writing out other people's writing

September 20, 2010 10:56 AM

Is there any value in writing out other people's work (by hand) as a method of improving one's own writing? In this case its poetry.

I've been writing for quite while, but I'm feeling a bit stagnant these days. Looking for anything to shake things up. I know some people have done this, and I wonder if it is somehow different and deeper than just reading good poetry. I'm not terribly concerned about losing my "originality" as I feel confident with my voice. But I suppose it is a slight concern if it could influence me too much.

posted by troubles to Writing & Language (11 answers total)

Yes and no. I can tell you one thing that worked for me, in my younger years.

I had taken maybe five years of high-school French and I really liked all the translated Rimbaud I'd ever read. So I set about getting my hands on his works in the original French, translating them myself as best I could, and then filling in the gaps with books from the library (idiom was different then). Though the end result wasn't intentional, I found I had a very new and worthwhile appreciation for the tone and lyrical poetry of the works, and how it all sort of hung together. Another upside is that, for better or worse, the translations I came up with were more or less in my voice, not his.
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 11:00 AM on September 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Trying to write a parody of an original could be an interesting exercise.
posted by Paquda at 11:08 AM on September 20, 2010

I think that writing out a poem is something that, first of all, slows you down and makes you pay attention to the individual words and sounds, shapes of the letters, and so on. So just that physical activity alone could produce new insight into the poetry. And, of course, you have to pass through imitation and influence to get to your own voice, etc..

I read a lot of poetry in a second language, and I think that a significant amount of the insight I get comes from the way that I have to read it: slowly, word by word, often having to stop and look up the meaning of individual words in several dictionaries. It creates a unique relationship.
posted by goodglovin77 at 11:17 AM on September 20, 2010

You know, outside of any facts or numbers or testimony, it couldn't hurt trying.
posted by carsonb at 11:26 AM on September 20, 2010

It won't be influenced too much and somehow ruined by this, so go ahead and try it! We're all influenced by everything all the time. It's not like you're going to pass these poems off as you're own, so no harm can be done.

My suggestion is either;
A) Copy the words directly and consciously roleplay as the author. What must have they have been feeling to choose those words? What perspective do they come from to write on this subject? You don't have to know anything about them or be remotely right, you just have to be attempting a different perspective. Or,

B) Read a poem, then attempt to rewrite it in your own words without looking back until you're done. The comparison can be enlightening to the way you think, what you personally find important, and what kind of things you tend to miss.
posted by vienaragis at 11:57 AM on September 20, 2010 [1 favorite]

Carefully copying out a poem makes you look at every word, punctuation mark, and line break that you might otherwise have skimmed over.

And if you're memorizing, repeatedly copy it out until you reproduce the layout on paper word for word with all of the marks and breaks intact. Poetry generally is words on a page first and last.
posted by pracowity at 11:59 AM on September 20, 2010

FWIW, during most of the Western literary tradition, formal education was rhetorical education, which emphasized imitation exercises at all levels, so there's a long track record of famous writers who practiced it intensively. With the rise of Romanticism, that tradition fell away, but it still has benefits for some writers.

Better than plain close reading? Probably depends on the writer, I suppose. Although making a habit of imitation seems like a good warm-up exercise for paying attention to language at the start of a writing session. I've found it most useful at those times when I've felt stuck. YMMV
posted by 5Q7 at 1:28 PM on September 20, 2010

I think this is going to vary a lot from person to person, but I don't get anything particularly out of copying a poem out that I wouldn't from close reading. I get a lot more, for instance, out of learning a poem well enough to recite it. Poetry is at least partially an aural/oral thing, and it helps to ingrain a sense of cadence and musicality.
posted by juv3nal at 1:43 PM on September 20, 2010

I definitely get more out of reading aloud. I also pick up too much of the author's voice when I read aloud, so.

The one thing this will definitely improve is your handwriting.
posted by SMPA at 1:47 PM on September 20, 2010

Couldn't hurt, but here's another thing to try: - write in some forms. Try sestinas, sonnets, etc. Even if everything you write in those forms is crap, it forces you to think in original ways.
posted by randomkeystrike at 2:02 PM on September 20, 2010

Response by poster: Thanks for all your suggestions, everyone. I tried a few times now and just the fact that it slows down my reading of a poem has been an obviously good thing. I'm kinda shocked by how much I miss when I just read a poem at my usual speed.
posted by troubles at 6:33 PM on September 21, 2010