Poems

Poems are best described as imaginative language that express the feelings of the poet, or ideas and emotions in general. There are many different kinds of poetry and ways to express it.

How poetry is expressed as

EXPRESSED AS MUSIC

Long ago, poems were made into music, which is probably the reason why music nowadays still rhyme. The kind of poetry expressed in music is mostly organized in stanzas, which are paragraphs with four lines in total. There are different ways to make the stanzas rhyme together

EXPRESSED FOR FEELINGS/ART

People usually express their feelings through poetry. It isn’t an uncommon thing to find poetry about laments or anger or excitement. Sometimes, people use it as expressing the beauty of life or art.

Different forms of poetry

1. Haiku

Haikus are short Japanese kind of poetry, organized in a paragraph with three lines. The special thing about haikus is that the first line and the third line only have five syllables, but the second line only has seven syllables.

2. Free Verse

Free verse is an open form of poetry that seems entirely random. They don’t have any rhymes or meter patterns. They are usually in a form of natural speech. But they aren’t entirely random. They display some artistic expression.

3. Sonnet

Sonnets are fourteen-line poems which follow a strict rhyme pattern and a specific structure. If the first stanza of sonnets are in ABAB form, then the next stanza should also be in ABAB form.

Example of ABAB form

4. Acrostic

This is a type of poetry where the first letter of the lines spell a word or phrase that is the main point of the whole poem. They are usually short and not so long nor complicated. Sometimes, when people dedicate poems to someone else, the first letter of the first word on each line spells the person’s name.

5. Concrete Poetry

Concrete poetry is a kind of poem where the format of the poem is shaped into the picture of the topic of the poem. For instance, if you are writing a concrete poem about a tornado, then your poem would be organized into a shape of a tornado.

Titles

Titles are important for a book. It is a mandatory ingredient to gain readers’ attention. Sometimes people struggle with this the most, as they are pressured to find an interesting title. These are some ways to do so.

IN THE STORY

You might be able to find a title in a very simple place: your story itself. The theme of your story can also be the title of your story, as well as a central character’s name or a repeated phrase in a story.

CREATIVITY

Creative, catchy, intriguing titles can instantly grab your reader’s attention. There are some tricks to make these kinds of titles:

Alliteration-Using alliteration can make a title sound very catchy. Examples: The Twin Towers of Twindlewoo, Hissing Hills.

Settings-The setting of the story or place names can make intriguing titles. Examples: Dreamland, The Mountain of Macaroons.

Deep titles-Titles with deep poetic phrases or metaphors can make readers interested in reading your story. Examples: 24 Days on An Island, A Heart of Cold Stone

Short titles-Short titles are somewhat favored by some people as it helps them remember the stories better. Examples: Flight, Ghost

BORROWING FROM OTHERS

This is not plagiarism, but rather, being inspired by other works. Some creative poetry can inspire you in creating a title for your tale, as it the poem might match the theme of your story.

COVERS

Covers aren’t exactly titles, but they are also attention-snarers. A nicely drawn cover with matching colors can make your readers want to buy your book and read it.

Title-It is important that your title can be clearly seen on your book cover, otherwise it would just be a plain book filled with pictures. Some books don’t have a title on their cover, just on their spine, but it is advisable to actually put a title.

Images-Simple images can attract readers, but it isn’t a crime to make a cover filled with, for example, a picture of a vivid green forest which might be a scene in your story. Be wise of choosing an image, as it should match with the theme of your story.

Colors-Colors are optional, but advised to be used. They can help snare more readers. They should also match the mood of your story. For example, if you are writing a horror story, you should make a cover with black or red colors, or if you have one about ghosts, make it a drab gray color.

Comics

Almost everybody loves comics. It is hard to find people who don’t like them. Most people find comics better than novels filled with words as they prefer to see colorful pictures than pages filled with boring, drab words.

PANELS

Panels are the boxes in a comic page that are filled with the pictures and speech bubbles. They are required in every page, or the comic would just be a mess of pictures. They are usually read left to right, with the exception of Japanese comics (usually called ‘manga’), which are usually read from right to left. They can vary in many sizes, mostly to suit the scene they hold.

SPEECH BUBBLES

Another mandatory thing in comics. Speech bubbles can vary in size and shapes, and there are many different kinds of speech bubbles, depending on how the character is speaking.

Normal Oval-Shaped Bubbles-Shows that a character is speaking normally.

Dotted Bubbles-Show that a character is whispering.

‘Spiky’ Bubbles-Usually shows a character yelling

Cloud-Like Bubbles-Shows a character thinking

Two-Linked Oval Bubbles-The character is still speaking normally, but this helps save space for a character who is saying a lot of things.

Caption boxes, which are usually rectangular, are used for the voice of the narrator.

Sounds (onomatopoeia) that aren’t speech or thoughts can be written directly on a panel, not in speech bubbles.

SCRIPTS

Scripts are also helpful if you want to write a comic. It helps the illustrator to keep track of the story better. An illustrator might need to redraw a panel if he/she drew the wrong scene for their story.

