How to write a poem in 5 easy steps

Writing poetry is both really hard and really easy. If you want to write poetry, go with your gut feeling. Writing great poetry, though, is very very hard. If you want to write GREAT poetry, you need to read and study a lot of poetry. If you are a ‘NEW” poet or just feeling unsure about your writing or poetry, please check out my article on “How to be a Poet.” It might answer other general questions about poets and their relationship to the world. Here are the steps I go through to write a poem. I’ve been writing poetry for over 30 years; again, see this article for more information on me and my writing.

I believe 100% that writing poetry is about going by feeling, reading, and learning. It’s personal. There is no RIGHT WAY to write a poem, so please take what I’m saying as friendly reassurance or a breakdown of my process. Everyone’s process can be different. The following steps will get you to a finished poem.  

1 Get inspired

I get inspired by anything in one of my writing seasons (it can be any time of year). If I get stuck or need help, I do one of 2 things. 1. I go to a place that is bustling with activity. I love train stations and coffeehouses. 2. I read poems I love. When I’m heavily writing, I’ll carry ten or more books of poetry with me and just randomly read out of them. 

2. Get it down on paper.

So to write a poem, start writing. Don’t worry about punctuation or line breaks or anything like that. Just get it down on paper. Whatever you feel is essential, whatever words you are trying to say, get it down on paper. I always try to start with an image. I use that image throughout the poem. 

3. Break the lines first.

After finishing the paragraph or poem, break up the lines. You can write it as prose if you want to start that way. 

Every line in a poem holds its meaning. For example, William Carpenters’ poem “Girl Writing a Letter” starts with the line. 

A thief drives to the museum in his black van. The night

In this line, Carpenter makes his black van the night. The poem contains magical realism, where a girl in a painting comes to life, and the poem’s first line represents this by making the thief’s van into the night. Notice you can read the line to have different meanings. In prose following the punctuation, we’d never infer the van being the night, but because of the line break, we get more meaning. 

So break your lines to get the most meaning. If you can make a line mean more by breaking it into one word, do that. There is a lot more to this, but this is a start. Just break the lines in places that both sound and feel right, and that adds meaning. 

4. Punctuation Add in your punctuation

You can decide how you want to use punctuation in your poetry. You can avoid it. You can write it like regular sentences and use it for inflections. Whatever you decide, stay consistent. Punctuation is crucial in poetry. It can have all kinds of meanings. I won’t get deep into punctuation here, but as you divide up lines and create pauses pay attention to clauses and pauses. How you read poetry sounds is as important as how it is written on the page. 

5. Edits

At this point, you have all the pieces in place. Go through your poem over and over. Read it again and again. Read it out loud. Does it sound the way you want it to sound? Craft the meaning. It means you may change words, look for synonyms and create parallels. All of these things can happen in edits. Poetry is sculpting. In sculpting, you get the general outline, and then you do the hard work of the details. Poetry works the same. Start vague and work your way into the details. You can think of finding it as a relic in the desert. First, you break off the big chunks of dirt. Then you want to remove smaller pieces softly, and then you want to get out the delicate tools, the tiny brush, and pick and gently brush the dirt off. 

These are the five basic steps you need to write a poem. Everyone has a different process, but these steps will get you to a finished product. Reading and studying is the difference between creating a poem and creating a “great” poem. Write a lot and read a lot of poetry. That’s always the best advice. 

If you are writing poetry and want some reassurance or confirmation of poetry today, please read How to be a Poet. I hope this article helped. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments below. 

How to Write a Book in 2023

In 2023 you have many options and a lot of help to write your book. Here are some steps that will help you. Please take these steps as suggestions. It’s a road map to understanding the process of writing books today. There are many things to consider. I hope it helps.

Step 1: Brainstorm

 If you are writing a book, you probably already know what it will be about, but brainstorming is still essential. If you need help brainstorming ideas, here are some suggestions. 

1. Check the news and change the endings of the news story. Get 10 exciting news stories. Read the story, and then change the end to something outrageous. This process is great for generating ideas. 
2. Writing prompts. Find writing prompts on the web. We have some here. Remember, you can change the prompt to whatever you want. 
3. Go places with lots of people, like hotel lobbies, train stations, bus stations, and parks. It helps a lot if you are not used to going into that environment. Listen into people’s conversations and imagine them in a story. 
4. Dreams are a great place to get ideas. 
5. Use the web for ideas. 

