Organize what you show and tell your audience in your poems like a movie director.
Imagine your poem as though you held a camera and planned a sequence, choosing what to include “in the frame,” and where to go from shot to shot. Choose visual imagery and other poetic elements, and how to present them, whether in close-up, middle distance, or long shot, and move from one set of images to another as you uncover the structure of your poem. By the end of the workshop, poets will have two poems which hold the attention like a good movie.
Live video conference: This workshop will be held via our online video conferencing platform, Zoom. You can view brief tutorials on using the platform here. On the start date or the day before, participants will receive an email with login info (please check your spam if you don’t see it).
In this workshop you’ll learn:
- “Camera” placement
- Distance: close-up, middle distance, long shot
- Point of view
- Panning – presenting information in continuous sequence
- Cutting – presenting information in segments
- Narration/Dialogue
- Solo voice
- “Over the shoulder”
- “The two shot”
- Pace
- Line length
- Meter/rhythm
Time requirements
- 45-60 minutes weekly
Materials
- All reading materials will be provided.
Who should take this workshop?
- Those with experience writing narrative or story poems will benefit most from this approach to organizing such poems, but it also opens up the imagination for those who write lyric poetry – what do we show and tell the reader; how and when?
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.
