HOW TO GET MOTIVATED TO WRITE POETRY (Part 1)

I hear writers at poetry groups and read a lot of comments on social media from writers who don't know how to get motivated and stay motivated to write. (Famous poets agonized about it too.) Then they get discouraged and spiral down into a pit of inactivity. I think this is true for all writers, but especially poets, because poetry is, in part, about feelings. The poet is performing for the reader and that means exposing themselves--their most intimate, vulnerable selves. Pulling your figurative pants down is not a very motivating prospect for any writer. Famous poets knew this. Poetry books are full of it. I learned a lot from behavioral psychology classes in college. Perhaps writers in MFA programs should have to complete The Psychology of Writing 101 as a prerequisite. I got even more from therapy over the years. (Therapy is a prerequisite for highly sensitive people like poets.) I couldn't seem to maintain the momentum to start and finish what I wanted or needed to do in any form. That mindset transferred directly to writing poetry as I began writing Grasshopper Dreams. Just because poems are shorter it doesn't mean writing poetry is easier. A skilled poet creates one poem for what a novelist writes in an entire chapter. That's overwhelming. (Continue reading in Part 2 for some helpful ideas.)