The more I think about what works for poetry the more connections I see between poetry and prose. This is especially so since writing my crime fiction novel when I learned the hard lessons that less is more and your reader is everything. This puts me in mind of Basil Bunting’s often quoted advice to young poets (or in my case – not so young poet)…
- I SUGGEST
1. Compose aloud; poetry is a sound.
2. Vary rhythm enough to stir the emotion you want but not so as to lose impetus.
3. Use spoken words and syntax.
4. Fear adjectives; they bleed nouns. Hate the passive.
5. Jettison ornament gaily but keep shape
Put your poem away till you forget it, then:
6. Cut out every word you dare.
7. Do it again a week later, and again.
Never explain – your reader is as smart as you.
Everything he says can equally be applied to prose and even more so, in the case of 6 and 7, the short story where less is definitely more!
The advice might appear simple – if so it’s deceptive in its brevity. My advice is test your own poem, story or novel against it , especially if you’re thinking of entering a short story or poetry competition, and if you’re not and you’re writing then you should be! It’s important to get your work out there and I know how satisfying it can be, not necessarily to win, but to appear on a long or short list or get acceptance for publication. Here is a good link at Winning Words for exploring some of the currrent opportunities out there and Good Luck!
PS Many thanks to all who’ve downloaded BLOOD TIDE and to the INDIE E BOOK REVIEW for its great review …watch this space for some FREE offers coming soon
Your garden is looking lovely – especially like the dark tulips.
GW
Great advice – especially ‘fear adjectives.’ That made me smile because I’m always deleting adjectives when I’m editing. Lovely garden by the way. Especially the dark purple tulips. Love Ange x
Thanks Gillian and Ange – afraid my tulips are getting close to the end now but I have really enjoyed them and thanks to Wilkinson’s where I bought the bulbs at a very reasonable price.
Your garden is looking so fine and springlike and your advice is as sound and inspired as ever. Am enjoying Blood Tide on Kindle.. like many others, I am sure. Good luck with Danny Beck wx
Thanks Wendy – I am getting some great feedback on Danny Beck which is, as we know, what every writer needs!
A x
I like Basil Bunting. I’ve long regarded him as underrated, and the minimalistic has it’s place. Yet I don’t entirely agree with his suggestions. In particular, I think adjectives — and adverbs — both of which can certainly be overused and misused, especially in the hands of the tyro, are too frequently maligned, and I’ve often cited in support of this argument (which I’ve made before) the following, from one of my all-time favorite poems, a poem George Orwell regarded as “the best poem in the English language”:
Divest that unforgettable ending of its adjectives and you’re left with this:
Brutal.
Or:
“I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows.”
“I know a bank whereon the thyme blows.”
Or:
“The multitudinous seas incarnadine.”
“The seas.”
I hate to say it, but the often cited rule of expunging adjectives runs into the usual difficulties of making generalizations stick: this one doesn’t stick. It’s case-by-case, I think, poem-by-poem, passage-by-passage, because it’s all so contextual.
None of which is meant to come off as overly argumentative or hyper-critical, and I hope I haven’t. Actually, I’m very interested in this subject — the differences (if any) between poetry and prose — and have written about it as well:
http://journalpulp.com/2011/09/10/what-is-poetry/
Hope you’re having a gorgeous spring, Avril Joy.
Hi Ray, good to hear from you – I think you make some excellent points with some great examples of which I can’t and wouldn’t want to deny the truth. Rules never really work do they – they are there to be broken and generalisations are just that! I think what Bunting does – is warn us of the dangers. I think the lesson has to be absorbed and then to some extent forgotten – the right adjective in the right place as you demonstrate is what really matters.
Will be checking out your piece on poetry – hope you too are having a gorgeous spring Ray Harvey.