Tag: Writing

HAIKU POETRY–The Style & Simplicity

Writing Haiku

My last post was about black-out poetry, a technique I learned from Austin Kleon’s book “Steal Like An Artist.” Today I’m going to try another technique which I learned from taking a Masterclass with Billy Collins. His suggestion was to take an ordinary everyday item and find inspiration in it. Being a Brit kid from the last century and a big Corrie fan, I chose a teabag.

teabag image by Lynne Collier

Haiku

I’ve been feeling the need for focus lately and what better form of poetry for narrowing down the words to as few as possible than to write a Haiku poem?

Poets over the decades have waffled on the exact rules of writing Haiku. The traditional Japanese Haiku is a three-line poem with a 5/7/5 syllable count, often focusing on images from nature, emphasizing simplicity and clarity of expression.

A modern Haiku poem is not required to, and generally does not, rhyme–although it can at the poet’s discretion. In other words, it’s all up to the writer how they want to approach it.

The set rule of 5/7/5 syllables still needs to be adhered to and spelling needs to be accurate, but all other punctuation and grammar are poetic license (pun intended).

So here’s my Haiku poem from my teabag–

WAXING

Liquid dries and leaves–

A breakfast roll, crescent moon?

–Pacman’s gaping mouth

On days when I can’t focus enough to write, I like to jot down a short poem to help bring me back to concentrate on my work. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I see a particularly interesting dust bunny that could be my next masterpiece.

Til next time, remember you are loved by the One who created you in His image.

~ Lynne

WRITING POETRY: Black-Out Style

Black-Out Style

As I focus more on writing poetry, I’m devouring poems by great writers past and present. I’m currently reading:

Eye of the Beholder by Luci Shaw

Conspiracy of Light by D. S. Martin

Bronte Sisters Poetry by Amazon

This week I also added The Steal Like an Artist Journal by Austin Kleon to my list. He’s a brilliant Creative who astonishes me by his way of encouraging artists of all mediums to delve into artistic bins of untapped ideas and brilliance.

Each page is an exercise to stretch the grey matter to its limits of reality and see things through a different lens. One such exercise is the ‘Black-Out’ approach to writing poetry. An exercise I’ve found most intriguing. I wanted to share my ‘stolen’ discovery with you.

Here’s what he asks of the reader on this particular page:

“Black out one word at a time until you are left with a poem.”

https://amzn.to/3g22f2X

He gives a writing sample to practice on in case you don’t have anything handy but I write mostly Scripture-inspired poetry so I chose to black-out a passage from the book of Revelation.

Revelation 3:15-18, New International Version (NIV)

15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Here are the words that spoke to me–

Deeds   cold   hot

either.

Lukewarm

neither.

Spit out!

Rich   wealth   need.

Realize

wretched   pitiful

poor  

blind   naked.

Gold   refined   in

Fire.

Cover   shameful  

nakedness.

Salve   eyes

See

Even without any revising I think this is a solid start to a good poem.

Have you tried this method? 

Let me know in the comments.

Til next time, know you are loved by the One who created you in His image.

~ Lynne

(A quick word–I’m a Canadian Amazon affiliate so I receive a small fee from Amazon for outbound clicks and purchases which helps me to pay for my website. Thank you 😊)

‘Writing For God’ – a beginner’s guide

You’ve decided you want to write for God but now what? Most writers who feel they want their work to count for God’s kingdom in some way start out with that question. We don’t know how to write for God, what He wants from us, how to write what we feel He’s asking us to write, or how to get that out into the world when we’ve written it. Does it seem like a daunting task to write and publish something and even more so when our main audience is God Himself? I break all of that down in my new book,

Writing For God – a beginner’s guide.

  • Writing for God - a beginner's guide book, front cover showing a blue hydrangea.

The workbook has pages to jot down your thoughts and collect all the information you need as you discover how God created you for this new adventure. You’ll be able to decide what genre suits you best, which format aligns with you as a created individual, your natural talents and spiritual gifts, and how your personality shines through your work.

You’ll also see how you already have the experience you need to start writing now and hone your craft as you build your portfolio.

