Young Writers Society

First things first, head over to the NaPo Forum! Here you'll find fellow poet's threads, information topics, and other relevant event information. To get started, create your own thread! Give it a super fun name, and if you want to get crazy— maybe a theme! To find out more about how to get started, you can always click on the 2023 NaPo Information thread. In this topic, you can read more about what NaPo is, how to get started, and what bonuses are going to be included on YWS this month to celebrate!

Next, you're going to want to head to Badge Information. In my humble opinion, the 2023 badges are the best NaPo badges we've had yet! Collect as many as you can before the month is over! Badge challenges include finishing NaPo (30 poems/30 days), commenting on other YWSer NaPo threads, and attending Poetry Jams. Can you collect them all?

If you're up to the challenge, check out the April Madness competition and consider joining! This is an awesome March-Madness-esque bracket contest where YWS poets go head to head with their best writing from the month! It's a great way to get involved with the community and show off your killer poetry skills at the same time!

Don't forget to check out what other YWSers have posted so far! The forum is already filling up with many prospective NaPoers, and we're excited for you to join us!

Meshugenah is one of our trusty site admins, a co-leader of poetry crew, an incredible poet, and actually holds the YWS record for Most YWS NaPo threads completed. It's fair to say she knows her way around National Poetry Month. This week I picked Mesh's brain for all the details about her thread and process and even gained a few NaPo history gems and tips!



Meshugenah I think the biggest change is how many people have been participating, and how many friends have drifted away (though I love when they resurface just for April!). I don’t think we did April Madness the first few years (and I think that was a Rydia invention? Though I’m not positive without double checking), and jams didn’t really become a huge thing until Audy. Actually, I think jams may have preceded workshops? Or were kind of invented around the same time. I also didn't post most of my poetry, and I was way more concerned with looking like I knew what I was doing. I’ve embraced the fact I have no idea what I’m doing half the time, and all I’m doing is complaining about the weather/baseball/work/allergies/weather. I used to attempt to be erudite, and now I’m like nope! Have a poem about the cracks in the sidewalk and why I hate spring #698734.

(side note, I started going through the NaPo archives, and possibly Rydia’s poetry games is what helped set off jams in later years. And I think the first April Madness was 2013? At least that’s the earliest I found. Along with a thread about hosting a jam that year, too, though it wasn’t called such)

ALSO. There was a time when commenting on each others poems was just not a done thing. It actually caused some havoc at one point, and part of why we have the “comments welcome” tag that we use. Actually, I think those tags in general were also a relatively new thing at the time… anyway!



Meshugenah It shrunk (no, literally, it has!) but honestly I feel like I don’t sound like a teenager anymore, but that aside? The biggest difference is that I’ve read so much more (prose, poetry, etc.) that I feel like I have a better grasp on the language I’m using and how to better use it intentionally. There’s this point where we all are learning and finding not only our voice but how to even write and also learning what has come before, and we can’t really enter the conversation until we’ve read and written and just played and really learn for ourselves what works.



Meshugenah It’s cheaper than therapy.

On a non-flippant note, I usually feel like I’m always writing in my head. I used to pull out my phone in the middle of a run to gasp out a poem or two, and then continue on. I really haven’t been doing that the past 6 months, and it’s been really frustrating (the running and the writing), so we’ll see how this year goes. I’m hoping to start running again soon, so fingers crossed that it helps jump start the creative juices, too.



Meshugenah Off the top of my head, no. Some years (coughtwentytwentycough) were easy, but others I vary. I’m guessing there’ll be more on music and breath and the knowing of your body and what it should and shouldn’t do, just based on where I am. I’ve been sick on and off since the end of September (kids at work with no masks plus a lot of stuff circulating early and often this year plus two years of not really getting sick = lots of respiratory issues), thus the lack of running, etc. It’s affected a lot, from the obvious running, being able to play my clarinet, to even just having the energy to get through a work week.



Meshugenah It’s a marathon, not a sprint! It’s easy to have a day or two of five poems each - the hard part is consistently writing, no matter how bad it is. That’s always been the hardest part for me, random year of 50+ poems aside.



Meshugenah Read poetry! Not just YWS poetry, but everything you can. Read what’s currently being published, read the poet laureates, find novels in verse (I enjoy throwing them at kids at work every April), read the classics, read poetry in other languages (both in their original and translated) - just, read poetry. I didn’t really start being happy with my poetry until I was almost done with my undergrad degree (literature!), and I focused primarily on poetry (medieval up to roughly the invention of the novel), and that’s what really helped things click for me. A few other things helped (music, a linguistics class, etc.) but immersing myself in language and poetry as a form in English (over many centuries and changes) and a handful of other languages made the most difference.

Ironically, though, song lyrics trip me up - maybe it’s because I see them as so integrated into a melody that I can’t separate the two. I also have similar issues with poetry that’s meant as slam poetry (especially if it’s not formatted well for the page), but I think it goes back to music and having lessons from when I was little. I think in rhythm and beats, so not seeing it on the page as I want it read (or as it’s supposed to be read/sung) is very disorienting.

