The Write Focus

5:40 / Fall into Poetry / Two Autumn Poems

What sparks a love of poetry?

The highbrow puzzles of e.e. cummings or the imagism of Ezra Pound. The lyrical music of John Keats or Christina Rossetti. The logical jumps and intellectual gymnastics of the metaphysical poets. The gimmick that marks Ferlinghetti. The emotions that lurk in a Longfellow sonnet. The intriguing story-songs that we just examined last month.

None of the above sparked my love of poetry. They deepened my love and enriched it, teased me by simultaneously engaging mind and heart.

My love of poetry was sparked by my mother. She gifted her daughters with a love of birds, of flowers, of nature itself. She quoted poems that she’d memorized over the years, poems that echoed with her love of nature, and those poems still echo for me. When I saw poetic lines expressed in nature, poetry lived for me.

Over my years, I’ve found more poems that live, some highbrow, some with a lowbrow snicker, some middlebrow which are frowned upon by intellectuals as “not clever enough”. I say if the poem is to a person’s taste, then who has a right to disrespect their choice?

And so we come to this episode’s poems, two that reveal autumn’s glory, both with marketing and writing ideas for anyone interested in a writing-focused life.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction / Taste in Poetry
• 02:16 Writer’s Growth / Marketing Lesson
• 03:34 Helen Hunt Jackson
• 03:51 “September”
• 05:39 Easter Eggs and Secrets
• 08:41 “October”
• 13:25 Famous Love Story / Clever Word Choice
• 16:05 Marketing Genius / Audience-Focused
• 18:00 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 20:07

 

Links

Helen Hunt Jackson bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Hunt_Jackson

Her poetry  https://www.poemhunter.com/helen-hunt-jackson/

#helenhuntjackson #writergrowth #marketingforwriters #septemberpoem #octoberpoem #octobersonnet

 

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/10/fall-into-poetry-two-autumn-poems.html

 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg   

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:39 / Fall into Poetry / Sweet Wine

Wine is heady stuff. A simple goblet of wine relaxes us; a mega-pint or a bottle can tip us into trouble.

Do you prefer the creamy full-body of a fine cabernet or the bite of a sauvignon blanc? Perhaps a medium red like a spicy Zinfandel or a lighter Riesling? Or a fruiter, sweet-forward wine, like a strawberry wine? Homemade, requiring only fresh strawberries, sugar, yeast, and water?

Hi, everyone. This week’s episode is another story-song, not a ballad of love, betrayal, and death. This is a sweet song which still has a bite, a rite of passage that leaves a heady memory in the speaker. It’s “Strawberry Wine,” launched into country music in 1996 but still speaking to all of us.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction / “Strawberry Wine”
• 02:42 Song Structure / 4 Requirements of Song
• 06:28 Impact Events / Chorus
• 08:27 Second Stanza / Bridge
• 10:51 Speaker’s Dilemma / Inherent Drives
• 14:20 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 16:29

 

LINKS

Song Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/deanacarter/strawberrywine.html

Video Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up06CryWQpE

Bio of M. Berg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matraca_Berg

Bio of G. Harrison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Harrison

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-sweet-wine.html

 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg   

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:38 / Fall into Poetry / Sweet Lies

Here’s an odd way to start a conversation about a song: the word moron.

Hi all. It’s the third episode in our autumn series Fall Into Poetry. We’ve featured two story-songs (narrative poems) that are ballads, not the modern power ballad of the music world but the literature-based ballad with its focus on the subjects of love, betrayal, and death.

This episode’s song is not a ballad, even though it concerns love and betrayal and the death of a relationship. It’s not even a story-song. It’s a lyric poem, which means that it expresses an emotion. We do have hints of a story but not really.

And we’re delving into the song by looking first at the word moron. Odd, I know. A little weird. But there you are.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction
• 03:44 Oxymoron / Shakespeare
• 07:52 Oxymoronic Characters
• 08:03 “Little Lies”
• 11:00 Stanza 2 Twist
• 13:23 Summation for Writers
• 14:20 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 16:26

LINKS

“Little Lies” performance https://youtu.be/uCGD9dT12C0

“Little Lies” lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fleetwoodmac/littlelies.html

#fleetwoodmac #christinemcvie #littlelies #oxymoron #hamlet #romeoandjuliet #poets #fictionwriters #indiepublishingforwriters

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-sweet-lies.html 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg   

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

 

5:37 / Fall into Poetry / Clown Faire

Story-songs, like last episode’s “Read my Mind” by Gordon Lightfoot, leave a mark in our memories. Very little is needed to return them to the foreground of our mind.