“God does not call those who are equipped, He equips those whom He has called.” — Smith Wigglesworth

Don’t be fooled into thinking you have nothing original to write about. No one else has had the exact same experiences as you, so anything you write will be unique and from a different perspective. Write from your heart and people will be blessed

Til next time, remember you are created in the image of God who loves you very much.

~ Lynne

Check out my book on Amazon — http://bit.ly/2sPxQA0

Skyrim – Writing Inspiration

Where do you get inspiration for your story’s location? I’m writing a fantasy story for NaNoWriMo this year. I have a broken arm and shoulder so I gave myself a personal goal of only 10,000 words in place of the usual 50,000. This meant I’d be writing a novella (small novel). But I was bereft of ideas for the location to a particular scene until I remembered my son had invited me to play Skyrim with him one night and — ta da — my characters had a home!

Now, understand that when I say “play” I actually mean watch, (haha) and I know as a writer that copyrights are something to be respected for the original creator. With that in mind I joined my son on a Skyrim walkabout to get the feel of the land and take notes for my own fantasy world.

  • Skyrim Whiterun waterfalls
    Skyrim – Whiterun waterfalls
  • Location from Skyrim fantasy game with stone steps alongside a river and waterfalls.
    Skyrim – Whiterun stone steps
  • Skyrim's pool
    Skyrim – Whiterun pool
  • Skyrim Whiterun town centre with a local woman by a large tree surrounded by a circular stream and bridges.
    Skyrim – Whiterun town centre
Images of Skyrim Whiterun

I also took some notes from the landscapes of LOTR and the breathtaking photos by Ray Majoran in Compassion Gallery. His photos from Iceland are spectacular.

Have you found a particular game, movie or real life location an inspiration for your writing? Leave a comment.

Til next time, remember you are loved by the One who made you in His image.

Lynne

Writing A Memoir

We all have a story to tell. Some write a story about a fictitious character or an historical person. Then there are those who write their own story, their autobiography about their own personal experiences, usually in hopes of their story helping someone else in some way. These are the writers of Memoirs and I have a new workbook for you if you’ve ever considered writing your own memoir.

A young woman sitting at a desk writing her memoir.
From Muse To Memoir
by Lynne Collier

Write Your Memoir in 4 Weeks

This is a downloadable/printable workbook (no physical product shipped) filled with easy-to-follow worksheets for writers who want to turn their memories into a published autobiography — in only 4 weeks!

It’s a 49-page PDF workbook that will show you the “From-To Method of Writing” which uses your own social media content to create a digital or print book. But you don’t need to already have a vast amount of online material. You can create that as you write your book and gain followers who will be interested in your book when you’re published!

Here’s a peek at what you’ll work on in From Muse To Memoir:

  • Scheduling time for your writing
  • Brainstorming and defining your book’s outline
  • Creating Social Media ‘Gems’ so you have something to promote online before, during and after your launch.
  • The White Rose Writer’s method of turning your memories into a book.
  • A look at some of the steps you need to take for publishing your book.
  • Guidance on how to create a noticeable author brand so you stand out from the crowd.
  • Marketing Ideas for your new book.
  • Worksheets for each of the above to keep all your ideas in one place.
  • Printable inspirational posters to spur you on …and more!

This is an easy way for you to divide your life experiences into single chapters for a series of ebooks or a collective full-length book spanning your entire life (so far).

If you follow my workbook to write your memoir I’d love to hear about it in the comments. And watch for my other 3 books coming early next month!

My Other Workbooks

Take a browse in White Rose Writers Etsy Shop where you’ll also find my first workbook From Blog To Book which shows you how to expand on your blog posts to write a book in just 10 hours!

Woman writing at her desk
From Blog To Book

And coming soon –

  • From Pin To Print — use your Pinterest boards to write an ebook
  • From Tweet To Tutorial — use Twitter to write a tutorial or workbook
  • From Post To Published — use Facebook to write a novel in 4 weeks! (Nano anyone?) 🙂

Til next time, remember you are loved by the One who created you in His image.

~Lynne