The Poetteer

Hello Poetteers, I started writing poetry on spring 2008 and a few months later I started sharing them on a blog. I found my courage early on. Sometimes it staggers but it continues to grow. Define your why : what’s your purpose for sharing your poetry? Remind yourself of it when you question yourself. Know that it can evolve esp with your life experiences. Mine started as a way to express my love for nature and faith. Afterwards it changed to express my emotions and now my purpose is to spread mental health and cultural awareness. Practice : Find your voice. Know that it’ll start of decent and continue to improve. Done is better than perfect. Read a lot of poetry to get a feel of the genre. When writing your own pause on the reading to not let it subconsciously affect your voice. Trust readers : get your trustworthy and honest friends to read and give you feedback. As you get compliments from friends and strangers keep a positivity file. Read them when you start doubting yourself. Pus...

Hello Poetteers, Reading poetry helped me feel less alone in my hurt. I write poetry to process my emotions and experiences. From it, I gain some clear perspective on lessons and solutions. I am able to let go and move forward. I've noticed a pattern in some of my poetry. I add the definition, observations made, and emotions it brings. Maybe the piece is fully positive. If not, it'll start with the negativity and end it with positivity. My pieces are more literal and introspective. But I am starting to love experimenting with more figurative language and coming up with rhymes and metaphors. With my poetry, I hope to spread mental health and cultural awareness. To shine a light on faith and self love. I want to help bring diverse representation into the poetry world.  What is your poetic voice and style?  Stay inspired, Fida More : poetry books | editing service

Hello Poetteers, For a while now I’ve been coming to the point where I dreading blogging. I ask myself why I should repeat the information I already share in my newsletter. I have been blogging for almost a decade. I started when I discovered poetry and wanted a platform to share them. Eventually, my blog changed from original poems to poetry tips. I went from sharing on my blog to sharing on Instagram . And then the poetry tips moved to my newsletter . This is my last blog post. I feel it's stagnant. There is no growth/ it's not bringing anything. My focus has changed from my blog to my newsletter and PoetteerChat . I will always be writing poetry, sharing behind the scenes and poetry tips. The old posts will remain online. I am planning on repurposing the content. I hope we stay in touch. Stay inspired, Fida

Hello Poetteers, Poetry is messy, in good and bad ways. I like to stay organized or my mind will feel chaotic. Also, you can look back at when you wrote specific poems to see where you’re mind was at. You intentionally don't want to repeat old poems but there will be moments of serendipity. Use track changes when editing your poem.  In the document name say whether it’s a draft, edited or final copy.  Or maybe have all the versions of the poem in one doc.  Have another file for scraps of poems you didn’t use.  Maybe electronic is not your thing and you print it out. Use a different colored pen to write in the margins.  Use excel to keep track of when you wrote the poem, when you edited and how many times, when you shared or published it.  Keep a checklist of how to edit your poem to use each time.  Bonus : How to organize your poetry book .  Are your edits organized? Join my newsletter for a free editing checklist. Stay ...

Hello Poetteers, I noticed several of you are having trouble keeping track of your work. Poems scattered everywhere. It can be a bad thing or a good thing. You can find it later and surprise yourself with what you wrote or look at them differently. Either way, don't throw away your older poems. One way to keep your poems organized is to keep it together by theme. I organize my poems by months they were written in. I love using excel for my business stats. You can use it to keep track of the poems you have by title, date written and whether you shared it or not. Also on excel, you can add another tab for submissions. List where it's submitted, when, and what the response was. Or check out these resources, Submittable or Duotrope. I have a writing folder on my desktop with subfolders: Ideas Month Theme Or when I was researching tips to organize poetry I found a writer that kept these subfolders: Ideas In Progress Completed Works Journals and Free-writes ...

Hello Poetteers, As I write and share my poetry I've noticed a few mistakes poets have made. Leaving their name out of their poetry graphic. With leaving out your name, you make it easier for someone to take it and call it their own. Adding your name will make it harder for your work to be plagiarized. It will make it easier for readers to find more of your work.                       Not keeping track of and organizing their poetry. Without an organization system, you may forget your ideas or end up rewriting or resharing an old poem.  Not adding their book on Goodreads. Goodreads is a place where readers keep track of what they read and their book reviews. ( Goodreads tutorial ). Believing rhyme words is what makes a good poem. Rhyme words is a bonus to a good poem. A poem is a piece of writing that shares emotion in a concise way.  Fighting and pushing away learning and writing poetry. I f...

