Does anyone else find poetry easier to deal with than novels/stories?

Affable

In terms of creating I mean, not writing. Just that I have mind thats all over the place and find the discipline of novels and trying to convey emotions and perception really difficult, my mind flits ahead to different visions. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a great poet, but I fiind it much more suited to my mind and trying to convey all these intangibl, magical things in a condensed form.
Just wondered if this was anyone elses experiences? Is there such thing as the correct medium that works best for a particular mindest or am I just viewing novels and stories in the wrong way?

Affable

I tend to wish my life away thinking of all these magical things I want to convey, without ever finding the calm to structure them or convey them.

Does anyone else have this problem-the fact that there is a great emotional intensity in them, and things they want to convey, the intent is there, but they cannot find a structured way to do it, and they cannot find mental calm, and they cannot convey what they want? The moment I found something more concrete to convey, I'd lose the emotional intensity. What methods are there to improve getting what you feel down in concrete terms, fidning more structure and productivity?

af_thefragile

I see poems as a very condensed form of literature. Where you leave it upto the reader to explore and interpret the meanings and emotions for themselves.

Whereas novels are where you go on a journey to discover the meanings and emotions yourself. You have the time and space to go into details exploring the different aspects of your story and its characters.

Also in a poem you're usually only dealing with one intimate idea/concept/emotion whereas in a novel you can explore multiple themes.

Anyway, about novels, i don't consider myself a literally genius but i'm working on a novel right now. I haven't actually started writing it yet but for the past month i have been working on developing the story and its characters. Last night i managed to lay down a good structural frame work for my novel. I wrote down the sequence of events that take place in the story from start to finish, the main characters of the story and the themes the story explores. So now that i've got that laid down i've gotta start writing the damn thing.

I guess a lot of time you just need to write and not worry about how good or bad it is. Just write for the sake of writing or as some artists call it write for the waste paper basket. Just let lose all your emotions on the paper. Like automatic writing. Every day write one page of whatever comes to your mind but don't stop writing till you've finished the page or two.
Only through writing can you get better at well writing.

I herd of another artist who used to write songs for big award winning artists. But lately he hadn't managed to write a hit song for a good while and he was getting increasingly frustrated for himself. So he came up with an idea. He placed a book by his bed and he decided the first thing he was gonna do when he wakes up was to write a song. Write anything. Write for the paper basket. But write something in the book. And he started doing that. At first the stuff he wrote was meaningless with no structure or anything. But overtime he started getting better and then when he looked back upon the stuff he wrote, he found a lot of good materials he could use from that and so he finally managed to start writing hit songs again.

Affable

af_thefragile wrote: »

I guess a lot of time you just need to write and not worry about how good or bad it is. Just write for the sake of writing or as some artists call it write for the waste paper basket. Just let lose all your emotions on the paper. Like automatic writing. Every day write one page of whatever comes to your mind but don't stop writing till you've finished the page or two.
Only through writing can you get better at well writing.
.

I can wrtie a framework but following that up any further with patience is tough. What about mental chaos though, and conveying the intangibel, finding calm?

af_thefragile

Affable wrote: »

I can wrtie a framework but following that up any further with patience is tough. What about mental chaos though, and conveying the intangibel, finding calm?

What i do for writing stories/novels is that i first try to figure out the whole story before setting off to write it. Though sometimes i've only got a vague plot and then set off to write the story hoping to develop the story as i advance with the writing, but that doesn't work too well. Having the story, its characters and its events laid down in front of you gives you a good framework to stitch the pieces together in language. Though you say you don't have any problem with frameworks.

Again, guess all i can advise here is to write. Just write not worrying about whether its any good or bad. Just write for the sake of writing. That should be able to bring some order and calm your mental chaos. Writing kinda forces you to think linearly. You can only write about one thing at a time. When you think you start to think about a million things at once. Writing straightens out your thinking into a more coherent train of thought.

