Blog # 5

Well, here it is, my final blog entry for this course. I have chosen a few sites that have been helpful and eye opening to leave you with.

http://www.recources4poets:homestead.com/articleswriting.html
Resource for Poets: Articles on Writing Poetry

The above resource was one of our resources provided by Dr. Reid, but I really enjoyed the article, "A Cool Dark Guinness and Something About Adverbs" by Alex Keegan. I had mentioned this article in an earlier blog, but after my second draft comments, I found myself going back to this article. The article is light hearted and amusing, but it teaches the lesson that less is more. Don't kill your work with adjectives and adverbs. When I first read Keegan's article, I thought, "Wow, that 's good stuff that I need to remember." Well, I easily forgot it when I began writing my poetry assignments. I am a poetry novice and I quickly sank into the sand pit of over modifying. This site helped pick me up and remind me to show and not tell.

http://www.mayoreview.blogspot.com/2007/11/mayo-review-welcome/html
The Mayo Review

I have chosen to use the Mayo Review for my first poetry submission. I have never published anything before, so I believe that this site (recommended by Dr. Reid) will be a great place to start. The site publishes work by Commerce students and the community and is the English department's journal. I don't feel that I am accomplished enough to burn a bridge at a well known publishing site or company by submitting juvenile writing. I love that this site provides an easy to follow submission process, which really won me over in deciding to submit my work to The Mayo Review.

http://www.barbaradawsonsmith.com/showdon
T Is For Telling Truth

In this article, Barbara Dawson Smith does an excellent job of showing and not telling the reader how to show their work instead of thinly telling the story. After, repeated remarks by a few fellow students and Dr. Reid, I decided that I must not understand the meaning of showing what is happening in my poems. When I read my poems, I thought, "I explained everything. What's not to get?" After I read Smith's essay, I got it. She asks the reader to imagine that he/she is in a dark theatre. The sound to the movie comes on, but there is nothing appearing on the screen. The audience impatiently waits for the technician to solve the issue, and as the situation remains the same, the audience slowly gets up and leaves. Readers want the movie in their head as they read. By telling your poetry or only hearing the audio to the movie, the reader or the audience becomes bored and puts the poem down, or as smith illustrated, leave the theatre. Now that I get it, I hope I can master the skill of showing by tomorrow with no responses left.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/53682/writers_workshop_showing_versus_telling.html?cat=2
Writer's Workshop: Showing Versus Telling

I came across this site prior to the above resource by Barbara Smith. While I don't think this site is as great as the above reference, Jolie O'Dell's "Showing Versus Telling" did guide the way to my awakening that I tell and not show. I have learned to never assume that your reader will know what I mean because I do such a great job of telling and to not assume that the reader will love it as much as I do. O'Dell provides several examples of telling followed by an example of showing. I needed to view as many examples as I could so that my brain would eventually absorb the concept.

O'Dell's Example of Telling:

“Edgar was terrified at the prospect of meeting his decrepit and delusional aunt.”

She then explains ways to show Edgar's feelings:

:To show Edgar’s emotion, the writer must give the critical details that demonstrate the emotion. Is he perspiring? Are his hands trembling? Is his mind racing haphazardly from one illogical, hysterical thought to the next? "

The above question strategy will help me in my final drafts.

http://www.thesaurus.reference.com/
Online Thesaurus

There are many more sites that have helped me in writing poetry, but I thought that I would conclude with the thesaurus. I have never really used the thesaurus before. I have always racked my brain for a word, but after realizing my telling and not showing issue, I have decided that it is necessary to use a strong noun, verb, adjective, or adverb rather than listing meaningless words. With that said, this online thesaurus has a link to an encyclopedia and dictionary that is easily navigated through. Just type in a word, and synonyms are given. The dictionary helps to pick the best synonym for what is trying to be expressed, which is something I will try.