The last 100 days have been an interesting exercise in focus, excitement, and perseverance. Throughout the time, there have been days that I wake up scrambling for a pen and paper to write a poem and other days where I didn't even want be in the same room as a pen. Regardless, I sat my butt down everyday and wrote and it has made me learn a couple of things about writing and about myself.
I learned I can actually do it, I can write everyday. I learned that all of that writing doesn't need to even make any sense and it doesn't have to be perfect; I just need to write something down. I learned to keep a notebook on my nightstand, in my car and in my lunch bag. I learned to stop wasting time on things like Instagram for posting my poems and to just post on this blog which takes less set up.
Positive things out of the experience:
1. I've realized I'm happier and more satisfied if I write everyday, even if I don't feel like writing. If I write every day, I don't have that nagging and guilty feeling that I'm not doing what makes me happy.
2. I rarely got on Facebook in the last 100 days because I had better things to do like...write.
3. I have 100 poems to revise or turn into new poems or use as raw material for other projects.
4. I have filled 3 notebooks up of other raw material that can be used for other poems later down the line.
5. I read more poetry in the last 100 days in response to me writing more poetry. I used other's poetry as inspiration and it ended up being a positive synergy. All of this has made me feel more in tune to the poetry community as a whole and I feel generally more positive that poetry is becoming more accessible and widespread than in any other time in history.
6. I've realized what I'm capable of. I can write a lot of material if I put my mind to it and show up to the page. I just have to make the time and space for poetry and writing in my life. Most of my poems were written in 30 minutes or less.
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Negative things out of the experience:
1. I played catch up quite a few times. Life got in the way, but I want to try harder and make poetry a daily practice.
2. I get frustrated because so many ideas come at the strike me at the worse times, either while I'm driving or doing something that I can't stop and write it out. The most frustrating thing in a writing life is the loss of something good or something that could have been good, if you had the time to let it grow. It can be heartbreaking and at times depressing to know that something good slipped through my fingers. What would the idea have turned into, if I'd had space to piece it together? Too many what ifs and forgotten puzzles.
3. The shear amount of poems that I've written during this project is overwhelming and I need a 100 day project of revision, where I revise a poem every day. But as a small remedy, I decided to make 2 lists: 3 poems that I wrote that surprised me; Top 5 poems.
5 poems that I had a lot of fun writing:
Top 5 poems:
1. Mourning
2. Black Hills Gold (removed for submissions)
3. Ascent (removed for submissions)
4. Janitoress
5. Solanaceae
A couple of notable pieces:
1. Litter
2. Prismatic
3. Finite
I learned I can actually do it, I can write everyday. I learned that all of that writing doesn't need to even make any sense and it doesn't have to be perfect; I just need to write something down. I learned to keep a notebook on my nightstand, in my car and in my lunch bag. I learned to stop wasting time on things like Instagram for posting my poems and to just post on this blog which takes less set up.
Positive things out of the experience:
1. I've realized I'm happier and more satisfied if I write everyday, even if I don't feel like writing. If I write every day, I don't have that nagging and guilty feeling that I'm not doing what makes me happy.
2. I rarely got on Facebook in the last 100 days because I had better things to do like...write.
3. I have 100 poems to revise or turn into new poems or use as raw material for other projects.
4. I have filled 3 notebooks up of other raw material that can be used for other poems later down the line.
5. I read more poetry in the last 100 days in response to me writing more poetry. I used other's poetry as inspiration and it ended up being a positive synergy. All of this has made me feel more in tune to the poetry community as a whole and I feel generally more positive that poetry is becoming more accessible and widespread than in any other time in history.
6. I've realized what I'm capable of. I can write a lot of material if I put my mind to it and show up to the page. I just have to make the time and space for poetry and writing in my life. Most of my poems were written in 30 minutes or less.
---
Negative things out of the experience:
1. I played catch up quite a few times. Life got in the way, but I want to try harder and make poetry a daily practice.
2. I get frustrated because so many ideas come at the strike me at the worse times, either while I'm driving or doing something that I can't stop and write it out. The most frustrating thing in a writing life is the loss of something good or something that could have been good, if you had the time to let it grow. It can be heartbreaking and at times depressing to know that something good slipped through my fingers. What would the idea have turned into, if I'd had space to piece it together? Too many what ifs and forgotten puzzles.
3. The shear amount of poems that I've written during this project is overwhelming and I need a 100 day project of revision, where I revise a poem every day. But as a small remedy, I decided to make 2 lists: 3 poems that I wrote that surprised me; Top 5 poems.
5 poems that I had a lot of fun writing:
- Electric
- Portrait of Minnette (removed for submissions)
- Shape
- A plan for every poem
- The Age of Distraction
Top 5 poems:
1. Mourning
2. Black Hills Gold (removed for submissions)
3. Ascent (removed for submissions)
4. Janitoress
5. Solanaceae
A couple of notable pieces:
1. Litter
2. Prismatic
3. Finite
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