Why am I getting worse at writing poetry?

Question

I started off writing really bad (poorly written) poetry, then I got some really good ones, but now, I can't get anything good! I just don't understand. I'm trying to write a poem thats a story of my friend and mine friendship (gramical error, how would i phrase that sentence?) but I just cant get it to work! Any ideas why my poetry is getting worse? and any ideas to get it better?

(im 14, written 36 poems)

Answer 1

You are probably better than you were when you started, but because you have more skill, you are probably being a little bit more critical of yourself.  Because of that, you are probably assuming that the quality of your poetry is reverting back to how it was, when in actuality, it's better, but the progress is just static as opposed to exponential.  In other words, give yourself time to keep improving - don't rush anything.

Answer 2

You thought you were really good and kind of jinxed yourself. That happens to me. I use less effort because I think that people like it so I shouldn't change. But I end up changing because I'm not as careful with what I say.

Answer 3

I'd say with this particular one you're just not quite ready to write it. You're trying to force a thought that's not really complete yet so it's coming out crappy. Give it time it will come together you just need to wait for the right moment of inspiration.

You could phrase it like this:

I'm trying to write a poem about a special friendship that I share.

Answer 4

I'm trying to write a poem thats a story of my friend and mine friendship

change to

Im trying to write a story poem about my friend and our friendship.

Answer 5

It is just a phrase. Would you expect to do everything perfectly always? And maybe you are biased to your writing in the first place, so it is possible that you are not getting worse but worser.

Answer 6

The best advice I can give you with regard to writing is to just write.  Think about your firendship and then write whatever comes into your head.  You don't have to put it in poetic form straight away, just write down your thoughts and memories.  Once you have a few things written down then you can start to construct your thoughts into a poetic form.

If you are really struggling for inspiration then just put your pen down and walk away, go for a walk or play a computer game anything that will take your mind off it for a while - your subconscience will still be thinking about it in the background, but you won't go crazy trying to think of things.  Then you can come back to it with a fresh mind and you may well surprise yourself.

Your writing will not get worse unless you force it - don't try and force a poem out of something you are really struggling with - choose another topic to write about that you find a litlle easier, then come back to the original topic you were struggling with later.   Remember poetry is about putting what inspires you into a written form, if something isn't inspiring you to write don't write about it - you'll only be disappointed with the result.

Feel free to email me if you want any more advice.

God bless.

Answer 7

Writing comes and goes.  Most importantly, writing is something you have to feel.  The more you think about what you write, in my experience, the less feeling there is.  I'd say go back to writing bad poetry that means something to you, and it will start getting better again.