Hello Poetteers, Back in May , I revealed I was working on a poetry prompt book. With some help of a couple readers, I finally came up with the title for the book! It also has a publication date of Nov 7, 2017. Drumroll, please! Add it to Goodreads  first. It's also available for preorder . And the title is... Love Yourself: A Journey to Healing Stay inspired, Fida

Hello Poetteers, Yesterday was day three of the slay edits challenge . The prompt was a poetry lesson. See my response in the video below. Stay inspired, Fida

Hello Poetteers, In this video, I share how haiku can be a stepping stone to poetry. Fun fact: When I first got into poetry one of my first pieces was writing several haikus to be one long poem. I think that's where I found that poetry form wasn't for me but then being introduced to free verse and seeing it's my style. Stay inspired,  Fida 

Hello Poetteers, Today we are revisiting some of my favorite and most popular posts I’ve done through the years. Some of my most popular posts are my original poetry . I really enjoyed the prompt to write a love letter between two inanimate objects. As Ramadan is here and bullet journaling is becoming popular, this post is well loved. Here is how the first month of bullet journaling went. If you would love to read more from me, read my poetry book A to Z Poetry. Relive the announcement here. Thank you, Fida

Hello Poetteers, Sectioning off your poetry collection can be difficult. The easiest way to section it is by theme or topic. For example, if you have a series of nature poems, group them together. You may have two poems that present opposite ideas but are in conversation with one another, so pair them connection apparent to the reader. It’s a good idea to keep poems together that are written in the same creative period.  Maybe your poetry collection does not even need to be sectioned off if it's one big theme or reads like a story.  Maybe you can get more on the emotions side of the piece use an adjective that describes that set of poems as the section title. Another strategy is a lyric ordering, in which each poem is linked to the previous one, repeating a word, image, subject, or theme.  Order it in a way to create a sense of growth or evolution. Other times I follow one or several emotionally charged poems with one that provides comic or other relief. O...

Hello Poetteers, I started #PoetteerChat because I barely saw any twitter chats about poetry. That is starting to change. How to participate Chats are time specific, so be timely.  Don't directly tag the host unless you are having a conversation with them. If you are just answering a question of the chat then don't. Then the only people who will see the tweet is the people who follow both you and the host. The chat is for everyone participating. The chat is created to help you grow and create new friendships. Questions are presented as Q1, Q2, etc. Answer the questions by A1, A2, etc so that we know which questions the responses belong to.  Use hashtag specific to chat, so that everyone participating can see what you have to say.  Engage with other participants. Invite those who may be interested.  Suggest topics for future chats.  How to host Choose a day and time.  Choose theme or topic.  It can be a one-time thing. If re-o...

Hello Poetteers, In the beginning of the month, there was an imperfect boss campaign . It was changed up a bit for us to share the good things we bring to the world. I wanted to share on here what I wrote. A year ago I made the declaration that this is a positive space. I really feel it's true. I've heard people say that they feel the positivity when they come into my space. They feel the encouragement and inspiration when they read my work and speak to me. I want to continue to live through that declaration. Inspire. It's the word I live by. I've been an indie author for almost four years and only in the past year do I really feel my writing is noticed. When people started to tell me that my work touched them, it surprised me. It feels good to know that when it's all you wanted to do. We sometimes, myself included, get caught up in our work and forget about the journey. I looked back and again it surprised me. I built this dream. Stay inspired, Fida...

Hello Poetteers, You may not notice this. I didn't either. Our writing/art changes with the seasons or weather. I do know that the environment has an effect on our writing. It may get darker. Maybe different from what you usually do. With a rainy day or in a dark environment I may not write as much or at all. When it’s sunny or I’m in a well-lit place I’ll be in a writing flow. Being in a room where I see others being productive like in a coffee shop or bookstore I am able to write more. What you read and write or simply the mood you’re in will affect your writing. Sometimes your mind is in a different place, wanting you to write something or work on something else altogether. For example, you have to write a blog post but you keep thinking of the story you want to add to or maybe it’s the other way around. Take a break to switch it up. You can come back to it later that day. If you are in a bad mood you write something dark or the opposite of it to pull yourself out of i...

