daveP:


thus that brings an end to my clas (packs text book-brighter grammer and english made easy. Pulls up sleeves) erm i need water. Oh ive forgotten i used a marker!

I'm grateful for this opportunity. Wouldnt mind having such an opportunity next time even if (touches heart) was beating!

Thank you!!

Thank you very much sir...
You have been very helpful.
Thanx! Thanx!! Thanxx!!!

A DROP OF INK

Silence smothers the speaking pen
Words muffle in your itching throats
But you've got a lot to tell the world
If no one ever reads your words
How do we hear your speaking heart?

Your heart, a barrel of plethora tales
Mind, reservoir of ruminating bales
But tamed voice keeps them crude
If you've never paint the pictures
How do we see your winning world?

Why stuck and struck in lifetime silence?
When your pen wants to elude your cage
Whip out your silent loquacious pen
Glide and slide it over the needing page
While you write in utmost ambience

You've got the light to bright the shadow
Sonorous voice to sing for us the blues
Through the flying words of your mouth
Changes may arise like phoenix from the ashes
And You too may be remembered in this axis

Series of stories standstill, and still
Waiting to be put in a pending paper
That lies fallow on the four-legged mahogany
Scene to scene; chapters to chapters
living world arise from the dead of white paper

Kiss your silent warrior with thunderous voice
Let it swoop like an eagle to your world
Let it peck words with its fluent nifty nib
And stream them down to its eloquent tip
A drop of ink makes a mighty word

For the sake of this seminar/workshop I'd like to add analysis to this poem

BACKGROUND OF THE POEM
The idea behind this poem is the 'rephrasal' of the common phrase - a drop of water makes a mighty ocean. If a drop of water could make a mighty ocean, definitely a drop of ink could also make a mighty word. This shows that the poet does not undermine what words can do. He knows the power of words and how its effects could summon a change.

'In the beginning was the word….."

THEME/ANALYSIS

This poem opens with the poet asserting that 'silence smothers the speaking pen' and goes further to show the image of someone who is willing to speak, but words disappear somewhere in his throat.
In stanza two, thus: the poet tells us that we have a lot of stories in our heart we wish to tell, but quietude makes those stories never heard. The poet uses 'comma' to relate heart and a barrel of plethora tales as metaphoric or simile expression. Same goes for mind and reservoir of ruminating bales. The poet selects the word 'bales' which means 'suffering or evil'.
Sometimes evil or sorrowful thoughts which might cause depression or inhumane actions flash through our mind, but if these thoughts could be written as stories or painted as an artwork, they may be jettisoned as they have found a life in art.

"Most artists/poets in the world may manage to get through life without little or no violence, because their works provide means for them to express themselves"

In stanza four and five, the poet encourages a singer with sonorous voice to sing and a writer to start writing. They should allow their thoughts to be penned down as the drop of their ink makes a mighty word which may inadvertently change the world.

POETIC DEVICES

STRUCTURE: The poem consists of six stanza of thirty lines that flow like a gentle river continuously, with an end-rhyme as in 'word' and 'world' of lines 27 and 30.

DICTION: The general language of this poem is direct, precise and simple. Through simplicity the images of pen that glides and slides over paper is clearly conveyed.

ALLITERATION: This is the repetition of 's' in line 1, 'silence smothers the speaking pen'. Also in 'series of stories standstill, and still'.

PARADOX: In line 2, 'words muffle in your itching throat', it is paradoxical to say that words do not come out of the mouth that is eager to speak.

PERSONIFICATION: The poet uses a lot of personifications to enhance the flow and beauty of the poem. The attributes of human beings are given to non-human, like 'silence smothers the speaking pen'. The poet portrays it as though silence suffocates the breath (speaking) of the pen. Also as if pen could speak. In line 5, 'speaking heart' and in line 8, 'voice keeps them crude'
in line 12, '…pen wants to elude your cage' and in line 13, 'loquacious pen'. in short personification is ubiquitous in verse 3 and the poem as a whole.

METAPHOR: 'Tamed voice keeps the crude' line 8. The use of metaphor here gives us visual sense of the stories and thoughts that are like crude diamond, drab and dull, but after it is refined, it becomes shine and glamourous, same as the stories of a writer may become an award winning that would be read for centuries. Just like Shakespeare (Over four hundred years) . Metaphor also gives us the visual sense of 'table' in line 23, 'four-legged mahogany'

SIMILES: In line 19, 'changes may arise like phoenix from the ashes'. Also in line 27, 'let it swoop like an eagle to your world.'

IMAGERY: 'Your heart, a barrel of plethora tales, in line 6 . Also line 7,Mind, reservoir of ruminating bales' and 'When your pen wants to elude your cage' in line 12

RHYME: There are tales/bales, cage/page, silence/ambience, paper/paper, world/word. Rhyme added to the flow of the poem.

ENJAMBMENT/RUN-ON-LINE: This is employed in stanza five in such a way that the idea of line 21 spills over to the next line, like that. 'series of stories standstill, and still/waiting to be put in a pending paper/that lies fallow on the four-legged mahogany.'

