5 More Tips for Writing Poetry

By georgelthomas on 12 Jul 2019 • ( 0 )

Hi everyone, I hope you’re all making the most of your summer. It’s actually looking rather miserable up here in the north of England at the moment – more of a warm autumnal feel than summer.
Anyway – today, I have found myself with some free time (a lovely little rarity) and so I decided to follow up my post ‘5 Tips for Writing Poetry‘ with another.

So here’s ‘5 More Tips for Writing Poetry’.

Keep things Simple
It’s best not to over complicate things when you’re writing poetry. Long flowery sentences full of multi-syllabic words might seem like elegant writing – and it can be, but it can also, sometimes, come across as clunky. Long complicated sentences are not a prerequisite for writing a poem. Simple phrases, ideas and simple sentences are the key to creating relatable and easy to read work.

Avoid Cliches
Something becomes a cliche for a reason – because it’s been done a million times before. You could wax poetic about an ‘azure’ sky for example, but azure skies have been the subject of poems since the dawn of time. If you need to talk about or describe the sky – you know, for those of us who’ve never seen it – then it’s just as well to keep things simple and say ‘blue’ sky. That’s not to say, however, that cliches don’t have their place, the trick is to use them sparingly.

Be Original
Nobody likes a copycat. It’s no good taking someone else’s work, changing a few words and passing it off as your own. Use some brainpower, think about what you want to say with your writing – then write it. Your own original work adds more to the world than a reworked piece that already exists.

Be Creative
Remember, you can write a poem about absolutely anything. It doesn’t have to be about something so profound as life and death – you could write about the shape of the clouds or about what your dog sounds like when he barks. Nothing is off-limits when it comes to creativity. Let your imagination be free to wander, you never know what it could lead to.

Write Poetry Often
As with anything, the more you do something, the better at it you become. Writing poetry is no exception. With practice, you will be able to create better rhymes (if that’s your thing), develop your own individual style and technique, and discover your own tastes.

As always, thanks for reading!

Until next time,

George