Goals: Writing

So I’ve posted about blogging goals and personal and family goals, so now I’m going to make some writing goals.

I had a really great year for writing in 2008. With the two workshops I took on ekphrastic poetry and a one-day workshop on publishing, I felt really energized and fulfilled, proud of my work in poetry, thrilled to do my first readings, and excited to feel inspired and dedicated to this genre again.

In the spring of 2009, I struggled to find time and energy for poetry after losing touch with the poetry group I had just joined. In April, I got fired up by National Poetry Month and did manage to complete the Poetic Asides Poem-A-Day challenge. Around the end of the school year, I was hoping to spend some time revising those and getting them ready to send out. But then my double-workshop summer of professional development hit, and while I did keep scribbling in my notebooks, I didn’t make any headway on those poems. And then the Autumn of Chaos hit, and everything slowed to a trickle. But in November, I did manage to make it to a wonderful reading by Donald Hall, and there I happened to reconnect with my poetry group and make it to their November meeting. I’ll be at the January meeting too on the 9th, with a poem from that long-ago April rush I’m dusting off and hoping to polish up.

This year, I want to keep trying to go to readings, keep reading poetry new and old, and keep scribbling down words and phrases and lines. This spring, I am determined to go to group regularly, dig into my notebooks, rediscover and revise and renew my dedication. Maybe along the way, I’ll try the exercises in my copy of The Practice of Poetry, or maybe the prompts at Poetic Asides, or some other way of adding structure to my writing life.

But however it happens, I’m determined to renew my commitment to my poetic practice, because it fulfills and centers me, and that’s too important to let slip any longer.

About these ads

9 Responses

I’ve never tried joining a writing group, but I’ve often wondered if it would help keep me focused. I am so sporadic about my writing. I never have a consistent schedule, and I think that’s one of my biggest problems. Where do you find your groups?

It’s funny– with nonfiction, it never occurred to me to join a group or take workshops or anything. I don’t know if it’s a confidence thing or something about the genre or just my process. But for poetry, it has been very helpful for me to have structured regular feedback on my work. The workshops I took were the most helpful, and I’m hoping to do more of those, but the group has been a great alternative. I actually found my group through one of the workshops– two of the group members took the workshop together, and invited me into their group once the workshop ended.