OXYMORON: In line 13, 'silence loquacious'. Two opposing words are placed together to create a sharp contrast. It portrays a garrulous pen that is kept silent by the user.

ASSONANCE: There is correspondence of vowel, 'struck and stuck', 'glide and slide', 'light and bright' and 'standstill and still'

REPETITION: 'World and word' in verse 1 is repeated in verse 6 and 'How do we' is also repeated

RETHORICAL: How do we hear your speaking heart?

TONE/MOOD: There is a general tone of motivation and inspiration. The mood of the poet is that of sympathy and emotion

THEMES
1. Motivation
2. Inspirations
3. Hope and Optimism
4. Clarion call

PrettySpicey: Over to you, Divepen, I'm done and I'm not doing this again... phew!

why now aha. Standing by the white board actually fits you now!

Divepen:

Thank you very much sir...
You have been very helpful.
Thanx! Thanx!! Thanxx!!!

yess boss!

princesa:
you're welcome. When you can, go through mine and do tell me what you think.

Dygsy, you too.

(sits in the audience, no more a 'tutor'. To myself) this feels good!

@Princesa: a situation where one knows about love, but finds it difficult describing it in a story. What can be done?

Then we know most writers in nigeria use some words to describe love-making e.g buchi echemeta, chimamanda,etc. Does it give a better angle than erm distracting with the real deal? Rem i wouldnt want to distract my readers in such case.

3rdly: describing a scene you have not physical idea about. E.g skyscrapers, basements, cellars,alleys etc. Especially if it involves a foreign scene


cc: texanomaly ; divepen

daveP:
Princesa: a situation where one knows about love, but finds it difficult describing it in a story. What can be done?

Then we know most writers in nigeria use some words to describe love-making e.g buchi echemeta, chimamanda,etc. Does it give a better angle than erm distracting with the real deal? Rem i wouldnt want to distract my readers in such case.

3rdly: describing a scene you have not physical idea about. E.g skyscrapers, basements, cellars,alleys etc. Especially if it involves a foreign scene


cc: texanomaly ; divepen

Que 1: hmm...do you feel its indeed possible to know about love and yet not be able to describe it? Well, I should think that there are possibility in some situations.

But then again, Love isnt restricted to the feeling between a man and woman, it extends to the feeling between a mother and child, a father and his son, between friends, siblings, etc.

So what can be done? Using a character Dialogues, reaction, action, etc towards another can help portray love to a reader. The writer doesn't necessarily have to paint love with flowery terms, comparisons, rhymes or verses as Romeo would, to portray Love. They are different ways to kill a Bird you know.

Que 2: yeah, that's the beauty of using words to play with the sensory organs of the reader. Some writers may see nothing wrong in being vulgar with their narration of sex scenes, while others can't imagine penning down the sex process word for word. So whichever way you choose, its only the type of words you employ in describing the sex scenes that matters and serves your purpose.

Que 3: that's why I talked about improving your registers and doing research. If you want to write a story with a foreign setting, then you just have to read wide and Google!

There was a time I wanted to write an airport scene, but I haven't been in one and had restricted knowledge of an airport based on the movies I've seen, so I took to Google and it was worth the search.

Thank you

deflover: My best

Thanx for this post, and I would have love it to stay had it been you've informed me that you have a short story and I would still reject for the kind of setting we are. I understand that you want to showcase your talent but 'let everything be done moderately and in order'.
I'm sure you can use your talent to write something that portray the Literature in your heart.

HOW TO FLOW THROUGH A POEM






Special S/O to Divepen, you the Boss cuz, and then to all the great writers and poets out here, I feel privileged to be among y'all.

Back to Business, flowing through a poem, is as easy as counting your fingers. It's not really a long topic, and I don't intend to make it one so I'mma be as brief as I can.

Let me start by defining flow in poetry. Flow is different from rhymes. while flow is the rhythm or cadence of the writing, rhyme is a literary device in poetry.

Dancers and poets are the same in this aspect, we don't feel your flow then we don't need your show. A poem without rhythm or flow, looks unnatural and tedious to readers.

As a poet, you want to ensure that the flow of your words is natural; otherwise, your readers will find themselves concentrating more on trying to read the poem than on effortlessly enjoying it. One of the best ways to do this as a writer is to be willing to rewrite pieces until the poetry flows as fluently as possible.

To make your poem flow, be careful with words, a word can make or break a poems flow. Some words are heavy when compared to others, when they are being read according to a rhythm. Eliminate unnecessary words, or simply replace them with a simpler, easily pronunced words.



For example, if one line of your poem ends with feline and you followed it with a word like sublime you simply replace the words so the message stays the same or replace them to pass a different message but its better replaced.

Cat for feline and Phat for sublime is better.


