diligent about keeping their journals pristine. The pages are crisp, the lines straight and legible, and every word is thoughtfully selected. The theme is consistent — a dream journal, an idea journal, a diary. It’s an orderly affair done up in a tidy fashion. And that works for some people.

But it doesn’t work for me.

If I’m going to be creative — if I’m going to let my creativity flow — then I need to let things get messy. I need to dig my toes in the mud, bury my fingers in the clay, and splash paint across the walls. I can’t be confined by order or logic. I need to write sideways and upside down. I need to doodle. Jot down song lyrics. Make smudges. I need to be free.

And I’m not the only one.

Keri Smith created Wreck This Journal with the same understanding that when we allow ourselves freedom to make a mess, we also free ourselves to be as creative as possible, unchaining hidden ideas that refuse to come out for fear that they’ll be destroyed by our linear and conventional thinking:

By forcing ourselves to wreck it on purpose, the “journal as an object” loses it’s preciousness, and allows us the feeling of completion.

Wreck This Journal is a great way to get your creativity out of the box. As you work your way through the journal, you actually wreck it. You’ll cut, tear, and generally thrash this book (you’ll even be asked to tie it to a string and drag it around). You start letting go of constraints, allowing yourself to make mistakes, create poorly crafted prose, or senseless art (because you’re going to wreck it), and this gives your creativity the courage it needs to take risks.

Getting Creative with Journal Writing

I haven’t wrecked my own journal (yet), but I don’t play by a set of rules either. I started journaling many years ago and I’ve tried every which way: keeping separate journals and notebooks for different purposes, tracking my life’s events, daily journal writing. I had a dream journal and an art journal. A gratitude journal. None of these stand-alone methods worked for me.

But I didn’t give up. In time, my journal writing became a mish-mash of ideas and themes that lived together on the pages of a single journal. My writing and creativity bloomed. Encouraged by my creative writing instructors, I wrote in circles, used large cursive and teeny tiny print. I sketched in the margins, sometimes on full pages. Anarchy evolved as I became increasingly experimental and let go of my overly tidy journal writing habits.

My journal has become a sacred space for disorder. I know that when I open it, anything goes. I can create with total abandon. And I do.

25 Ways to Journal

I’m not going to ask you to wreck your journal, but if you think it might open your creative floodgates, I say go for it. When we want to be more creative, we have to be willing to try anything. What I am going to do is give you a list of ways that you can use your journal. You’ll find that if you open your journal to more possibilities for material, media, and subject matter, you’ll start to build interesting connections. And that is one sure path to better writing!

Since Writing Forward’s inception, many readers have left comments sharing brilliant ways that they use their journals. Here are some of the ideas they’ve shared mixed in with some of my own:

1. Forget about lines. Turn your journal sideways or upside down. Write in the margins or on the spine. Write in a spiral. Draw a shape and fill it with words. This was one of the first creativity techniques I ever used and it really got the ball rolling.
2. Reader zz, who blogs at Eek.Eke knows a thing or two about wrecking journals: “When I’m feeling particularly uninspired I like to journal melodramatically – it makes me laugh and keeps me going. Otherwise I like to make paper mache bowls out of pages of my worst writing – something about ripping the pages into tiny little pieces is very freeing…”
3. Ever come across mind-blowing imagery in a magazine or online? Print it out, cut it out, and paste in in your journal for inspiration.
4. Reader Gaya commented to share how she uses an art journal. She includes pictures with funny captions and keeps  record of the galleries she attends. You too can write crazy captions for the images you paste (or draw) in your journal.
5. Write with colored pens, crayons, or Sharpies.
6. Paulo Campos commented about how he uses his journal: “A habit I learned while reading about Virginia Woolf: she regularly copied passages she liked from books she was reading into notebooks.” Brad Vertrees also keeps a reading journal where he write his thoughts about the current book he’s reading. And Deb keeps a log of books she’s read in her journal.
7. Write down words. Not sentences — just words — words you like, words that evoke intense emotions or strong imagery or words that simply resonate. Randomly fill the blank spaces in your journal with these words. Write them big, write them small, and write them in all different colors!
8. Make lists. List names and places (make up some place names!). List foods, song titles, and sensations. List nouns or list adjectives. Or simply list random, short thoughts that pop into your head.
9. When Wendi Kelly wakes up with a song stuck in her head, she asks the song, “What do you want?” If you get a song stuck in your head, jot down some of the lyrics and then keep writing to find out what message the song is sending you.
10. Doodle, doodle, doodle, and draw. Or try writing and sketching in your journal with chalk or charcoal. See what happens when you smudge and smear your words. Maybe you’ll make some pictures or abstract art!
11. Use stream of consciousness, also known as freewriting. Rebecca Reid shared her experience: “I kept a journal for about 10 years: it was combination train of thought and ‘diary’ of my day. I think a train of thought journal would be nice now too.”
12. Dreams are a popular source of inspiration, and ideal for journal writing. You can get story ideas, imagery, and bizarre notions from your night visions. Write down your most interesting dreams in your journals. When I mentioned dream journals in another post, Trisha from Marketing Journeys responded, “Journaling my dreams has been on my list for quite a while – you’ve given me a jumpstart and the inspiration to get going!”
13. Use journal writing to engage in dialogues with people who are inaccessible. Write letters or short notes to people you’ve lost touch with, people you’ve broken up with, and people who have passed away. Chat with your characters. Converse with your heroes (dead or alive).
14. Deep Friar told us that his mom (who is very wise) suggested a “Happy Compartment” journal: “When something nice happens, you put it in your ‘Happy Compartment.’ Then, whenever you feel bad, you just open up your Happy Compartment, and relive the happy time and make yourself feel better.”
15. Monika Mundell mentioned in a comment that she keeps gratitude and travel journals. She added, “Come to think about it though, I do have a lovely creative journal from years ago. I used to draw, stick pictures in there and sketch. Loved that thing.”

