Tools

[GuiltyPleasure]

(Get your minds out of the gutter)

Poetic tools - what do you use?

My mainstays are my Thesaurus; I prefer Roget's pages to the e-saurus. I'll use a dictionary too but The Modern Rhyming Dictionary by Gene Lees (of all people) is invaluable. There's also this site but, again, I prefer the book. Lots and lots of reading is useful too for inspiration whether it’s other poets, novels, non-fiction ot newspapers. All have inspired my poems.

Do you think the use of any of the first thre is cheating?

 

[annaswirls]

I use wikipedia (or just google things) all of the time. It helps me learn more about the subject so I have a deeper well from which to draw inspiration.

This has been especially helpful for writing the triggers. I did not know anything about foil covered windows and found out a number of reasons people do it (of course, in this case I did not write about any of them!)

If I am on a roll with a topic but need more history, I will use the internet to research. Like with my Mary Poppins poem about the bird lady, I got sucked into reading how her song was Walt Disney's all time favorite, etc.

Spell checker more than dictionary.

Thesaurus, never. I feel like I have to own a word before I can use it. Which probably seriously limits my writing. I guess it is akin to researching new information. It is not cheating, it is just expanding your range.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

I use wikipedia (or just google things) all of the time. It helps me learn more about the subject so I have a deeper well from which to draw inspiration.

This has been especially helpful for writing the triggers. I did not know anything about foil covered windows and found out a number of reasons people do it (of course, in this case I did not write about any of them!)

If I am on a roll with a topic but need more history, I will use the internet to research. Like with my Mary Poppins poem about the bird lady, I got sucked into reading how her song was Walt Disney's all time favorite, etc.

Spell checker more than dictionary.

Thesaurus, never. I feel like I have to own a word before I can use it. Which probably seriously limits my writing. I guess it is akin to researching new information. It is not cheating, it is just expanding your range.

Damn! Google! Of course. I suck at these poll thingies. I use the internet for research too.

 

[annaswirls]

ha! I always forget a category or two and wish I could go back and change them but you CAN'T! Wahh.

You can always go make a new Thread and have the mods "delete" this one if you want. I have done that. On several occasions.

My family and I imagine that we have a google in the upper right hand corner of whatever room we are in. We look up and shout "Google! Who wrote 27 Jennifers? Google!!! (Raised fist when no answer comes down from the heavens)

Someday....

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

I don't think I'll bother. Folks can add their own particular tools - I forgot The Book of Forms by Lewis Turcot too!!!

One's own pet Google - sweet!

 

[annaswirls]

I didn't realize you could pick multiple answers. I really need to read directions.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

I didn't realize you could pick multiple answers. I really need to read directions.

- no worries, we still adore you.

 

[Angeline]

I have the Merriam-Webster toolbar on my computer. I've always used the most recent edition of their collegiate dictionary for editing, so I'm used to it. And they have a thesaurus so I usually don't go to Roget. I use rhyme zone when I'm doing a form piece with a rhyme scheme.

I always have a copy of Turco's Book of Forms nearby.

I read a lot. I always have two or three books going at a time. I read news on Google and wherever the news stories send me. For example, I'll always go to the New York Times to read Maureen Dowd, who I like, and other opinion pieces there. I read poetry all over the web. And I listen to a lot of poetry online, mostly at UBU, but other places too. And I listen to music. Especially when the poetry is about a type of music or a specific artist, I listen over and over and try to find words that match the sound of the music.

I'll also look up info on a need to know basis. If I'm putting a reference to a myth or another piece of literature, I'll check sources online to make sure I understand things correctly.

And this is rare, but if I think there's some grammar or style thing I need to check, I have a wonderful book called Words Into Type. I use it a lot when I edit to check stuff. It's a great resource for grammar and style.

Oh and I'm pretty observant, I think. I'll often see something or someone when I'm out and about and start composing a poem or story around it. Sometimes it never gets past that moment of observation. Other times, it ends up in a poem.

 

[Safe_Bet]

Yeah, all of the above, Google, Spell Checker, etc. AFTER I've written the poem to "clean it up." (And I'll use RhymeZone VERY rarely during).

But the "tool" that helps me the absolute most is opening my eyes and REALLY looking around. I've never bought off on the concept of having a "muse". If I truly have one the dyke bitch spends WAY too freaking much time clubbing.

