#NaPoWriMo: Final Thoughts

Well, I've done it. I managed to write a poem every day for National Poetry Writing Month. As I predicted, writing a poem every day for a month offered more flexibility than National Novel Writing Month did.

I started writing poetry last year for a few Twitter prompts, and have also had university assignments which have involved writing both strict form and free verse poems. I tried both over the course of the month.

Of course, choosing what form to write in can be a pain. With strict form, you have a structure to work with, but you can't always convey as much emotion when trying to fit the poem to the form. For example, I tried writing a ballade, but struggled to fit the form and published something else instead. With free verse, you can dedicate more time to emotion. However, it's very easy for the poem to become structured, even if it doesn't follow a strict form. I made fun of this in my final piece, discussing the advantages and disadvantages while switching between strict form (specifically ballad and terza rima) and free form.

There's also the issue of content. With thirty days' worth of poems, I tried to find different things to write about. Some of my earlier works had been re-workings of poems I'd written previously, either from Facebook prompts or homework tasks. In fact, I read out my first two pieces at an open mic night at the beginning of the month. That was fun.

A lot of my work ended up being what I'd like to describe as "rhythmic rants", but I suppose that gave me a lot to work with.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. I might try it again next year, I might not. Depends on how I feel.

Happy writing.