Mental Meanderings

Final DWC, PPP, & Pulling Lifes Strings.

Well it’s the final day of October. Actually here in my time zone it’s already the first of November because I’m running late. I’m tired and just want to go to bed but I’m here writing 850 words tonight, the final night of DWC and glad for it. I’m a little intimidated and excited about the launching of NaNo. It’s officially NaNoWriMo for me right this very minute actually so I could if I wanted to start writing my NaNo novel but that’s not something I’ll get into in the wee hours, especially since when I start writing I’ll probably get enthralled in the writing that I’d far surpass the 850 limit and forget about the fact that it’s already past bedtime.

I’ve got yet another busy REAL LIFE day tomorrow. For some reason real life is inundating me at the moment which is a shame because besides my writing responsibilities and desires I’ve got that new game to play. Instead today I had a training meeting and tomorrow my sister is visiting in the morning. Hopefully she won’t stay long and I’ll have the opportunity to either play or get some work done in the afternoon.

I did pretty well this evening. I finally completed an article for The Tools of Poetry Workshop. I realise now that the block was probably focusing on the wrong topic. For the past two weeks I’ve been trying to write about Simile and couldn’t get anything down. So I focused on what I needed to say and kept coming back to how important Simile is to imagery. Which I can’t discuss since I haven’t done a lesson on Imagery, or rather I hadn’t, because today I wrote and then posted a lesson on imagery.

Talking about imagery this week opens me up to simile next week and metaphor the week after and I’m feeling much more confident about both of those lessons. It does however show me where failing to have a lesson plan and course outline hinders my ability to run this workshop. Both are on my to-do list and I will definitely have to move them to higher priority.

Today I created in/outs so that members can suggest topics to cover and from those I’ll start planning an order for the workshop. I’ve already realise that some of the past eight weeks would have done better in different orders. Meter for example has a basic introduction but no detail and at the time it’s simply because the more detailed descriptions are for advanced classes. But I feel like imagery, simile, and metaphor could and perhaps should have been introduced sooner. Meter itself is an advanced concept.

Beyond the Tools of Poetry Workshop I’m also working my way into the Poet of the Week Discussion and Form Poetry Seminar. Both are in their fledgling stages, lots of planning and intension but very little action. With these two I’m hoping to encourage others to offer essays to fill in the weeks. Part of what I’ve come to realise is that despite being a control freak I can’t do it all on my own. Not something of this magnitude.

Some weeks I’ve faced the turmoil wondering why I’m bothering at all when there are at least two other courses available on WDC that will help people with their poetry. But then other days when I’m not in a low I realise the benefit and advantages of Persevering Poets Present above and beyond those courses. I should at some point write down those details since it would be good to reference them when I’m in a low and also be a great selling point for the group. I do now understand that to make Persevering Poets Present ALL it can be I’ll need to put some faith into existing members and delegate a little. It’s not something I can do on my own. I need help. Now the difficulty is deciding where people can help me and finding the right people to help in those areas.

Still, it’s all progressing along. New memberships are slow, group participation is lax but we aren’t having members self deleting through lack of participation. Another concept I’d like to develop is a monthly or bi-monthly newsletter to kind of bring the group back into the focal point of all its members. I really want to encourage some discussion on the Ponder Poetry board, and get some back and forth with regularity.

So many plans, so little time, but ultimately I believe I can make this group grow and flourish. That is of course, so long as I don’t give into fits of pique and delete the whole lot out of frustration. Thanks to my Bipolar these sorts of tendencies are not uncommon and while I try to avoid acting on those sorts of impulses sometimes I do regrettable things due to manic lows or highs.

Thankfully along with my determination to make something out of PPP I’m focusing my energies on bring order into my chaotic life. Unfortunately, I am setting a poor example tonight being late to bed.