Step 2: Prewriting 

This step is much longer than it used to be. I’m going to make a list of essential prewriting questions, and then I’m going to answer them. 

1. What Point of view should I use in my story?
2. Who will my audience be?
3. Who will be the narrator?
4. Why is the story important?
5. Do I need world-building?
6. Am I going to use storyboards or visual help?

Is Software cheating? 

1. Will I use software to help me organize?
2. Will I use software to help me write it?
3. Will I use software to help me edit?

What POV should I write?

Point of view is one of the most important questions you will ask yourself in prewriting. I once wrote about 100 pages and realized the story didn’t work in the POV I was writing it in. I had to start all over. Nothing will kill a project quicker than learning the POV does not work. So think it through. Do you want to know what one character is thinking? Remember to avoid head-hopping. Readers and publishers dislike bouncing from one person’s thoughts to another. It would be best if you asked whether this POV will work over and over in your prewriting. 

Who will the audience be?

Some writers think this is a taboo question. It’s NOT. You don’t have to know people from august 25-48 who are female will love your work. You don’t have to know that, but you should know, are you writing to middle schoolers? Is this appropriate for 5th graders? What generation of people will understand what I am saying best? You are responsible in your craft, and knowing and respecting your reader is essential. 

Who is the narrator?

Yes, even 3rd person omniscient narrators should be defined, at least in your head. You make the rules whatever you want in your writing, but you must follow them. As a writer rules, you don’t have to follow anyone else’s rules, but you have to have them, and you have to follow them, or the reader will walk away. So you need to know your voice. 

Why is this story important?

Dumb question? Go ahead and spend months writing 300 pages and then realize the critical part of your character’s life takes place after this story. Every story needs a reason to be told, so know why this character comes of age; this character changes in this way; this is important in this character’s life because of what change? Make sure you have a good reason for writing the story. 

Do you need world-building?

World-building these days is all the rage. If you are writing science fiction or fantasy, building the place where your characters will be living is essential. There are many tools for this online. Pinterest is one of the most loved for collecting photos of strange worlds and aliens on which you can base your settings and characters. You go out on the web, find incredible art and sketches, aliens and such, and then pin the pictures that most influence your imagination. You are not a thief. The idea is to use already created artwork to influence your creations. World-building can be a blast. Be careful not to stall here. Many creative writers get sidetracked and spend all their time creating their place and characters but never writing the story. 

Is using software to write cheating?

We are all faced with this question. Hollywood has been using software to formulate their scripts for years, and there have been many arguments in writing communities about this issue. It’s becoming much more accepted. Software options range from giving you a little help to thoroughly organizing and formulating your story to now with Artificial Intelligence even writing parts of the work for you. 

I’m not going to state my opinion here. Some writers love software, help other writers hate it and think it is cheating. It’s a personal choice. If you want to write a novel instructing AI or with a pen and paper on napkins, that is your choice. It’s your art, and you should do what you are comfortable with, but you should understand the opinions. It would be best if you also thought about this before you begin writing. 

Word Processing

There are some fundamental and popular programs for Word Processing. These programs have basic grammar checks and spell checks. The 2 most popular, of course, is Word and Google Docs. I like google docs cus you can organize your work in very versatile ways, but it’s your choice. The most significant decision here is where you will have access to it. Both now offer online access, DO NOT use a local install of Word to write your novel. 1. You want to access it from anywhere, phone, computer, or tablet. You also want the online account to be your backup. If your computer burns up and holds the only copy of your 500-page novel, you may give up on writing. So make sure it’s a fluid online platform that brings life to your work. 

Help with Outlining and organizing.

I will be writing another article about novel writing software sometime in the future, and I will link it. There are very versatile programs like Fictionary, Scrivener, and Atticus. These programs will create a skeleton of an outline for you at the push of a button. They will design character arches and set goals for your progress. The software also links your world-building reference pictures to your chapters. If you want pictures of all the people and places in the chapter, you connect them. They do much more than this, but they DO NOT write the novel for you. They help you with structure and organization. They are very well accepted among writers today.

