It’s really easy to get distracted when writing, especially now that we’re all often working at home. Phone calls, emails and housework all conspire to take away the writing time.
Losing focus while in the middle of writing can seriously damage the quality of your content, The human brain takes around 17 minutes to refocus on a task after a distraction. If you want your writing to be the best quality content possible, you need to get rid of distractions. Billy Collins, the former Poet Laureate of the U.S., suggests sitting with your idea and writing until the complete thought is down,
You can disable notifications on your computer and delay household chores until after writing.If you put your writing first, you get more accomplished and the quality of the content will be better.
During the pandemic I wrote a collection of poetry and had it published. I did this by focusing. Take a look at the book:
So you have just had a poem published in a good journal or even had a book manuscript accepted by a publisher. You feel you have accomplished something, and you should. But now you have to read your poetry to an audience. If you’re published, you need to get your work out into the world. This is not my favorite activity either. I just finished a reading this week with seven other poets, and felt my inadequacies.
Poetry is one of the hardest genres to read aloud. Every poem has its own rhythm, can contain rhyme, and often uses fragments or phrases to form lines. This is drastically different from the complete sentences which we are all used to. Figuring out how to read a line of poetry is unique from interpreting how to read a line of prose. If you don’t read well, you’ll often lose people in your audience.
I do know that people who have done many readings get better at it. It’s a simple act of “practice makes perfect.” I’m on my second collection of poetry and I know that reading your poetry aloud will elicit interest. I’ve had people listen to me read and buy my book. I’ve also read on the radio, and this also elicits interest. My recently published book, Touch My Head Softly, can be viewed here:
If it were fiction, if it did not lacerate the heart to know the truth behind it, Lanette Sweeney’s poetry memoir about losing a child to drugs would only be tragically beautiful. As it is, it is devastating, featuring poetry by her lost son Kyle [Fisher-Hertz] along with her own. Speaking the unspeakable for her own peace, and for the understanding of the rest of us, is Sweeney’s mission. The only thing better than reading these tender, elegiac, broken words would be for her to never have needed to write them.
–Jacquelyn Mitchard, author, The Deep End of the Ocean and 18 other novels.
Have you ever seen a door and wondered what is on the other side?
The idea that you can create by opening a door goes back centuries. A note was found
in a Latin grammar from the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland in approximately 848
that describes an Irish scribe going outside and writing a poem under trees.
You could open a heart door that would enable you to write about things that you love or your favorite things. The door could be an observation door where you record things you carefully observe. A memory door could lead you to memories, good or bad, that you have saved away in the back of your mind. A wonder door could lead you to things you question, or wonder about. A political door could lead you to write about your concerns in the world.
With the pandemic, the world is in lockdown and there are many closed doors.
We all long for the day with those doors will be open again and life will return to normal.
While we are on lockdown, our minds can wander and explore our thoughts, our wants and our imagination.
My new book, Touch My Head Softly, is now out from Finishing Line Press:
Have you ever seen a door and wondered what is on the other side?
The idea that you can create by opening a door goes back centuries. A note was found
in a Latin grammar from the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland in approximately 848
that describes an Irish scribe going outside and writing a poem under trees.
You could open a heart door that would enable you to write about things that you love or your favorite things. The door could be an observation door where you record things you carefully observe. A memory door could lead you to memories, good or bad, that you have saved away in the back of your mind. A wonder door could lead you to things you question, or wonder about. A political door could lead you to write about your concerns in the world.
With the pandemic, the world is in lockdown and there are many closed doors.
We all long for the day with those doors will be open again and life will return to normal.
While we are on lockdown, our minds can wander and explore our thoughts, our wants and our imagination.
My new book, Touch My Head Softly, is now out from Finishing Line Press:
Straw Dog Writers Guild, the largest group of writers in the Pioneer Valley, has featured my new book, Touch My Head Softly, on their Facebook Page. Take a look:
Eileen P. Kennedy Author 