“The skeleton of writing”
I have been thinking about how I write. If you'd asked me this question a year ago I would have likely replied, "I don't know - I just do it!" I am becoming a better observer of myself and realise that for me the process of writing happens in stages, some of which I'd not even consciously acknowledged before.
Firstly I'm aware of an emotional response to a situation or a thing. This response may be short lived in which case that's the end of it. However, when this reponse begins to take on a life of its own I jot down what's going through my mind. These notes will consist of words, descriptions of what's happened or what I've seen. Sometimes I take a photo but I always prefer to make notes when I'm still having the feelings and can maybe even describe what I've been looking at.
The note taking stage might happen when I'm out but generally speaking the next stage happens when I'm in the house or my car, whatever is my nearest base at the time. Maybe a holiday cottage? This is when I begin with key phrases that I jotted down already and begin to get a sense of the structure of the poem. The leaf in the image has its own skeleton, it may be basic but that's the framework of the leaf. I spend time developing the structure of my poem. I rarely use formal structures, other than Haiku, but without some structure the poem is really a random list of words.
Reading my work out loud is a vital stage. I read and re-read, tweaking words and line breaks as I go. This is my best way of knowing if a poem works. I continue editing until I'm confident that it sounds right and conveys the message in the best possible way. The voice recorder on my phone is very useful as it enables me to listen more attentively than if I have to listen whilst I am reading aloud. The sound of a poem is very important to me.
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8th October 2025