DOODLE FIRST

Don’t go drawing on your panel right away. You should doodle some rough sketches on some paper before drawing on the main panel picture. Don’t forget to design in enough space for your speech bubbles and caption boxes and onomatopoeias. You also don’t have to be a great artist to be a great comic illustrator. Just try to keep it neat and have an interesting plotline.

Scripts

Scripts are another way to tell a story, mostly common in musicals, dramas, and theatrical plays.

HOW TO WRITE THEM

Scripts aren’t like stories. You don’t use descriptions or expositions to tell the story. You only use dialogue to tell the story, and people will act it out in a way that matches the dialogue and the way people speak. So of course, they aren’t written the same ways like stories or blog posts or poems.

CHARACTER NAME

In a script, you need to mark who is who and who is speaking what. If you don’t nobody is going to know who is speaking or what is going on.

DIALOGUE & ACTION (STAGE DIRECTIONS)

After you write the character name, you write the dialogue (duh). Sometimes between the dialogue, there will be ‘interruptions’ in the middle of the character speaking, like (turns around with shock) could be an example of action, or mostly commonly called as a stage direction. It helps tell us what movements are going on while the character is speaking, also to help us to act the scenes better.

ENTER & EXIT

It is also important to mark when the characters enter or exit the stage, or the people acting some characters might accidentally stay on stage for too long. Simply use the words enter or exit to mark their entrance or exit.

Thoughts

Thoughts are also important for a story as they, almost like exposition, fill in the gaps of the reader’s knowledge but through the thoughts of the main characters or the other characters that they couldn’t say aloud. It also important how or when to use them.

WHEN AND HOW TO USE THOUGHTS

When

Use thoughts when the character is thinking. Sometimes there are things a character wants to say that they aren’t able to say aloud, like secrets or insults they think in there head. Not all thoughts should be written in a story as some thoughts aren’t relevant to the story.

How

The way to use thoughts depends on what perspective you are writing in. If you write thoughts in third person in the way you are supposed to write thoughts in first person, your story won’t make much sense.

1st Person

Since 1st person is somewhat like the main character speaking to the reader, sometimes italics isn’t used in the story. It can be used, but it is not always used. Quotation marks around words in a page tells us that the main character is speaking, not thinking it.

3rd Person

In 3rd person, you should use italics. If you don’t, it’s alright but your readers might be confused about if the person is thinking it or describing something. Italics are a way to help people distinguish between a description in a story or conversations or thoughts.

Description

Description is probably one of the most complicated ones to do as it requires some detail, but you shouldn’t be too detailed or your readers will be bored to death.

Some ways to describe things:

PERSONIFICATION

Personification is when you ‘give’ nonhuman things human attributes. You can use this to describe things in your stories.

EXAMPLE: The piece of cake called for her to eat it, but she tried to resist the temptation.

In this example, the main character is craving for the piece of cake, but knows that she shouldn’t eat it. In here personification is used to describe that the main character thinks that the cake wants her to eat it as she is so hungry she feels delusional about the cake.

THE FIVE SENSES

Basically, you should use some of the senses while you describe something. Of course, you might not be able to use all the senses, but you should use as many as possible.

EXAMPLE:

Sight: There was a huge four-poster bed on the side of the room, long silky curtains draped over it.

Scent: The room smells like fresh roses.

Hearing: I could hear birds chirping just outside the window.

Touch: I walked to the bed and plopped onto it, enjoying how fluffy it is.

Taste: The bread he had for lunch is too stale for my liking.

ANALOGY

An analogy is basically comparing two things together. In a story you could perhaps compare two twins about their differences or similarities.

EXAMPLE:

Becky and Jo are twins, but they have so many differences. Becky has long, curly blonde hair, while Jo has a straight brown bob. Becky is short and slightly plump, while Jo is lanky and as skinny as a twig. Becky enjoys baking and reading in her room silently, while Jo loves exercising and running and playing with her cousins.

ADVANCED WORDS

Use advanced, complicated words while describing your story. These are words that look, sound, and are spelled in a very complicated way, but these help make your story sound more interesting. But be wise while using these kinds of words. If you have too much complicated words in one paragraph, your readers may not quite understand what it might mean and your readers also might think that you are speaking in another language.

EXAMPLES OF ADVANCED WORDS: repugnant, endowment, subjugation, cosset, venerate, etc.

Exposition

Exposition doesn’t always introduce the setting, but it also informs the readers some things in the story that they might have missed or misunderstood. There are many ways to write exposition.

THROUGH NARRATIVE

Narrative is one way to show exposition. You tell the story through your words, also explaining the mysterious clues or backgrounds your readers might’ve missed.

THROUGH DIALOGUE

Dialogue is another way to show exposition. For example, you can show clues or not-so obvious characteristics of a person in the story through people’s conversations.

THROUGH FLASHBACKS

You can also show exposition through flashbacks, like remnants of the past that could explain what happened to the character in the past that might’ve made them what they are today, like past traumas or past adventures.

THROUGH EXTRACTS

Extracts are another way to show exposition. Extracts are very short but they might be able to inform readers about clues. Some examples of extracts are letters, mysterious messages, or newspaper articles.