All-Purpose Journal Writers

As I searched through the comments across this site to find out what readers had shared about their journal writing habits, I discovered that lots of writers already use all-purpose journals creatively and freely:

Cheryl Wright keeps “an all inclusive journal where I record idle and focused thoughts, ramblings about my life issues and life in general and everything else for that matter.”

And Karen Swim has journals “for life, writing, dreams, ideas, notes, and prayers.” She mentioned all of these journals more than once while visiting Writing Forward!

T. Sterling Watson kept a journal that “contained funny quotes I overheard, random ideas for future poems or scripts, doodles, and general thoughts.”

Michele Tune, who writes the cyber highway, commented, “I draw, write poetry, document the day’s events, or whatever I feel like putting on paper. I’ve written in pretty journals, on scratches of paper that I’ve tucked into journals…”

Milena uses her journal to “paste images, cartoons, photos, write stuff, even jot down grocery lists (these can be interesting to come back to sometimes), impressions of any sort or anything that comes to mind and which I fear forgetting.”

That’s what I’m talking about!

Of journal writing, Amy Derby once commented, “Those paper journals of mine are priceless.”

Treasure your journals! Let them them get wrecked up and messed up.

And keep on writing.

Do you have any fun, unusual, messy, or liberating journal writing tips to share? Interested in trying any of the ones listed here? Share your thoughts and ideas by leaving a comment.

Journal Writing Resources:

Wreck This Journal
What Should I Write in My Journal?
Seven Different Types of Journal Writing

If so, then learning poetry terms will help you identify the techniques you’re using and put a name to them.

Today, I’d like to talk about enjambment. It’s not a term you hear often, and I am going to guess that there are a lot of writers (and poets) out there who have never heard of it. And a few who’ve heard the term but don’t know what it means.

At first glance, enjambment looks like a device that would only be useful in poetry, but I found that it has other applications as well.

Enjambment

In traditional poems, the end of a complete thought or idea usually coincides with the end of a line. But what happens when you break the line in an unexpected place? And how does a poet make decisions about where to place a line break?

As it turns out, this practice is called enjambment. Here’s how Wikipedia defines it:

Enjambment is the breaking of a syntactic unit (a phrase, clause, or sentence) by the end of a line or between two verses. It is to be contrasted with end-stopping, where each linguistic unit corresponds with a single line, and caesura, in which the linguistic unit ends mid-line. The term is directly borrowed from the French enjambement, meaning “straddling” or “bestriding.”

You can identify end-stopping because the lines will have commas, periods, colons, or semicolons (or some other terminal punctuation marks) at their endpoints — or — the lines could have these punctuation marks and would still read the same.

Enjambment, on the other hand, is when you break up your lines in unexpected ways. This is a bit more interesting because it requires putting some thought into where to put the line breaks.

In the following example from Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” the first line is end-stopped and the second line is enjambed:

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now….

Note how the second and third line are connected by a single action: “I call / That piece a wonder…” By placing “I call” at the end of the second line, the reader is nudged a little more forcefully to the third line. It also inspires some thought, a brief moment in which the reader will consider and question: I call? I call what? What does this poet call? Whom does the poet call? Where is this going? By rousing curiosity, even if for just an instant, the poet lures us onward through the rest of the poem.

