#ROW80 Edit with Gusto, Spring Cleaning

March 4, 2015 — #ROW80, editing, poetry, writing

ROW80

I still publish short quickly composed poems with art. This practice that I set up here has been a good platform for discovery of my strengths and weaknesses.  I need to keep the mojo going by posting a poem almost daily. This is the first step to being constant and nourishing to my poet persona. First of all I need to convince myself that creative writing is within my ability.   In order to move up from my current level of unpolished, slightly redundant writing I need to follow more steps and enjoy deleting at least as much as I enjoy first drafting. I improvise well in many modes. In real life this leads to using creativity to approach many things that I do. I like to play chef and meet the creative challenge of using all the left-overs to make something delicious. I like to eat the result and start on something new. My preference for finishing fast is an impediment to becoming a better writer. I don’t need to count words as much as I need to spend more time editing and improving the initial writing.  I have learned that from both my own critique of my situation as a poet, and from reading the works and works in progress presented by my fellow ROW80 writers.

The time we have spent has gone by quickly, with only a couple of weeks left in our 80 day challenge.  Each writer has a different style of check in.  Some are describing works in progress and sometimes sharing excerpts.  There are novelists, poets and fantasy writers here, each with a different point of view, environment, and level of experience.  As one of the least experienced participants I am lucky to hear from those of you who have wisdom to share.  You give me confidence as well as tools for the job before me.  After the challenge has ended your inspiration will still be with me forever.  I believe I can go right into NaPoWriMo, the poetry challenge for April, with better preparation than ever before.  This challenge is simply to write a poem daily during National Poetry Month (April).  I started as a fluke two years ago, but last year I thought I needed to do it again.  Now I am looking forward to it this time with happy anticipation.  It will not be a chore, but part of this regular practice I have established.

Thank you all for inspiring and challenging me to discover more about the crafty and powerful world of words!!  The fun has just begun.  As a tribute to the importance of editing I am going on a big clean/clear/organize binge in my office.  I did this to my bedroom in December with spectacular results.  I expect cleaning out the office can only bring joy and space to operate.  This is a spring cleaning of both a physical and mental kind. This edit is a metaphor for the editing I will do in my process in the future.  Less really is more.

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