Hello Poetteers, A dream day of a poet would be to spend the whole day reading and writing poetry and chatting with fellow poets. But the reality is that we have to balance poetry with life. You might be able to squeeze in an hour of reading a poetry collection or writing poetry. We would love to have all our poetry in one place in a virtual folder or physical notebook. There is a chance to try that. But throughout the day with a job, family, cooking, etc we don’t have time to write, so you have scraps of paper everywhere with poetry ideas and verses jotted down. Sometimes you forget why that line came to mind and where you were going with it. I haven’t tried it yet, but you can use an audio recording device or feature on your phone to help you better understand your thoughts later when you finally get the time to sit down. I consider my life with poetry to almost be my ideal lifestyle. How does poetry look like in your daily life? Stay inspired, Fida

Hello Poetteers, This blog is for me but it is also for you. Usually, I am the one to give you word and poetry prompts. Sometimes the prompts aren’t up your alley or you want your own set of words instead of a general set of word prompts. I am open to receiving suggestions. You always create your own set of word prompts. There are several ways to get started and places to pull words from. Open a thesaurus or dictionary and look for works that stand out. Narrow in on an event and pick words that come from it. Example: After the inauguration and women’s march all these words popped up in my mind. That’s how I came up with the March poetry prompts .  Pick a theme and the words that go with it.  Most poetry prompts last for a month. Sometimes that can be too much. You could do one that goes one prompt per week or 7 prompts in one week and gauges if that week is one of writing or not. Another option is to simply cut it in half and have 15 prompts for the whole month. ...

Hello Poetteers, As I read poetry, I like to note when I’m inspired. if it’s an ebook I use the notes feature to add notes and it can be as long as you want it to be. With a physical book, you are limited with the margins, so I have a notebook with me. My notes include how the poem made me feel, the thoughts or memories the poem brought me. The inspiration unfolds in different ways. Once I read the poem I may write my own version of that poem or write like I’m talking to the author. I would add a continuation to the piece. The continuation could be similar thoughts or thoughts opposite of it. I will share my experience of what the author talked about in the poem. Have you written a response poem? stay inspired, Fida DOWNLOADABLE EDITION Purchase a downloadable version of the Response Poetry Guide so you can reference it whenever needed. Click Here For More Info.  

Hello Poetteers, I've written and published poetry collections. I've written a novel in verse before. My next step is to write one that is publishable. On my blog, I've shared my poetry bucket list. Initially, I was able to cross two things off my list: Publish a poetry collection (I self-published two books, A TO Z POETRY and HER OLIVES ) Lead a poetry workshop (I co-lead one at a camp) A couple years later I was able to cross off half my list: I've done live performances at the camps I've been to. I'm also doing some recorded pieces on SoundCloud . I made my first poetry short film this week and will be sharing it in the coming days. If you have seen my tweets I am working on being a poetry editor. Today I can cross two more things off my list: I've met several poets virtually I have an ebook poetry collection.  That's 8 out 11 things. I say that's pretty awesome! I'm also working to cross of a 9th item: I'm slowly w...

Hello Poetteers, In the beginning of my poetry career, I had done a few poetry submissions. After doing those few submissions I saw their appreciation for my work and stuck with their magazines. I eventually stopped doing new submissions. Even after the old ones, I stuck to closed their doors. At the end of 2016, I picked up the poetry submissions again. All the poetry submissions were to literary journals. I never submitted to small presses. For a while, I didn't find ones that seemed trusting. Once I found a small press it makes me feel better to recognize an author they have published. I may start sending to presses. It's best to find them through Poets Market, P&W, etc. I’ve heard bad stories about poetry submissions. It never happened to me but then one caught up to me. I found a new literary journal and it was the first one I saw with the theme that it had. It's hard to find literary journals with that theme. I'm not mentioning which journal and theme...

Hello Poetteers, The title is almost as important as the poem itself. Not all my poems include the title within the poem. And that's okay. I believe that sometimes the title of the poem should be within the poem. Together, it connects the two. It gives the reader an AHA moment. It shouldn't be put in there just for the fun of it. It has to add something to the poem. The title has to relate to or deepen the poem in some way or it will just seem repetitive. Speaking of repetitive, some of our original poems have the same title. If it's my own poems it's frustrating if they share the same title because then I don't know which one is which poem. If your poem does have the same title as someone else's poem there's nothing wrong with that. As you initially write the poem it's alright to leave it without a title or call it 'untitled' but do remember to add a title soon, so that you can distinguish between the poems. Also, you will know that the...