That’s also the case with this episode’s story-song, another ballad, this time for Broadway, written by the fantastic Stephen Sondheim, a great in American stagecraft.

I first encountered this song in 1976 as part of my chorus class, not on the radio. It requires a maturity of experience, which I didn’t have then. I caught the song’s cosmic irony but didn’t truly comprehend the personal devastation of the character who sings it. Nor did I catch the revealing epiphany of the last line.

Many greats have performed it: Frank Sinatra, Judy Collins, Barbra Streisand, Judy Dench. The version in my head harkens to Bernadette Peters’ performance. First to perform it, though, and the singer for whom it was intended was Glynis Johns.

If you know Sondheim’s work, you’ve already guessed the song: “Send in the Clowns”.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Introduction to “Send in the Clowns”
• 02:58 Clear Communication
• 03:30 Strong Imagery and Emotion
• 08:52 Powerful Lines / Ballad
• 13:10 Four Lessons for Fiction / Nonfiction Writers
• 15:52 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 18:02

 

LINKS

Lyrics https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/judycollins/sendintheclowns.html

Performance by Bernadette Peters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOZhmsp6iBQ

& by Glynnis Johns https://youtu.be/OAl-EawVobY

#stephensondheim #cosmicirony #ballad #sendintheclowns #writingpoetry #writingfiction #writingnonfiction

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

[Fair Use declares that we can quote from copyrighted works by other writers as long as we use those quotations for analysis, explication, and teaching examples.]

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-clown-faire.html

 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to the first episode: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7K1x02UAlihWKKom_5keJrg   

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:36 / Fall into Poetry / Read my Mind

Every writer is after memorable writing, whatever will strengthen our words and ideas so they haunt our audience.

We want our audience to return again and again to our writing, either to recapture that original impact or to puzzle out a question that wasn’t answered.

Capture our audience, and they stay with our writing to the end.

Satisfy our audience, and they seek more of our writing.

This is our goal: win-win, us and them.

Our series Fall into Poetry would seem to appeal only to poets—but that’s a surface glance. We writers can learn from any writing style, poetry teaching fiction, dramas teaching nonfiction, any mix-up we can contemplate.

We begin with a story-song from the realm of popular music. This song’s endurance proves that it is memorable writing by one of our greatest modern songwriters, now sadly gone: “If You Could Read my Mind, Love” by Gordon Lightfoot, a ballad when most songs are lyrics.

If you’re unfamiliar with “Read my Mind”, then pause this podcast and head off to find a new song to add to your favorites list. Come back to hear our analysis. (Links Below)

Join The Write Focus all through autumn as we examine great poems that teach a multitude of lessons for all writers.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Word Count Challenge / Final Check-in
• 03:10 Fall into Poetry introduction
• 05:40 “If You Could Read my Mind, Love”
• 07:00 Four Requirements of Song
• 13:57 “Read my Mind” as a Ballad
• 14:55 Two Special Touches
• 18:47 Closing

Total Run Time: 19:49

LINKS

Lyrics for “Read my Mind” https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/gordonlightfoot/ifyoucouldreadmymind.html

YouTube performance of “Read my Mind” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK--A-IaZnA

Rick Beato’s analysis of the music https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33YyowZZxQ

Link to The Write Focus website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/09/fall-into-poetry-read-my-mind.html 

#writing poetry #poetry #GordonLightfoot #Ifyoucouldreadmymind

Analysis is All Original Content / No AI Used

[Fair Use declares that we can quote from copyrighted works by other writers as long as we use those quotations for analysis, explication, and teaching examples.]

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is Fall into Poetry. Here’s a link to our YouTube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73Pe3yKV5HixAUjBNOg47A

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

 

5:35 / Word Count Challenge / Check-In # 4 / Surviving that Horrible Week

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the fourth check-in for the Word Count Challenge with the theme of Surviving that Horrible Week for Writing.

I thought I was smart, earlier in this year, when I scheduled a Wednesday to Tuesday trip. The hectic weekend driving would be avoided. When most people would be arriving or leaving, I would be snuggled in and could enjoy. That plan is great for a trip, not so much for a Word Count Challenge.

I delayed drafting this episode to Tuesday morning. I drove home on Tuesday and had the Start2Finish recording to posting of the audio file when I reached home—with unpacking and laundry still to do. Yet I did squeeze out the words for this episode as I drank my two cups of coffee.

How did I do with the week, start to finish? Let’s do the check-in.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 The Horrible Week

01:37 Check-In #4 begins

04:26 Friday Onward

09:34 Success vs. Failure

11:20 Closing

TOTAL RUN TIME = 12:19

 

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-4.html

 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:34 / Word Count Challenge / 3rd Check-in / Challenging Problems

Hello, everyone. It’s the 3^rd Check-in for the Word Count Challenge here in August, and we’re discovering problems.

