Form inspired—Types of poetry

Poetry should flow. It should come from the muses. It should come as naturally as music.

But, like everything else in writing, it will likely take hard work.

As much as we would like poetry to just happen, it requires effort. It needs to be shaped.

Sometimes, you want to write poetry, but the words just arent there.

Find inspiration in the very basics. What form can your poem take? Try something you never have before.

Golden shovel poem. Cascade. Lune. Waka.

There are so many options.

Not sure where to start? Here's a list of options just waiting for you: www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/list-of-50-poetic-forms-for-poets

Change it up—Variety in sentences

No one wants to read the same sentence over and over for two hundred pages.

You don't want just short sentences. You don't want sentences that are a paragraph long. You don't want every sentence to be dialogue with a speech beat. You don't want every sentence to start with "He then…"

You need to change your sentences up to support your plot.

Use short sentences wisely when you want to create a sense of action. Use passive sentences when your character is overwhelmed without any feeling of power. Use dialogue when it helps move the story along.

You might be best at one kind of sentence, but unless you're writing an experimental piece, don't hold yourself to just that. Change it up to support the action of what you're writing.

What you thought you knew

There are some things that you hear so much about that you think you know them well.

What New York and Paris look like. What absinthe is. What being in the movie industry feels like.

You hear so much about these things, particularly if they interest you, that you think you know exactly what they are. You feel confident writing about them.

Well, there's a chance that you don't really know them. You just know the tropes and the prejudices about these things.

If you want them to appear authentic on your pages and avoid people calling you out for erring too far on the side of fiction, make sure that you research your subjects beyond just the casual encounters in media. Your inbox will thank you when you don't get hundreds of emails calling out your simple errors in the future.

We love home

People love domestic books. Domestic thrillers. Domestic mysteries. Domestic romances. Domestic.

Why? Because they love being there.

They want to relate to the story. They want to know the location. They want to see themselves in the characters.

You don't have to set your novel in an everyday setting to achieve this effect however. Use your characters, their actions, the sounds, the tastes, and the feel of things to bring your characters into your readers' world.

You'll find that the domestic can be anywhere, and so can your readers.

Supernatural machina

Have you ever heard of deus ex machina? It’s the concept that something suddenly fixes the story out of the blue. Like God just provided a solution when needed.

It is not kindly looked upon.

Make sure that the supernatural elements in your story aren’t acting as deus ex machina.

A ghost shouldn’t appear and suddenly have all the answers that everyone needed. A character shouldn’t suddenly realize that they have magic powers and can spell away all the problems. The daylight can’t suddenly be the cure to all problems.

The supernatural is fantastic when you use it correctly. Don’t use it as a cure-all or a problem solver just because you can’t find any other way to make all the pieces fall into place, however.

Everyone eventually has enough—Believable tension

Creating tension between your characters is great. Everyone can't get along all the time, and showing tension helps foreshadow future conflict and peak interest. Tension is important.

Tension, like everything else in your story, however, has to be believable.

If you go too far, readers won't believe that your characters are just putting up with the tension. They won't believe that these humans are living together and aren't snapping, slapping, or finding a way to separate each other.

Too much tension leads to people separating, not adding tension.

Absolutely add tension to you story, but also know where that tension should stop.

Do you want to write?

Making time for writing can be hard.

There can be a lot of distractions and responsibilities pulling you in all directions. There can be voices coming from all parts of your life. There can be natural disasters and health problems and countless other unexpected events.

But at the end of the day, you have to decide if you want to write.

If you want to write, make the time.

Take the bus so you can write then. Wake up earlier to be able to get some writing in before everyone else wakes up. Forgo seeing that latest movie so you can have those extra two hours to write.

Finding time can be hard. But, at some point, you have to decide if you're going to do it or if you're going to let someone else write all those great ideas of yours.

Only you can decide to get typing.