Help with writing

We are at the dawn of a new world. Most writers say using AI is cheating, but this is your choice. Several software programs emerging right now can write your book for you. Everyone has heard of ChatGPT 3. You can’t use this in your book right now. Its writing is copyrighted, so don’t do that. But it does show us where things in writing are going. A couple of software programs right now you can buy and use are Jasper and CopyAI. Jasper is the most advance of the two, and it will write paragraphs and sections for you.  It is less advanced than ChatGPT3, but it will create the copy. Before you start writing, ask yourself if you are ok with having a virtual assistant that will write for you. 

Step 3: Outline for the planner

For you planners out there, you should lay out the draft of your novel in an outline form. It is going to save you a lot of time. You can do this on paper, but these days I recommend you use a chapter layout setting in Google docs. I recommend organizing software like Scrivener. The software works wonders at laying out novels, and it’s not very expensive. 

Doing it yourself or organizing with software doesn’t matter; ensure you have a fleshed-out plan before you begin. You don’t have to know everything. No, you don’t have to know the ending; you need a good start. Flesh it out, then start writing. It will save you in the end. 

or 

Step 3: Outlining for the panderer 

Oddly in my writing life, I’ve been both a panderer and a planner. Some people want to sit down and write. For a short story, that’s fine, but for a novel, at some point, you have to devise a plan and a way to organize and remember everything. I still recommend software, but if you are a purist, Write the first 2 chapters and start planning. It doesn’t have to be detailed. Just plan enough to know you will not have to double back on yourself. Everyone has their process. There is no right way, so whatever notes or napkins or whatever you want to do for reminders and support, do it. 

Step 4: Writing

1. Write every day. Writing a novel is hard. It takes a lot of work a persistence. 
2. Find a place to write where you feel comfortable, and that inspires you. 
3. Limit your exposure to things that may affect your writing. Whatever it is you have to do to write, do it. 
4. Set a celebration for the ending of your novel. When you finish, you will drink a bottle of champagne or go out to eat or have milkshakes, whatever you feel will motivate you. 
5. Set goals and stick to them. Have an everyday word goal, and have an every weekly word goal and stick to it! 
6. Set time for writing and make it a habit. 
7. Keep writing, and don’t stop.

A lot of people set out to write a novel and fail. They fail because they stop writing or don’t give themselves time. It’s hard to stay inspired for an extended time, so write like the devil to finish your work before your inspiration falters. 

Step 5 Editing

Yes, this is part of writing your book. I include this because people think producing a book is about getting words on the page and finishing the story. The editing is just about as much work. 

1. Edit as you go. 

The first thing is you should edit as you go. Edit each chapter when you finish each section. Don’t just write and then expect to go back and edit. You need a clean copy of your novel to submit it. You will do much more editing if it is accepted for publication, but you want to show people and edit the book. Tips: 

2. Use an editing software AI tool like Grammarly. 

Ok, if you are a purist, you may bulk at this idea, and I didn’t like the idea of using a program like Grammarly, but it’s like a digital associate editor. It does make suggestions. You can ignore them. Using a digital assistant is a great help. It will catch mistakes that you do not. 

3 Hirer, an editor

I understand that sometimes this is out of the price range of some writers. That’s ok, these are all suggestions, but I suggest you look for an editor. They may be cheaper than you think. Do not pay for content edits. You want a clean copy so that a copy editor will do. Do YOUR RESEARCH! Check with multiple editors to compare costs. People cheat writers every day. If you can find an editor you can afford, it will help. 

4. Alpha and Beta readers. 

Alpha readers are people who read your copy first. They give you feedback, reactions, and suggestions. Alpha readers, a great deal of help. 

5. Beta readers

You may have heard of beta readers. There are communities of them on the web. Twitter houses a portion of them and Facebook. These readers will give you content feedback, which is essential. Did they understand the plot and characters? Are the themes clear? What could be changed to make the conflict better? Beta readers are like gold on the internet, and many people are willing to do it for free or trade. Seek them out. 

So here are some steps and ideas for writing your first book. The steps and ideas apply to nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and whatever book you write. It is the first stage of bringing your writings to the masses. All of this is challenging. Many people give up before they finish. My advice does not to give up. Do not stop. If you fail the first time, try again. Keep going. Keep writing. Good luck. 

Please let us know if we can help. Leave us a comment below, and help us out by joining our mailing list. You’ll get writing tips, markets, and much more.

