6.5 - From PROBLEM to POEM in 7 Steps
Author's note: How to start? How to go on? What to add when? We recorded the painful process of writing this problem-poem and share our original thoughts and mental notes with you, unedited and uncensored, even noncense when they made no cense little sense. The structure, [7 chapters] plus (in italic capitals) paragraphs, is an important element of the artistic work, but this is a shareware book, so you're free to copy it and find out if it works for you. One final thought: this isn't «top-down management» but rather a page with places to jot down incoming ideas in a more-or-less structured way.
[1: THEME]
the image we have of ourselves or our own work might be different in the eyes of others.
so many wonderful people think too negative about themselves, «I'm not good enough», even while others have a positive image of them. of course, it's good to be honest and open, to give others a compliment more often and say you love them, and of course, we shouldn't waste time worrying but start to work and improve our character, and of course, the outside seems more important than the inside but the opposite is true…
WORKING TITLE
image => imagination… image-I-nation
format => formation
[2: ASSOCIATIONS]
VERBS, SENSES & EMOTIONS
mirror: we see ourselves in a mirror, a reflection, while others see us like we are. think how your voice sounds strange when you hear it from a recording.
image/format is the Show-Don't-Tell tool: it's better to Show-AND-Tell, explain the image.
formation is education, learning how to do something. this has a link with «how to write poetry».
image - I - Nation… in modern society, «I» is getting more important while «Nation» (society) goes from bad to worse. imagine the effect that the I-image has on society. when you invest all your time in Facebook or in make-up and clothes, nothing in character or learning social skills, just shouting: "Look at ME! I'm FABULOUS!" instead of asking others if you can help them…
image is everything?
format is important to understand the content?
[3: RESEARCH]
SYNONYMS
paint - painting - colour - presentation
RHYME WORDS
paint - faint - restraint
ANTONYMS
it seems we're at a dead end…
[4: INSIGHT]
GOOD IDEAS START HERE
this is poetry-class, not philosophy-class. our topic isn't the image of people. our topic is the image, the format, the 'make-up' that we give to our poem, hoping it will look the same when our readers see it, but… they might read it on a pc or a tablet or a mobile phone, with windows or android or apple, with one of the millions of programs to read one of the thousands of formats in which our text might be sent around. will my fancy font and my background colour still be there when my reader gets my text?
[5: CREATIVITY]
METAPHOR
food: we eat for the nutrition (content), taste and price are important too, but a beautiful set table and a nice presentation of the plate both have an additional value to the experience of eating.
SYMBOL
mirror?
OPPOSITE
an image says more than 1.000 words (we've done that already in 4.7 - «Novelty»)
SURPRISE
?
MESSAGE
advancing insight: you start with something, you look at the result, you see something you can improve, the next try-out shows another error that you can fix, and as long as you keep looking critically at your results, with a learning mindset and ambition to get better, you will make a small step forward each day, and at the end of the week you've done something spectacular.
IMAGE
the make-up of a poem, with bold and underline, with bigger fonts, colours, etc.
[6: TRY-OUTS]
FORMAT
step by step => A is for start, B is for progress etc…
=> monday this, tuesday that, and sunday-funday we see the final product.
it might be a nice idea to cut out the Capitals, to change the format of the text (from «what's expected» to «make it look different and experience the effect»). When this poem gets into a notepad txt-file, all that remains is « [HEAD] SUBHEAD text », and that should be enough.
TONE
Formal. It's an essay, a class, a teacher who dictates facts.
WORDPLAY
monday-tuesday: moonshineday, duesday, wetnessday, thirstday, dryday… nice for having a drinking problem, but not for this project.
STRUCTURE
in appendix a - genres, we need an example for "essay". The structure of this poem is the «index», with seven steps from opening image to closing image.
RHYME SCHEME
there's too much info. when we add format rules, it will lower the impact of the content. it feels better to start without bothering rhyme and rhythm, and perhaps it can be added later.
RHYTHM
see rhyme.
WORD CHOICE
some word-play would be nice. work on this. it's not of major importance.
TIMING
there is no «twist»; the surprise/effect is what the reader sees on hor device.
SKETCHES
TITLE
the weak… oops, typing error, week… it's an idea, as this isn't the strongest poem in the book…
[7: FINAL VERSION]
Weak week
On Monday, the poet wrote in bold, italic and underline, using his favourite tool Scrivener.
On Tuesday, the poet wrote in strike-through and CAPITALS, discovering that subscript and superscript weren't possible and a formula like E=mc² required a special character. It was better to write characters like ® or © as (r) and (c).
On Wednesday, the poet changed Arial 12 into Courier 14 and Freckle Face 10, while he tried to add a hyperlink to the text www.editorialperdido.eu in his document.
On Thursday, the poet painted his words red with a yellow background.
On Friday, the poet centred his text.
On Saturday, the poet used a first-line indentation of 1 and doubled the standard single line spacing (from 6 pixels to 12). He'd learnt to avoid tabs, tables and columns. No footnotes but endnotes. His fonts should stay between 10 and 18 pitch. Paragraphs should either have first-line indentation or line spacing, so the text won't appear on the screen as one long block of letters. The paragraph itself should have single line spacing. Don't use more than three consecutive <enter>s, as white lines between paragraphs often disappear. It is better to add a separator, like:
* * *
On Sunday, the poet converted his work in .jpg, .pdf and .epub format, and published it.
[Author's Note: This is the .jpg of the original text:
You can see for yourself how our original image appears on your electronic device.]