Monday, July 16, 2007


I have the week off and am up in Port Townsend to attend some of the Writer's Conference, and to do some writing. I actually have an idea for a novel and I want to get going on drafting it out. I am really curious how it will go . . .

I was talking with a poet friend about it the other day. She said whenever she takes a break and writes fiction for a while, the poems inevitably come screaming back at the front door, demanding to be let in, as if they were saying "You two-timing bitch, how dare you!" We'll see if I end up writing more poetry than prose . . .

6 comments:

Unknown said...

During April and May I did not work on my memoir at all because all I could write were drafts of poems. I wrote maybe two poems from Sept-March, then BAM! Poetry muse would not let me be. And I just went with the flow of things. I trust the muse. I was very sick of writing drafts of poems when I started the memoir, but by April, I was sick of writing prose and wanting poems again.

Kelli Russell Agodon - Book of Kells said...

Peter,

that is what always happens to me when I work on another genre.

Also, if I go for a long period of not writing, poems become the neglected children banging on my door until I spend some time with them.

They are quite persistent little ones.

Collin Kelley said...

When I was working on my yet-to-be-published novel, the poetry would not go away and actually got worked into the story. The main character was going to be a journalist, but wound up being a poet. Don't fight the urge to write poetry while writing fictiion...you might get some great ideas for both.

Joannie Stangeland said...

I often seem to get enticing ideas for whatever I'm not working on--it might even be an idea for a new series of poems while I'm still noodling around trying to figure out what the current group needs. So if I want to work on one thing, I try to remind myself to go focus on something else. It might not be function, but sometimes it works.

sam of the ten thousand things said...

I'd love to write fiction - and try, from time to time. But it never works out for me. The pieces always shapeshift into prose poems, then ...

I hope it works out for you though. Have a good holiday, Peter.

T. said...

A novel. Admirable.
How do you make the lines
go all the way
to the end of the page?