Young Writers Society

Do you know how long it takes me to write a poem? No?! Let me give you a hint:

Longer than a minute; shorter than half an hour.

Well, that's the time frame. Whenever I write poetry, I literally do it in one sitting in a matter of minutes. No matter how long or short. And I feel like I'm cheating. I know there's got to be at least some people who spend countless weeks on a single poem. And poetry is an art form; why rush?

I do it anyway!

So, I ask you... is it wrong?

most of my poems which have won awards, i made in a short time of some random inspiration. no kidding.

Im still new at writing poems and it only takes me ten minutes! no i dont think your cheating, you must have a real knack for it, thats all

The time it takes to write a poem doesn't really mean anything. Some people scratch their chin for a minute before writing the next line, then wind up erasing it anyways. Some just say "Ooo! I got it!" and grab a pencil and start jotting down lines as fast as they can, and edit extensively afterwards.

Whatever works, works. Thoughts sometimes flicker through my mind barely slow enough for me to get it down, sometimes they tickle the back of my mind for hours, tantalizingly close to consciousness, and I have to slowly coax them onto the paper. And sometimes it just flows without any inhibitions at all, and I barely even have to think about what I'm writing, until it's done and i go "Holy $%@#, did I really just write this?" But that's very rare. Unfortunately, I usually have to work to get the ideas, thoughts, emotions, etc. on paper in congruence with some structure.

I agree, some people are quicker than others, but not Seamus Heaney could produce a good, finished poem in less than half an hour. That's ridiculous. It's one thing to freewrite and then expand upon it later, but a complete poem being written in that short amount of time will be rubbish. I don't care how many awards it wins you, a rubbish poem is easily identifiable and a rushed poem even moreso. Don't do injustice to art; if you're serious about it, you need to put a bit more work in than that.

I usually write when the spirit moves me. this could take an hour or as long as it takes to type the words flashing in front of my head. Usually the later, if the poem is good or meant to be a simple flash I leave it, but if I want more out of it I let it sit for a while and then edit it. But I'll try all kinds of composition

lol i dont have the attention span for a poem that takes me more than 20 minutes....

It tends to take me anything from ten minutes to half an hour (maybe a little bit longer) to write a poem, but then I go over it a couple of times, and my tendency to type so fast that every other word is misspelt adds an extra twenty or so minutes to the overall time it takes me to write a poem. I'd say just write for however long you feel like writing for-when it feel "right", it probably is right.

I usually just write a couple of lines in a few minutes, leave it, then get back to it later for a couple of minutes again. That technique works very well for me, though with others, it might not be as effective. All in all, it might take me about half an hour to an hour to complete one poem.

I think everyone's chosen time for writing, length-wise, won't be the same. One thing I can say is that you need to spend as much time as possible on it to make it perfect. If that's 30 minutes, or five days, so be it. I go through several drafts of poems, although usually in a day or two. Only occasionally will I put a poem away and bring it back out in a few days.

I don't think it is wrong at all, especially if it works for you!

generally I type my poems straight away. If i have the window open then I can spend hours flitting in and out of it adding things in or taking away. Though I do generally write them all in one sitting, I edit a lot straight after I've written it. However this has only been the way I write recently, I used to do it differently so...

Time really does not matter while writing the poem.All that matters is the amount of focus you have while writing your work.

As soon as inspiration strikes it takes me a matter of minutes to get it all written down
No matter what time it is (usually at one am xD) but then in the morning I look it over to see if it's worth posting
If not I'll trash it or put it aside. The longest part is the waiting for inspiration to hit.

If you got an idea and it takes you two minutes to write it down, then let it be. I've sat in lessons and written poems whilst wating for the teacher to start talking already- if the idea hits you, it hits you. Inspiration doens't stick to a schedale.

(:

I don't think that timing really matters, each person works at their own pace. But I think for most people they wrote their best poems fairly quick and out of nowhere, because it's usually at random moments where one finds inspiration, and the emotion flows heavier at that time, rather than later when trying to keep that same emotion for weeks and effectively showing it in poetry.