This week I did some planning, although not as much as I’d intended, because I ended up building on something from last week and completing a really integral part of an interview. So I’m about 50% where I had hoped to be…
But in getting the interview structured and some of the crumbs tied in, and thinking through the plan (even if not in the detail I had intended) I feel like I can see the finishing line. This week coming will be all about tying up the loose ends of the story and twining them into a rope for the murderer to hang herself, metaphorically speaking.
I have also decided on a final scene complete with the last words of the story, and it feels good to have that. It’s something to work towards, and something to keep me focussed so I don’t go off on a tangent, as I so often do.
Next week I hope I’ll get the bulk of what’s left written and the week or so after will just be filling in a couple of blanks. That’s the plan, anyway – let’s hope there no banana skins on my path!
In other news – A couple of weeks ago, I shared some of my poems with another writer. He had kindly given me his poetry book, and I explained to him I was working on rhyming poetry as it wasn’t my usual style, but the ones I shared were blank verse. He told me, in effect, that poetry which doesn’t rhyme isn’t really poetry.
I don’t agree and simply shrugged this opinion off as irrelevant to my personal style. However, I shared the comments with a friend who has read some of my work and she was incredibly offended on my behalf.
This got me thinking about my own response.
I will never be able to make everyone happy, and the more I try, the more I lose my own voice. I have and will try all sorts of different styles because experimenting is fun, but every piece of writing has to be a reflection of me.
I ignore people who tell me what writing ‘should’ be – writing is many different things, and there really are no hard and fast rules.
We write because we have something we want to say, a force within us driving us to mark out our thoughts and ideas on paper. That force is like our own personal engine and if we let someone else tamper with its workings, who knows what damage they could do.
Yes, it can be helpful to learn the mechanics – but the time comes when we have to trust our engineering skills!
Happy writing,
EJ
🙂
Becoming a writer 
Congratulations, it really does help to have an ending–or at least the idea of an ending–to work toward. Sorry if this comes across as elitist or whatever, but for your acquaintance to claim that poetry is only about the rhyme is ignorant.
Thank you, it really does help having a target, so to speak, and I will be beyond happy when I can put this story to bed, so even thinking about the end makes me feel less stuck in the writing mud!
As to the poetry feedback – it’s certainly not my view but when I was studying I know another writer in the group felt the same as my acquaintance.
I was taught as a child (by a children’s poet) that poetry doesn’t have to rhyme, and it was a revelation for me. Maybe it’s all about how we are taught about poetry?