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“Hand Study” by Liemn is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
This first unit will focus on some of the key elements of poetry. We will explore some common misconceptions about poetry that a lot of beginning writers have. At the end of this unit, you will have completed ten practice writing activities and one polished poem.
We will complete practice writing assignments #1, #4, and #8 in-class.
To Do List
□ Practice writing assignment 1.1: “And Still I Write”
□ Practice writing assignment 1.2: Chain poem
□ Practice writing assignment 1.3: Scar poem
□ Practice writing assignment 1.4: 10 topics
□ Practice writing assignment 1.5: Ugly poem
□ Practice writing assignment 1.6: Inspiration
□ Practice writing assignment 1.7: Inversion
□ Practice writing assignment 1.8: Line breaks
□ Practice writing assignment 1.9: 1st draft
□ Practice writing assignment 1.10: 2nd draft
□ Hand poem assignment 1.11: Final draft
An important note: Most of these initial assignments are designed to get you in the habit of putting pen to paper and to play with words. They are structured in such a way as to be as accessible to you no matter how much experience you have with reading or writing poetry. The key for these first ten days is to jump in with a sense of courage and curiosity.
Time to write, part one
Before we jump into defining poetry and figuring out how to write good poetry, let’s take a second to think about when we are going to write. (Here I’m using the “editorial we,” which really means “you.”) One of the hardest parts about writing is blocking out the time to write. Most of us don’t wake up in the morning and say, “Today’s a good day to write poetry.” We have other things to do. We are distracted by the latest tweetstorm. We want to return to the warmth of our pillows and the embrace of our sheets for just a few minutes more. But figuring out when you will fit your writing in this semester will increase your success. Rather than being reactive, let’s start to build a schedule where you can practice your writing daily.
So, go ahead and sketch out your typical weekly schedule:
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | |
| 6:00 | |||||||
| 8:00 | |||||||
| 10:00 | |||||||
| 12:00 | |||||||
| 2:00 | |||||||
| 4:00 | |||||||
| 6:00 | |||||||
| 8:00 | |||||||
| 10:00 | |||||||
| 12:00 | |||||||
| and later |
If you are like most DC students, this grid is now pretty full. Officially, you are supposed to spend 2 hours outside of class for every credit hour, or 6 hours per typical 3-credit hour class per week. (I know, you can stop snickering now.) What I am asking you is to find five 30-minute chunks, one per day. We will write some in class, so ideally you would pick days we don’t meet. Sometimes you won’t need this whole time; sometimes you might need a little more. What you are aiming for is to build into your schedule time to write before things start to get even more hectic.
What are the five times per week that you can commit to writing