Sharp Words

During April, there are at least two mass writing endeavours that you can take part in.

Script Frenzy is the little sister of National Novel Writing Month. The aim is to write 100 pages of a script of some sort – play, screenplay, radio play, graphic novel script. It can be done in collaboration, and you can adapt existing work.

The goal for National Poetry Writing Month is to write a poem a day – so a total of 30 poems. These can be kept private or posted on the forum for comments, compliments and critiques.

Considering my aim this year is to write a poem a week, and I’m sadly behind, it’s pretty clear which of these I’ll be having a go at. Scriptwriting isn’t really my thing, anyway – well, not that I’ve ever really tried it. I don’t have any special urge to though, at least not this year.

I tried the poem-a-day last April though, and got to about the 18th or 19th before I ran out of steam. I ran out of ideas for poems, really, plus I didn’t have the time to put in the sort of research I sometimes want to do. (Example: I have an idea for a poem about the crow family, which is currently just scribbles in my notebook because I haven’t made the time to look stuff up.)

This year, I’m going to use my trusty Writer’s Block for inspiration, and pick a different photo or word or idea each day to write off. I don’t think I’m going to post my poems publically though – over the past year, I’ve got more conscientious about actually rewriting bits of my poems before putting them for public consumption, and I’d like to stick with that.