Year of Poetry Update Week 3

So today brings me to the end of week 3 of the Year of Poetry program I have devised for myself. I did less hours this week, though I think I may not have had as many days as last week- I tend to alternate having a rest day in between.  Still it felt as though I was dedicated and working hard.

As mentioned in a previous post I abandoned a poem  but I also managed to revise an old one, which I think benefited from 6 months in the drawer.

The problems this week were technical with me unable to access the internet for a couple of days (wasted half a writing day until I found out it was an issue on the providers end).  I'll admit it was much harder starting the writing day after lunch,  nothing worse than getting to the study component at around dinner time. 

Still it's good preparation for having to deal with what I figure will be a disrupted schedule.


I am still using prompts from Sue Bell's 52: Write a Poem a Week. Start Now. Keep Going but for the last poem I let myself go with one of those casual thoughts that pops into your head when you are not directly engaged in thinking/writing poetry.  It worked, took a little time for the poem to find its voice but I produced something different, something that I don't think I would have written if not engaged in this process.

On to the stats, here are this week's with the overall project total in parenthesis:

Total time: 16:48 (53:48) hrs

• poem writing = 8.50 (20:50) hrs
• close reading = 3.3 (15:30) hrs
• technique/theory = 3.38 (12:38) hrs
• reflection = 1:10(5:10) hrs

Poetry written:

• 4 poems completed
• 1 poem abandoned 
• 1 poem at 3rd draft stage

General thoughts:


Bit disappointed that I fell short of the hourly target I was going for but I was still very productive so I won't be too harsh.  I have to try and get to writing as early as possible, its when I think I do my best work.

I have been implementing some of the learning as I go and I find that as my education expands, work that was previously distant or perhaps not as readily accessible has become more so.

Concerns:

Maintaining confidence as the project continues on.  Once the newness of the project wears off and my expectations of my own work increase I know I will have to battle niggling imposter syndrome. The other concern is materials, I have almost filled my first note book and its not even the end of the first month at $7 a pop I will have to go for something cheaper and with more pages.