Tips for Writing Poetry

Writing poetry can frustrate or reward beyond words.

Here are a few poetry-writing tips that may help you find the reward. Any writing, including poetry, can be enhanced with a powerful writing tool like WhiteSmoke. The combined grammar checker, spell checker, punctuation checker, text enrichment, backed up by an extensive dictionary-thesaurus and hundred's of letter templates, will give you consistent and professional results.

-    First, read examples of and learn about the poetic form you wish to write. There is no single poem writing rule. Many want to know how to write a love poem, lyric poetry, a poem about writing, a haiku poem, a narrative poem. Each has its own writing style. Some poetry is written in forms, each form having its own rules. Some poetry is free verse, which either creates its own set of unique rules for that poem or has no rules. Concrete poems draw pictures with the words as they are arranged on a page. So, read poems and learn from them what you'd like to write.

-    WhiteSmoke English Writing Software provides useful help writing poetry. No matter what, when writing a poem the English you use should be creative language that is very clear. WhiteSmoke can help you when you are writing poetry with its synonym finder. Its English language enhancement features suggests adjectives and adverbs that will cause your language to sparkle. While not exactly a poetry writing lesson, WhiteSmoke writing software improves your creative writing beyond measure.

Whether you're writing poetry in order to publish a poem, for a poetry writing assignment, or to enter a poetry writing contest, WhiteSmoke will help you in writing your poems.

-    Use excited and exciting language. Pay attention to sound, rhythm, thought. Disrupt the obvious. Robert Duncan said something like this: Poetry language is so excited, it becomes multiple of meaning.

-    Do you want to know how to write a love poem? Pour your heart out while writing the poem, describe a beautiful setting where you and your beloved spent time together, let the words dance with your lover. But make sure that the language is fresh, with WhiteSmoke synonyms. Make sure you words mean what you mean, with the WhiteSmoke dictionary. Let WhiteSmoke suggest descriptive language with its enhancement features. And make sure your beloved knows how smart you are, by using correct grammar and spelling with WhiteSmoke grammar check and spelling check software. If you want to publish a poem, you definitely want it to have correct grammar and spelling.

-    Focus on small, specific observations and avoid broad, general topics (such as "love," "war," or "religion"). Let the broad, general themes emerge from the specific and detailed observances of everyday life and events.

-    Use sensory details--sound, sight, smell, touch, taste--and be specific.

-    Explore new possibilities, and don't use clichés and other tired phrases. Ezra Pound said, "Make it new."

-    It's always useful to get help writing poetry from an experienced writer. Use WhiteSmoke English writing software to correct your errors before taking your poem to someone teaching poetry writing. You may want help learning how to write rhyming poetry, writing a concrete poem, or just someone to help you learn how to write a good poem. You don't want that person to think you can't write at all, though! So use WhiteSmoke grammar and spell check software before you go get that help.

-      Keep a journal where you can jot down words, thoughts, images as they occur to you. Gather them later into a "found" poem of your own words.

-    Reading and writing poetry can be very fulfilling activities by themselves. The best poetry writing tip, though, is to read poetry in order to write a good poem. Read the type of poetry you want to write: love poem, narrative poem, Valentine poem, Haiku poem, lyric poem, or a concrete poem.

-    Use your journal to write about the reading you do. Don't just respond to the content, but notice how the poem is written, how it looks on the page, how it sounds read out loud. Respond by writing a similar poem to one you love or a better poem than one you hate. Use the journal for reading and writing.

WhiteSmoke English writing software can't promise that you will win a poetry contest or publish a poetry book, but if you use it while writing poems, you might find your writing of poetry to be much more rewarding than frustrating! Let WhiteSmoke help you with your creative writing now.