Writing From The Heart And Soul
I noticed that there are plenty of writers here, young and old, that simply write with their mind and not with their hearts and souls. For example, I have seen some poems which write that a person feels a certain way but does not expand on how exactly they feel. It is one thing to say that a person is mad or crying but do they feel as if their whole world has just come crashing down on them? Can they feel their soul being squashed in another persons hand? When someone says that the speaker is happy, do they feel as if they had witnessed a miracle. That their heart had just been reborn inside of them as they are seeing things happen?
I do not know whether anyone will follow this but here are some tips I learned when writing. I hope they can help you.
1. Be as detailed as you can. Instead of saying that a person grabbed a thing of pills, describe how the speaker is feeling as they take the bottle in their hands. Are they shaking? Not everyone who is suicidal thinks just of death. Is the speaker afraid? Having second thoughts? Fighting a demon in their mind and body? You don't have to describe what the speaker looks like. Just how they are feeling and thinking to the point that we can emotionally connect to the character.
2. Question! Question! Question! Imagine that you are in the speakers place in a military poem and that your son or daughter had been killed in active duty. Would you be angry at the person who had taken their life? Depressed? You should ask, How would I feel if this were me? It is when you truly start questioning every little thing that you might find that you can write from your heart because you would know exactly how that person feels. This helps with topics too. Instead of writing a poem about having an eating disorder question what it might be like for a mother to watch a daughter starving herself. A friend to know another friends secret. Question how it might feel to meet a stranger who is like that or a stranger watching you.
3. Venting can be poetry! Not every vent has to be, I hate you. Explore why you hate this person and use words that would not only describe why you do not like this so and so but enough to paint us a visual of your emotions. Compare how you are feeling to something in the world that would help us understand things better.
4. Rhymes don't have to be forced. When you force a line in a poem everyone will be able to tell, or at least the people who want to help you the most. The usual way to tell this is by seeing people who use the same basic rhymes without trying new
things. Dictionary.com can help you learn new words and how to use them. Microsoft word has a thesaurus.
5. Take constructive criticism. It might hurt at first to hear that you are not as great a poet as people might have been telling you but when you receive a comment telling you how to improve, you are just getting help from someone who might see you as talented but not the type of person who thought they could do better.
So if you like these tips then please follow them and I hope to read your poems soon.
