In a post on Lit Reactor, Sara Tantlinger says writing poetry can make you a better prose writer. “If you find yourself feeling stuck or uninspired while writing a novel, turning to poetry may not be your first choice to break through writer’s block, but it can be an invaluable tool,” she says. “Poetry as a method of storytelling has been in our blood for thousands of years.”
Tantlinger suggests using poetry to develop layered characters. As an exercise, she recommends writing a poem from the perspective of one of your characters. What topics and words would they choose? What is haunting them? “Peel the character back until their nerves are exposed,” she writes. “That is where their poetry originates.”
Poetry can also let you stretch your descriptive skills, in a way you might not in fiction. In contrast, you also have to be controlled and concise, while portraying big emotions and ideas in a small space. As an exercise, Tantlinger suggests finding a portion of your manuscript that lacks sensory descriptions. Write a poem that unlocks the sensory experience of the scene and see what imagery and descriptions you create.
Tantlinger also suggests writing a poem from the perspective of your setting. “How deeply does the setting affect the character’s wellbeing?” she asks. “A story’s setting provides the chance to determine the tone and mood, but it can also alter a character’s entire path and the choices they make.”
