Young Writers Society

I write quite a bit of poetry , but I would like to get help on advancing . What's the diffrent styles ( I am speaking of types like ballads) ? How do you mark rhythm ? I know it's stressed and unstressed , but I always mess up in class on it . How can you develop good writing techniques ? This is what I was meant to be ; I need help.

Hey, Raven!

First of all, even if you're intent on practicing classical styles, be aware that there's much more out there than what was taught in your English class. I think English teachers choose sonnets and forms and rhyming things because it's easier to concretely teach. But there's a whole world of free-form poetry that relies on different standards, and is really popular these days?!

Here's a link with a bunch of names of forms you can further research.

As for stressed and unstressed syllables, listen carefully to the way the people around you pronounce words (if you're a native speaker).

Like this word: today .
The second syllable (day), has more stress than the first, even if it's not louder.

This word: daily .
The first syllable generally has the stress.
There are other foots (types of stressed/unstressed mixes in words), and you can check out this page for some more info~

As for developing good writing techniques, I'd say practice and read. You read to know what other people are doing and what they think is good, and you practice to see what you can do, what you want to do, and what you think is good. c:

Does that help?

yes that helps alot thank you sooooooooooo much

I've been doing what you have just described for a few years. I find that the best way to learn new techniques is to first take the most famous poetry and listen to analysis of them to find WHY they are famous. You would be surprised what a little alliteration, symbol structure and rhyme scheme can do in the right way. I.E. The Raven by you know who .

Poetry is more something you need to feel than study. You can of course study it, but write what sounds good to you, not what fits into rules.

Its all a matter of personal bias you see; some people find pleasure in writing what sounds good to them, and some people find pleasure in finding better ways to improve their writing. I think the Young Writers Society endorses that because its primary function is reviews, although the main philosophy may be to share writing it is structured in a way where reviews are prevalent when showing more work..

With that said I do feel poetry, if you look at all my poems you will see I have a funky rhyme scheme that changes between stanza's because that is simply how I said it when I wrote it. Although, the true art of poetry to me, is not finding rhythm when I say it, but when you say it. Edgar Allen Poe is famous because he used multiple techniques to make his poems more poetic, and make them natural to the person who read them.

Its kinda like saying an artist strives to be a better artist because its what he loves to do. It is more of an emotional then a rationality.