Although as romantic it sounds to flush the page with all those thoughts, emotions and images in your head, i guess language doesn't give you the freedom to do that. Its more of something for the artists (painters, musicians etc.). For writing you will have to string out the tangled thoughts and emotions in your mind to interpret them into the linearity of sentences.
Now there are ways of portraying chaos and order in language. Its mostly down to semantics. The words you use, the way you structure your sentences and the verse/paragraph itself. Chaos could be portrayed with small strong words... flash of lightning bolts across the sky, cinders piercing through the air like burning flies. The wind carries along a silent song it sings into the ears of the dead.. Dunno, but like for chaos you could jump from one subject to another, use short sentences with strong words, maintain a loose structure or even no structure.
For order and calm you do the opposite. You maintain a flow between words and sentences. Like you're writing a song, a symphony. Maintain a structure. Go slow, go easy. She stood there between the open sea and the beach. The cool breeze making its way through the tangles of her hair, disturbing it softly. She remembered the first time she felt this tranquility, she knew she loved the sea and it loved her back as its gentle waters washed her feet.
Kinda something like that... Again i'm not a literally genius but well, i hope you get what i'm trying to say here...

Hope that helped you...:o

Affable

af_thefragile wrote: »

What i do for writing stories/novels is that i first try to figure out the whole story before setting off to write it. Though sometimes i've only got a vague plot and then set off to write the story hoping to develop the story as i advance with the writing, but that doesn't work too well. Having the story, its characters and its events laid down in front of you gives you a good framework to stitch the pieces together in language. Though you say you don't have any problem with frameworks.

Again, guess all i can advise here is to write. Just write not worrying about whether its any good or bad. Just write for the sake of writing. That should be able to bring some order and calm your mental chaos. Writing kinda forces you to think linearly. You can only write about one thing at a time. When you think you start to think about a million things at once. Writing straightens out your thinking into a more coherent train of thought.

Although as romantic it sounds to flush the page with all those thoughts, emotions and images in your head, i guess language doesn't give you the freedom to do that. Its more of something for the artists (painters, musicians etc.). For writing you will have to string out the tangled thoughts and emotions in your mind to interpret them into the linearity of sentences.
Now there are ways of portraying chaos and order in language. Its mostly down to semantics. The words you use, the way you structure your sentences and the verse/paragraph itself. Chaos could be portrayed with small strong words... flash of lightning bolts across the sky, cinders piercing through the air like burning flies. The wind carries along a silent song it sings into the ears of the dead.. Dunno, but like for chaos you could jump from one subject to another, use short sentences with strong words, maintain a loose structure or even no structure.
For order and calm you do the opposite. You maintain a flow between words and sentences. Like you're writing a song, a symphony. Maintain a structure. Go slow, go easy. She stood there between the open sea and the beach. The cool breeze making its way through the tangles of her hair, disturbing it softly. She remembered the first time she felt this tranquility, she knew she loved the sea and it loved her back as its gentle waters washed her feet.
Kinda something like that... Again i'm not a literally genius but well, i hope you get what i'm trying to say here...

Hope that helped you...:o

Thanks v much indeed. I'm actualll left with only one quandry. Whcih is how on earth to regulate these meories this intangible beauty I see. It is an inspiration but it becomes a torment trying to express the intangible. It's enjoyable but also frustrating in the extreme.

af_thefragile

Affable wrote: »

Thanks v much indeed. I'm actualll left with only one quandry. Whcih is how on earth to regulate these meories this intangible beauty I see. It is an inspiration but it becomes a torment trying to express the intangible. It's enjoyable but also frustrating in the extreme.

Maybe keep a small book/journal with you at all times. Every time you get one of these inspirations you can be ready to try to capture it in words.
Or maybe another way to do this is to have you little book of inspirations...
Every night you could go over all these inspirations you had over the day and write them down in your book.

Basically the more you write, the better you'll get.

And then realise you don't have to capture all these amazing thoughts you get. Some just need to be left floating in space. Cherish them when you get them and then leave them alone. Maybe someone other day some other time you can meet them again.