Progress and Accomplishment
I write both short stories and poetry and I find that I rarely work on both at the same time. If I haven’t written a new short story in a while I will feel the jones coming on. Within a few days I can’t stop turning my laptop on to write. If I’m at work or in the waiting room at the doctor’s office I have a notebook and a pen. The itch won’t be scratched until I’ve pounded out three or four new short stories. After all that work I’ll feel my energy wane. My desire to write a story has dissipated. So that’s when I get out my poetry notebook.
Poetry can be more satisfying to write in the short term because the sense of accomplishment comes so much sooner. A story may take weeks if it’s a long one and it fights back. A poem may only be 10-15 lines. If I get an inspiration I can feel that desired swell of completion in five minutes. The more involved poems can become like stories though. I wrote a ten page poem for a book project that took me weeks to get right. It wasn’t just the length; it was the tone and language. A poem that long has to draw the reader in and make them want to pull up a chair to sit a spell. At the other extreme a few years ago when I still had my cat Phantom, I had to sit in the vet’s waiting area for 45 minutes while he had a fluids treatment. For some reason I was inspired that day and in the midst of people talking, the phone ringing, dogs barking and cats crying, I wrote 5 poems. My feeling of accomplishment that day was sky high.
I don’t know why but I don’t too often write in both disciplines at the same time. I’m usually in a story mood or a poem mood. The humor will usually last for a few weeks before I switch to the other.
I admit that recently I have been working on both at the same time, probably because most of what I’ve written was for a specific project with a looming deadline. There have been days where I’ll work on a story for a few hours, and then before I go to bed, I shut off the laptop, open my poetry notebook, throw the switch in my brain’s control room and try to find poetic inspiration before falling asleep. A poem is nice that way for me, to work on before bed. If I can only find a line or two that’s acceptable before turning out the light, I still feel progress has been made.
In the past six weeks I’ve written 3 short stories and around 3 dozen poems which is about the most prolific I’ve ever been in a short spurt.
Poetry can be more satisfying to write in the short term because the sense of accomplishment comes so much sooner. A story may take weeks if it’s a long one and it fights back. A poem may only be 10-15 lines. If I get an inspiration I can feel that desired swell of completion in five minutes. The more involved poems can become like stories though. I wrote a ten page poem for a book project that took me weeks to get right. It wasn’t just the length; it was the tone and language. A poem that long has to draw the reader in and make them want to pull up a chair to sit a spell. At the other extreme a few years ago when I still had my cat Phantom, I had to sit in the vet’s waiting area for 45 minutes while he had a fluids treatment. For some reason I was inspired that day and in the midst of people talking, the phone ringing, dogs barking and cats crying, I wrote 5 poems. My feeling of accomplishment that day was sky high.
I don’t know why but I don’t too often write in both disciplines at the same time. I’m usually in a story mood or a poem mood. The humor will usually last for a few weeks before I switch to the other.
I admit that recently I have been working on both at the same time, probably because most of what I’ve written was for a specific project with a looming deadline. There have been days where I’ll work on a story for a few hours, and then before I go to bed, I shut off the laptop, open my poetry notebook, throw the switch in my brain’s control room and try to find poetic inspiration before falling asleep. A poem is nice that way for me, to work on before bed. If I can only find a line or two that’s acceptable before turning out the light, I still feel progress has been made.
In the past six weeks I’ve written 3 short stories and around 3 dozen poems which is about the most prolific I’ve ever been in a short spurt.
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