Anyway, what helps me the MOST isn't even looking - it's noticing. My very favoritest and bestest poems (in my opinion) were the easiest to write because I WASN'T struggling to find the right word or trying to "force" them. I suppose that this is because I write my best when emotions are present. Happy, sad, angry, horny, etc. = if I'm really feeling them then I really write better.

(So don't piss me off or I will crush your ass under a pile of poetry!!!!)

 

[WickedEve]

I've said this before over the years: I rely on my poetry trances. Yes, I am odd.


Oh, and dictionary.com

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I admit it I do use RhymeZone well you see how many rhymes you can find for 'mouth'?! I also use MSN Encarta usually to check meanings but it's got other bits and bobs on there

 

[champagne1982]

Well, I have Webster's Dictionary, The Concise English Oxford, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and about 3 atlases. When online, I go to Poets.Org and Google. Listening to music is helpful for my lyrical self to shine and I think I should try to have music on more often.

eta: Bartleby.com is another great site to reference when online.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I need peace when I am writing, to keep Ron happy (he said I was spending too much time away from him up here on my own ahhhhhh) I tried writing downstairs while he had the TV on and it was a disaster

 

[Tzara]

I Google a lot, to understand themes and metaphors, which usually end up at Wikipedia, because, I guess, I like learning things. Not that Wikipedia is godspeak, but I think it's fairly accurate.

Fairly.

And, of course, I go on from there.

I use online dictionaries a lot. For definitions, of course (I want to be accurate in using a word), but also sometimes for etymology, because I sometimes want to use the earth beneath the word for something.

And I use RhymeZone, absolutely. If I'm writing rhyming form, I need suggestions for rhyme. Lots of suggestions.

Not clever enough to spring them up on my own.

I do hope it's a multiple choice poll, rather.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Well, I have Webster's Dictionary, The Concise English Oxford, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and about 3 atlases. When online, I go to Poets.Org and Google. Listening to music is helpful for my lyrical self to shine and I think I should try to have music on more often.

eta: Bartleby.com is another great site to reference when online.

Music! Yes! It's so much the background to my writing I forgot the role it plays,

 

[annaswirls]

Looking at art often sparks something.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Looking at art often sparks something.

Won't let me in just asks for password login

 

[naamplao]

Life is my tool for poetry...it can be my current life or reading a diary that I kept when I was in my late teens/twenties. When I want the lines to rhyme then my rhyming dictionary is not far at hand.

I haven't been writing much poetry lately though and it bothers me a little. I cannot force a write. On the few times I have sat down specifically to write I have drawn a blank or worse yet written something so trivial or lame I am embarrassed to show it.

Usually the situation I am in will call for a poem...it was that way in the past. I would think of a nice line or two...play with them and soon a poem flowed from the pen...usually in 15-30 minutes. Then I'd tinker with lines for a few days afterward.

My muse has been on vacation for quite a while. Haven't felt like writing for a while for some reason.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

Poetry tools

I'll use a thesaurus and hyming dictionary when I'm searhing for a new word.
Generally to refresh my vocabulary, rather than a new word (but research did turn up 'muliebral madefactions', which are now a part of my vocabulary)

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I'll use a thesaurus and hyming dictionary when I'm searhing for a new word.
Generally to refresh my vocabulary, rather than a new word (but research did turn up 'muliebral madefactions', which are now a part of my vocabulary)

a hyming dictionary sounds great!

 

[Liar]

When I write in English:

A translative dictionary, to see what words I can use.

Google, to see how others use them.

 

[EroticOrogeny]

'hyming' -in reference to hymens, requiring a steady stream of virgins, or hymns, for which a plentitude of people are present?

 

[UnderYourSpell]

'hyming' -in reference to hymens, requiring a steady stream of virgins, or hymns, for which a plentitude of people are present?

you coined it so it's your choice ! don't know whether you are male or fem so it may colour your choice! though hymns may be in the biblical sense

 

[EroticOrogeny]

you coined it so it's your choice ! don't know whether you are male or fem so it may colour your choice! though hymns may be in the biblical sense

hymn seems more appropriate. As a mainly monogamous man I don't care to keep a catalog of conquests and also seems to make more sense

 

[UnderYourSpell]

hymn seems more appropriate. As a mainly monogamous man I don't care to keep a catalog of conquests and also seems to make more sense

do you know what 'in the biblical sense ' means lol ?