Dialogue

Dialogue is important because it helps keep the story going.

QUOTATION MARKS

The most important thing about dialogue are the quotation marks. These are very important to remember because without them, we don’t know whether they are thoughts, or if they are just words in a paragraph, or words a character says to another.

Quotation marks look like this: “

JOTTING IT DOWN

Write the words down on a notepad or a notebook, as if you are eavesdropping. This can help you write your dialogue easier.

EXAMPLE:

Laura: What are you doing?

Peter: I am climbing this huge tree.

And then you can change it into this:

“What are you doing?” Laura asked.

“I am climbing this huge tree,” Peter says.

THE WORD ‘SAID’

After you finish writing the words your character says, you should write ‘said’ or ‘says’ after that. But sometimes, you can put other words instead of said, like ‘answered’ or ‘shouted’ or ‘yelled’.

EXAMPLE:

“Hey,” Laura yelled. “What are you doing?”

“I am climbing this huge tree,” Peter answers

Action

Since there are many ways to show the previous storytelling blocks, I shall explain about them one by one. The first I will explain is action.

ACTION BEGINNERS

Begin your action with something unexpected.

Examples:

A hidden treasure map on a doorstep

A challenge

A sudden disappearance.

ACTIVE/ACTION VERBS

Choose strong, tense verbs that can spark excitement in your readers.

Examples:

scrambled onto the seat

sliced through the air

crashed into the room

STOP, WAIT A MINUTE

Don’t go full out with the action. Take a short break before continuing the action scenes. One way you can stop for a while and pause is placing dialogue in between the scenes.

MINIMAL DIALOGUE

If you give too much dialogue in a story, it will not make your action scenes interesting and it will make your scenes boring as it can break the tension. If you are writing an action scene where a master teaches a student, it is possible to add a conversation in between them.

Example: I ducked to avoid the blade and was about to press my dagger onto his neck, but he pulled out his sword and stopped me. Sparks flew and I yelled as the sword made a gash on my cheek.

“Surrender!” he cried.

“Never,” I growl, and instead pushed my dagger harder until it grazed his skin.

REAL-LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES

Remember to keep the scene somewhat realistic. Don’t make the characters fight for a few days without rest, as that doesn’t seem quite human (unless of course they are aliens, but those are an exception). Keep the story somewhat realistic.

DRAMATIC SETTINGS

Place the action in a dramatic, amazing setting. It should suit the action and add the excitement to the story.

Example:

She snapped her fingers, and I was instantly transported to another place; the Land of Clouds. I gaped at the floating rocks and the dense clouds, and found myself to be on one of them. She perched onto a rock as graceful as a cat, her eyes glinting at me dangerously, knowing that this was the perfect spot to have a duel. I only growled and pulled out my sword.

Storytelling Building Blocks

There are five main building blocks used for telling stories. A lot of stories use all five to make it more understandable and interesting. It is advisable not to only put one kind of storytelling block as it exhausts the reader, makes the story confusing and awkward, and others.

1. Action

PURPOSE: It tell us what the character is doing and what they are going to do.

PROS: It keeps your reader interested as stories with much action are usually fast-paced and most people love fast-paced stories.

CONS: A lot of action in the story usually exhausts the reader as it takes up a lot of imagination to picture all the action.

EXAMPLE: She growled and raced towards me, and the next thing I knew I was thrown against the wall.

2. Dialogue

PURPOSE: It allows you to understand the story through the character’s words and to know how they feel about things in the story.

PROS: It makes the characters more realistic, as a story where there are only narrations makes readers feel like the characters are not there. It is possible to make a story without dialogues, though.

CONS: Don’t let one character take over the whole dialogue. It doesn’t make the story enjoyable if one character tells the whole story.

EXAMPLE: “He watched his parents die when he was younger, you know,” she says to me. “He’s traumatic. Give him a chance.”

3. Exposition

PURPOSE: It helps introduce the setting of the scene or tells the readers details they might have not heard or known before.

PROS: Introduces settings characters could not introduce with their own words.

CONS: Exposition usually take the excitement and drama away from the story, so only use it when necessary.

EXAMPLE: He used to walk with me around school, following me like a lost puppy. But ever since he met her, he stopped walking with me.

4. Description

PURPOSE: It is almost the same like the exposition, but the only difference is that they describe things more vividly.

PROS: It breaks up action scenes through filler chapters, which are ‘unnecessary’ sentences, paragraphs, or even chapters that help move the plot forward.

CONS: You can’t describe everything, or your readers will be bored to death. Instead, put actions.

EXAMPLES: Her bright green eyes lost all their light as she saw his fallen body. Her usual curly hair suddenly looked less bouncy, and her dark brown skinned paled. Then her eyes brimmed with tears, and they cascaded slowly down her cheeks.

5. Thoughts

PURPOSE: Tells the readers what the characters thinks about something that they don’t want to say aloud.

PROS: It helps express characters’ emotions.

CONS: It could expose the characters at the wrong time, so be careful.

EXAMPLES: I can’t believe he actually did that! She thought, staring at him with horror. He turned around to look at her, but she kept a straight face.