I continue to meet my goal of 500 new words daily, no matter the interruptions. I’ve had to write fiction and nonfiction to achieve 500 new words, and other writing tasks are still occurring, all in a mix of daily fun time with family and commitments and responsibilities that I’m promised to.

I actually started this episode draft on Monday to finish words for that day because other things were going on that prevented my finishing 500 fiction words.

And I’ve discovered issues with the daily push for new words, issues related to achieving the word count. Join in as we discuss creativity and challenging problems.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Opening / Creativity vs. Filler
• 06:43 Word Count Challenge Problems
• 08:30 WCC Check-in #3
• 12:20 Success vs. Failure / Next Steps
• 15:03 Closing

Total Run Time = 16:05

 

All Original Content / No AI Used

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-3.html

 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:33 / Word Count Challenge / Check In 2 / Managing

Hi, Everyone. It’s the second check-in for the Word Count Challenge here in August.

How have you done? Leave a comment about your goals and successes.

I’ve managed to meet my goal of 500 words daily, no matter the interruptions, and they were many. Things tugged at me every day of the past week. The massive part of the day is lost to writing but early mornings and late evenings have saved  me—and twice, both evening and morning writing saved me.

At our last check-in, the first draft of the third short story was finished and needed a week’s separation before revision started. After errands in the cool morning, the writing part of Wednesday began: something forgotten, something needing fixin’, something on the To-Do List, and finally writing.

Stay connected to hear how the rest of the week continued.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Word Count Challenge Check-in #2
• 04:55 Success or Failure?
• 05:32 Next Steps
• 07:40 Closing

Total Run Time = 08:40

 

All Original Content / No AI Used

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/08/word-count-challenge-check-in-2.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge. Here’s a link to the YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7KcgVD4ZFyCt54chOhRtiqI

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:32 / Word Count Challenge / Old Challenge vs. New Challenge

Old Challenge vs. New Challenge ~ that’s the theme for this week’s episode.

We say goodbye to the Summer Writing Challenge, which tracked all the pesky jobs that writers have to do in addition to the writing, and we welcome in the August Word Count Challenge, which is the kind of challenge that writers want to focus on: NEW WORDS ONLY. No sketched words, just an estimate from the Rough, any overage in changing Rough to Draft as well as overage that comes with Revision and Proofing.

The only way to achieve the challenge consistently is to Write New Words Daily.

Join us as we challenge disruptions and distractions to derail us from a daily word count.

TIMINGS

• 00:00 Welcome
• 00:40 Say Goodbye and Hello
• 01:18 Last on the Summer Writing Challenge
• 08: 35 Word Count Challenge for August
• 09:40 First Check-in for the WCC
• 12:43 Closing

Total Run Time = 13:44

 

All Original Content / No AI Used

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/07/old-challenge-vs-new-challenge-word.html

 

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the Word Count Challenge.

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)

5:31 / Summer Writing Challenge / Check In 9 / Winding Down by Winding Up

Hi, all. It’s the last full week of the Summer Writing Challenge. We’ll have one last day to report in our first August episode. This week, though, finishes out our challenge.

Did I succeed? Did I fail? What can I do better? What changes can I make to be more successful in the future?

Let’s start with our day-to-day report before we answer those major questions.

TIMINGS

00:00 Welcome

00:40 Check in 9

02:10 Counting Projects this Year

03:20 Priorities, Goals, Boundaries

08:34 Hurry Up to Wait

10:10 Busy Monday

17:40 Final Day to Come / New Challenge

19:10 Last Words / Closing

Total Run Time = 21:04

 

All Original Content / No AI Used

 

Link to Website https://thewritefocus.blogspot.com/2024/06/summer-writing-challenge-check-in-9.html

Thanks for listening to The Write Focus. We focus on productivity, process, craft, and tools. Our podcast is for newbies who want to become writing pros and veterans who are returning to writing after years away.

Our current focus is the Summer Writing Challenge at this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXi3M_aM-d7LEoaG-XelXEjBW_Xukjy3I

Support the podcast with a cup of coffee at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/winkbooksr

• You can find workbooks and templates at Buy Me a Coffee. Available is the Enter the Writing Business Workbook and templates from the Discovering Characters
• Available Now: worksheet templates and a video trailer script for Discovering Your Author Brand.

For more links and resources, visit www.thewritefocus.blogspot.com  .

Write to us at winkbooks@aol.com.

If you find value in this podcast, please share with your writing friends or write a review. (We’re small beans. We don’t have the advertising budget of the big peeps. You can make a difference.)