In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Shared Worlds and Poetry
* I thought the novel
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.” JRR Tolkein
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” JRR Tolkein
“[What matters is] who you are and how you treat people, not what you signal.” FarnamStreetBlog.com.
Dean announced in today’s post (linked below) that the Shared Worlds class is still open to anyone who wants to jump in and write for anthologies.
And there was an interesting question in the Kill Zone blog this morning. The writer asks whether anyone reads poetry anymore.
I first made my writing bones as a poet. It’s where I learned the nuances of the language “working easy in harness” (Frost) writing metered lines.
In fact, my Lessons for a Barren Population was the first-ever book-length collection of poetry published as an electronic book (Hardshell Word Factory, 1999).
In that year, the same book was nominated for Book of the Year at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the Fiction category (because they didn’t have a Poetry category). It place but not in the top three. And there are other collections, some nominated for major prizes.
So I certainly hope people still read poetry and that, as an extension, poetry collections still sell.
But I can attest that they do not. Much.
I still write poetry occasionally, but I don’t publish it much. Still, poetry is like any other form—it’s all about story—not that many understand that, even among writers.
Some stories are about one event and are therefore presented as short stories. Some are about many events and can be presented only in my current favorite form: the novel.
But some stories have to be delivered succinctly, precisely, in a way that can only be achieved in a poem. Here’s the last one I wrote:
“A Fiction Writer Ponders His Own Demise”
I have these morbid thoughts, am left to wonder:
Which are real and which are fantasy?
***
There you go. And yes, if you take away the line break, it’s flash fiction.
I thought the novel was going to end yesterday but it kept going. (grin) I’ll be interested to see how it ends. It’s getting close.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Righting the Copy – Advertising Your Work” at https://fourknightspress.com/f/righting-the-copy—advertising-your-work. This originally is issued as a free newsletter. I recommend subscribing.
See “Lots of Fun Reading This Week” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/lots-of-fun-reading-this-week/. You can still sign up for the Shared Worlds class.
See “Does Anyone Read Poetry Anymore?” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/02/does-anyone-read-poetry-anymore.html.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 440 words
Writing of How “Best” Is Defined (novel, tentative title)
Words brought forward……………………………………………… 6997
Day 1…… 5644 words. Total words to date…… 12641
Day 2…… 5799 words. Total words to date…… 18440
Day 3…… 6237 words. Total words to date…… 24677
Day 4…… 5620 words. Total words to date…… 30297
Day 5…… 4877 words. Total words to date…… 35174
Day 6…… 6147 words. Total words to date…… 41321
Total fiction words for February……… 61437
Total fiction words for the year………… 158914
Total nonfiction words for February… 10890
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 36220
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 195134
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 1
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 56
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 215
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
I read David Whytes poetry. Its just about the only poetry I understand.
Thanks for the comment, Kim. That’s what happens when a pompous, pretentious, precious, idiotic “false poet” goes for obscurity rather than clarity. They cost themselves readers. You could understand mine. If you want some of it, email me.
Howard Nemerov once wrote “When a poet sees a rock lying in the road, he’ll write ‘a rock lay in the road.’ A false poet will hoke it up in the translation.”