Top 10 Tips On Writing A Poem | For Beginners and Intermediate Writers

I have received a request to explain what is the best way to write and structure a poem. Based on what I have seen, structuring a poem is highly dependent on the poet and their preferred style of writing. I can, however, give tips that I learned the hard way from my personal experiences.

1. Start by picking a topic. Picking a topic filters your mind to focus on your chosen topic to continue building.

2. Don't force yourself to write the poem in order! I recommend writing as much as you can before you properly format the poem. Formatting can be done at anytime, so don't block your ideas to do so.

3. Use literary devices throughout your writing to enhance your poem. Literary devices include metaphors, similes, alliteration, irony, etc. In most poems, you will be able to find at least one example of a literary device.

4. Know which style of poetry you are looking to write. This is important to understand your end goal and what your poem will look like after final edits. I personally prefer free verse because you are not restricted to write within a set of rules. Other poetry types include haikus, couplets, sonnets, and acrostic poems.

5. Edit, edit, edit! Once you finish writing a poem, take a break from it for a few weeks so you can come back to it with a fresh mind. When you do this, you come back with new ideas to edit your poem and perfect it.

6. Know that you don't have limits. Write about everything you wish to. You choose whether to keep your writing personal or not, so be free.

7. Find a topic that inspires you or/and that you are passionate about.

8. Be original. Don't copy work from authors or published works. Being unique brings a new point of view to the world of writing.

9. Find poetic inspiration while writing your poem. Writer's block is common, but you can always find ways to inspire yourself to keep writing. Examples include nature, Pinterest, google images, and writing prompt websites. You could also see one of my previous blogs which contains ten juicy poetry ideas.

10. Use lines and stanzas wisely. Using lines and stanzas to format your poem can be beneficial when it is being read. This also organizes your poem by separating it in sections which contain about the same amount of writing.

Thank you for reading my top 10 tips on writing a poem! If you have more you would like to add on, please comment for future readers. Finally, don't forget to submit your poems and/or short stories to the Student Writing Feature on my Sunday blog post by filling out the form on the home page!