If you’re struggling, read poetry. Respond to poetry. Try to write something in the style of/as a rebuttable, etc. Interact with classics or current poets - try to join the conversation, even if it’s only ever you (and YWS) that sees it. That’s part of learning the craft, too. And don’t be afraid for it to be terrible. Heck, a few of us used to do either collab poems as an exercise (sometimes just in speed responding to each other in a round), or would each take a first line and see where we went with it.





Mesh offered some great insights for us to consider! What do you find most difficult during NaPo? How do you keep up the motivation to keep writing? Breaking up your goals into manageable chunks and digging out prompts are a couple quick ideas to get the gears turning. Mesh's threads have been some of my favorite to follow in the the years I've participated and I can definitely recommend her poetry as a good read! If you want to check out Meshugenah's current 2023 NaPo thread you can find it under the title "deluge" under the NaPoWriMo forum.

If you've been around the site around NaPo season *cough* I mean April... you've probably heard of the infamous "Poetry Jam" - but reasonably so, not everyone knows what a Poetry Jam is or how they can get involved with one!

What is a Poetry Jam?
A Poetry Jam is an opportunity to write poetry at the same time as other users in a shared document. They are similar to the popular YWS "Write-Ins" and are usually hosted in a Writers Feed Pad, Rise-Up Pad, or other shared writing pad link. Users can write poems, chat about poetry or life, or even collaborate in writing poetry together. Often during NaPo a poetry jam will feature a poetry prompt at the top - but these are completely optional unless stated otherwise. Sometimes these Jams are planned in advance and advertised around the site, sometimes they're spontaneous. They're most often posted in the Poetry Jam Club .

What's a Shared Writing Pad?
Well it just looks like a document except everyone is assigned colors, it's a bit similar to a Google Docs document in that everyone can write in real-time with their text showing up on the screen. You can ask whoever opened the pad what the language/content rules are if you're unsure - but poetry jams are normally pretty clean. If you're uncomfortable with anything let the owner of the pad or a moderator know. Also if it's on Writers Feed Pad all YWS Rules apply in the chat meaning keep it family friendly, respect all requests and warnings from moderators, and rate your spot appropriately if your writing deals with mature themes or language. Outside of these rules, the only major rule to remember is not to delete other people's work without asking if you're no the person who started the jam or write-in and sometimes it's nice to ask permission before writing comments within their work itself. That's really all you need to know!

Who can participate?
Anyone with a YWS account can jump it! (The secret is, you don't even have to be participating in NaPo or writing poetry at the moment to be present in a Poetry Jam). Just log on with your YWS username and password if it's a WFP, and you can join. If you want to check it out, that's perfectly fine - no poetry experience or special invitation needed. People normally identify themselves with their username or a nickname, so you should see some familiar usernames on the top right-side of the screen.

Can I host a Poetry Jam myself?
Absolutely! If you're interested in hosting a poetry jam - you can! It might seem like it's often moderators hosting these, but if you have a prompt you want to try out with some other folks or would like some company writing - go for it! Post over in the Poetry Jam Club or the I'm Writing, Come Join Me thread and see who shows up.

How do Poetry Jams count towards NaPo
This year we are offering a special NaPo Badge for those who attend and log attendance at 5+ Poetry Jams during April.

Collect jam jars (ie links) from at least 5 different Poetry Jams, Write-ins or Poetry Discussions. To count for "attendance" you need to be in the jam for at least 20 minutes and contribute to the discussion. If the times of mod-run write-ins don't work for your schedule, you can also run your own and get others on the site to attend! To count a jam that you ran yourself for this badge, make sure to post your write-in link on the Poetry Jam Club (and consider subscribing to the club, too, so you don't miss other people's write-ins!).

Poetry Jams can be a fun way to meet other users and get to know people and their writing a little bit more than you're able to just by reading works in the Poetry Forum - it also allows for immediate feedback and collaboration, so they can be a great source of inspiration and fun especially during Poetry Month! I hope you try out jamming with us sometime this April!

It's exciting to watch as the NaPo forum starts to fill up with threads. There's so much poetry potential stored in all of them! I always end up subscribing to almost every single NaPo thread (10/10, would recommend to a friend), but here are just a few that have already grabbed my eye with their short, snappy, attention-catching titles.

@Grimmwolf -> break is such an action-packed verb! It sets the tone for some intense, movement-filled poetry. Grimmwolf's thread opens with an introspective lyric from the titular song Break by Alex G. I'm excited to see where this thread take us!

@rida -> Panopticon is a historic term meaning "a circular prison with cells arranged around a central well, from which prisoners could at all times be observed" (you can credit the one and only Google.com for that definition). Intrigued? So am I! There are so many directions that rida could take this thread, and it's definitely worth sticking around to see where it goes.

@TheBlueCat -> lacuna has such a pretty ring to it. And it has a pretty poetic meaning, too: "an unfilled space or interval; a gap." I can't wait to see how TheBlueCat fills in this space and interval with poetry!

@figmoon -> skeleton funerals has some spookier vibes - the perfect thread to follow for anyone whose favourite holiday is Halloween! Skeleton funerals is a very poetic concept and I think it lends itself to some beautiful imagery as well. I'm definitely going to subscribe to this thread (and maybe attend some skeleton funerals while I'm there).