How to become a writer: It’s all in the Writing

The question of how to become a writer seems simple when you hear someone ask it. The answer some wisecracker immediately spits out is, write! Like the person asking the question has no idea there is a connection between written words and being a writer. Seems like that answers the question, and most people walk away, but in truth, many writers struggle with this. It’s haunting to aspire to something so nebulous. How do you know when you’ve become a writer?

The Groups

There are 2 groups of writers in the world. The first group is full of writers who started writing at such a young age the question of how to become a writer never occurred to them. I’m in this category. I started writing in the 3rd grade, and I just knew. I never asked if I was a writer. I only asked what I could do to be successful at it. I admired Hemmingway, loved Frost, and was astounded by Raymond Carver, but though I idolized them in ways, I knew I didn’t have to rise to their level to achieve the title of writer. You don’t have to be a GREAT writer to be a writer. You just have to love and be drawn to it. The first group of writers never asks how to become a writer because it simply never occurs to them.

The second group of writers is sidetracked artists. They didn’t find writing when they were young, so they are not called to it before they are old enough to know any better. This group struggles with giving themselves permission to be a writer. The worry they are not as good as their peers. Of course, this isn’t always the case, but for some of these writers, the word writer is so important it couldn’t possibly apply to them. They are not concerned with being “great”; they just want the right to call themselves writers. The truth is, anyone has that right.

I’ll say this before I go any further. If you feel a draw toward writing, if you want to create something out of words and feel something inside you pushing you to do it, you’re a writer, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you are drawn to writing, you’re a writer even if you never right anything.

A state of mind

Yeah, I’m a little metaphysical when it comes to writers, and yes, it is my calling. On top of that, I know the writing tunes in from a different place, muses, like the Greeks of old said. So if you are called to writing, and the ideas and inspiration are coming from someone else, you’re a writer. You are not a famous writer. You are not a successful writer, but becoming a writer is simple; you admit to yourself that it is calling to you and then just go with it. Of course, writing daily, with your heart and soul and body and blood until it’s an obsession, helps too.

Imposter syndrome

I know writers who have large book deals and have written several books that suffer from Imposter syndrome. People are developing imposter syndrome in every facet of their lives. Mothers don’t feel like moms because other moms on Instagram are doing it better and “for real.”

Writers jumping on Twitter and freaking out about book deals doesn’t make you less of a writer. Just because someone is on their 10th book and you still need to finish your first doesn’t make you less of anything. If you have felt the call, you are a writer, period. Nothing else matters. Let others be. Franza Kafka, widely considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, never wanted his work published. He wanted his works destroyed when he died. Can you imagine? That man was running from his calling like it was a disease. Kafka hid his writing, and if he could have quit writing, he would have. So just think of yourself as being inflicted by writing, and might not worry about the label so much.

Impostor syndrome is an actual condition, and I’m not trying to make light of it. Some people need professional help to get through it. It’s best with this syndrome, as will all things, to let go and just know who you are and go with the feeling. If you feel like you need help, get help.

Advice on how to “become” a writer.

There are a lot of sites on the web that tell you how to do this. They give you lots of steps in becoming a writer. They are all nonsense. There are steps to becoming a successful writer. There are steps to becoming a better writer. There are steps to becoming a published writer, but there are no steps to becoming a writer. If you are here reading this article because you desire to be a writer, some little flame inside calling you to put words down on paper, you’re a writer. It’s that simple, and don’t let anyone make you doubt yourself.

The Writing: Don’t worry about how to become a writer

Now, writing something great, writing something that touches people deep down, writing something that changes the world, that’s an entirely different story. Being a writer is easy. Learning to be great at writing is very very difficult. Writing is hard. It’s that simple, and if you want to be a writer, you are tackling something difficult. Write every day. Write as much as you can, and read writers who inspire you. Seek out communities of artists, writers, and musicians, and tell your story and be unique. Only you, as a writer, know where you are going and what you will achieve. You never know.

The late great Raymond Carver wrote: “Don’t waste time wondering why lightning struck for your friend but not you. Or wishing lightning had hit you instead of someone you consider less talented. Besides sounding like sour grapes, it’s an energy suck. You can’t predict the vagaries of fate any more than you can predict a lightning strike.

Spend your time learning your craft. More writers have become successful because they worked at their craft than because they got lucky.”

Don’t worry about being a writer; just worry about your writing.

On a sidenote, if you want to test out some of your skills, try our Writer’s Playground.