Here’s an example of enjambment from Keats’ poem “Endymion.” Note where the lines break off:

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and asleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Note in particular “…will still keep / A bower quiet for us, and asleep…” Here, you can see that enjambment keeps the meaning flowing to the following line while creating an opportunity to rhyme keep and asleep.

Here are some other effects that enjambment can have:

• Cause the reader to feel uncomfortable or anxious (if enjambment is used to evoke urgency or disorder)
• Surprise the reader by taking an unexpected twist (set up expectation on first line, surprise in second line)
• Imbue a poem with a stream-of-consciousness sensibility

Applications

I frequently use enjambment in my own poetry. Doing so (for many years) has made me think about where lines end in other types of writing. In fact, I’ve used enjambment so much that I’m constantly aware of line breaks and their implications. This has come in handy when I’m working on copywriting projects for my clients.

For example, I’ve been hired to write web advertisements. They are usually short — just two lines of text with about five or six words on each line. Applying a technique like enjambment allows me to write an ad that breaks off in just the right place. I’ve also used this technique in creating taglines and other short blurbs, often telling my clients “Be sure to always break this phrase into two lines!”

That’s enjambment. Have you used enjambment in your writing? Just in poetry writing? Have any other poetry terms made their way into your prose? Are there any other poetry terms you’d like to learn more about?

Keep on writing!

What, exactly, is an autobiography?

The Autobiography

The terms for autobiography and memoir are often used interchangeably and with good reason. They are similar in concept. However, an autobiography is generally an account of the writer’s life whereas a memoir has a narrower focus. Memoirs often cover a specific time period or experience, and often emphasize the writer’s inner life (thoughts, ideas, and emotions) whereas an autobiography emphasizes the exterior (experiences).

What’s a Biography?

It’s worthwhile to note that biography (as opposed to an autobiography) is written by someone other than the subject of the book. In short, if you write the story of your own life, it’s an autobiography. If you write the story of someone else’s life, it’s a biography.

How to remember this? Have you seen the Biography Channel? They do biographies – not on themselves, but on others (on famous people, actually).

History of Autobiographies

According to Wikipedia, “The word autobiography was first used by the poet Robert Southey in 1809 in the English periodical Quarterly Review.”

It would take several volumes to cover the entire history of autobiographies, but there are some that stand out as worth noting.

During the Renaissance, a sculptor and goldsmith named Benvenuty Cellini (1500-1571) wrote one of the earliest known autobiographies. It was called Vita (Life).

Vita is particularly notable because it set forth a standard for autobiographies with its opening lines: “No matter what sort he is, everyone who has to his credit what are or really seem great achievements, if he cares for truth and goodness, ought to write the story of his own life in his own hand; but no one should venture on such a splendid undertaking before he is over forty.”

In recent times, that standard has changed drastically. Today, we often see autobiographies that are written by people under forty. We also often see autobiographies the are written by ghostwriters.

The Book of Margery Kempe is the oldest known autobiography written in the English language. It covers Margery’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land and her trip to Rome. Though written in the 15th century, it was not published until 1936.

Creative Nonfiction Becomes a Claim to Fame

As printing became cheaper, autobiographies became more accessible. The cultural phenomenon of fame and celebrity evolved, and eventually it became expected of celebrities to produce autobiographies. This was the rule for all who were in the public eye – writers, performers, politicians.

Eventually, everyone who was anyone was busily pattering away at a typewriter, deeply immersed in the creative nonfiction of self. It was a good way to cash in on one’s fame (an autobiography might render a fortune) and set in motion the vehicle to grow one’s celebrity by bringing it to a wider audience.

Today, autobiographies serve much the same purpose (as do memoirs). They are often used to help build celebrity branding, to generate income, and even to win elections (an autobiography or memoir is almost essential in many political arenas). While some are truly authored by the celebrity in question, many (if not most) are actually written by ghostwriters, who are hired to craft the manuscript.

Versions and Sub-classes

Autobiographies, like many forms, can be further divided into a number of sub-classes. These include the following:

• Diaries (personal, chronological accounts)
• Political Critiques (especially in totalitarian societies)
• Sensationalist (often scandalous, for public consumption) [Note: These are usually written by ghostwriters.]
• Fictional (this is basically a novel written in first person)
• Memoirs may be considered by some to be a sub-class of autobiographies. Though they are both creative nonfiction and have many similarities, they are actually different forms.

Have you read any interesting autobiographies? Do you dabble in creative nonfiction? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.