Another tip on how to flow through a poem in concentration. If you are not concentrating, you can't write a meaningful piece. Poetry isn't what readers will be taking time to decipher, it's what they will read and understand at a first read. Even though you must be careful with words, connectivity between the lines comes as a result if concentration.

Your readers must feel what you feel, see what you see, and smell what you smell, and all these features you must make possible using the most easiest of lines. You as a writer must enjoy your poem, else it's gibberish.



done

Divepen:
Thanx for this post, and I would have love it to stay had it been you've informed me that you have a short story and I would still reject for the kind of setting we are. I understand that you want to showcase your talent but 'let everything be done moderately and in order'.
I'm sure you can use your talent to write something that portray the Literature in your heart.

Wat would u ve me do. U called me here and I am trying to add a work of mine here so people can review it for me. But u say I am not welcome. I am new to ur community so wat do I do

Hmm...@ Jigsawkillah
Short, simple and make sense.

deflover:

Wat would u ve me do. U called me here and I am trying to add a work of mine here so people can review it for me. But u say I am not welcome. I am new to ur community so wat do I do

I did not say you are not welcome, all I'm saying is that I invited you to learn but you said you know everything they were teaching. Secondly, if you take your time to read the rules only people who have informed me can post a story or poem here. We are only here to learn and teach ourselves, because that is what every man should do.
Or what do you think?

Divepen:
I did not say you are not welcome, all I'm saying is that I invited you to learn but you said you know everything they were teaching. Secondly, if you take your time to read the rules only people who have informed me can post a story or poem here. We are only here to learn and teach ourselves, because that is what every man should do.
Or what do you think?

Sorry my bad. I will stick and learn more and maybe u will let me post

deflover:

Sorry my bad. I will stick and learn more and maybe u will let me post

Ok, sir.
If you make your desire known who am I not to allow you. But I'll not sure we will love to read anything about sex here, we all know it is not only adults that read stories here and it won't be wise to expose them to it. If they so much desire it, they can force their desire to the sexuality section. But it should not be given out freely to them through us. So, sir, I would advise that you think of any other thing to post.
Note: You can get 3 slots, so be fast to make your intention known...

Divepen:
Ok, sir.
If you make your desire known who am I not to allow you. But I'll not sure we will love to read anything about sex here, we all know it is not only adults that read stories here and it won't be wise to expose them to it. If they so much desire it, they can force their desire to the sexuality section. But it should not be given out freely to them through us. So, sir, I would advise that you think of any other thing to post.
Note: You can get 3 slots, so be fast to make your intention known...

Hey slow down mate I am not about sex. This topic was just an inspiration dat I wrote in less than ten minutes. I will think of something soon.

I have gained alot from this programme.
Time to drop mine, Quite a funny one today. Enjoy!




<<The Lazy Are Empty.>>


Lets go back home,
my stomach is longing for food,
now you say you are hungry,
but i am angry,
this is fruitless and useless, what
do we tell mama at home, when we go back with our
empty bag slung over our
sholder.
what do we tell her?
That the animals went for a
feast, that the trees had grown higher
than our height,
that the plants have all dried
up,
and we wandered about through
the lonely forest, yet we couldn’t find anything.
Mama, we are back,
our strenght draining like a
leaking bucket,
and our sweat gland emiting
sweat like water but we can’t drink it, it is saltry! where is the
meat,the fruits and
the plants?
so you may eat and kill hunger.
mama,they are all in our bags,
is it outside? These are empty! Outside? No they are not,
Emptiness, mama is what we
brought back,
for the forest is empty,
we wandered and wandered to
no avail, we heard the parrot say “the
animals went for a feast,
we saw the trees shoot up as
they saw us,
the plants dried up with our
touch, then we came home.
You say you saw the parrot,
couldn’t you shoot at it?
You say you saw the trees
shoot up,
what are your hands and legs for? if not to climb.
You say, you touch the plant
and they dried up, why
wouldn’t they, when they saw
lazy hands on them.
Emptiness is what you brought, laziness is what you shall eat
tonight,
for all along i had heard your
voices at the back of the hut.
Was that your forest?

timpaker:
My question; if I've got one would be the form of poetry used.

I don't get this. But if referring to the form, it's not a free verse. I can't say the form, but it's a five-line stanza known as quintet.

Tell me the form, please.

deflover:

Hey slow down mate I am not about sex. This topic was just an inspiration dat I wrote in less than ten minutes. I will think of something soon.

Understood.

We expecting
TiffanyJ....

JigsawKillah, I don't accept with the part that you said poetry must be read once and understand, except you are talking about nursery rhymes. In fact there are many things to look out for in a poem, so it must be read up to three times, if not more.

I recall timpaker' seductress is hapless. I had to read several times before I understood it. Same as some legendary poems such as wole soyinka 's telephone conversation.

So tell me something else.

Divepen, Please tell LarrySun that if we get hold of him, uhmmm...........

OMA4U: Divepen, Please tell LarrySun that if we get hold of him, uhmmm...........

i will tell him

I just realised i've lost all that i typed, please bear with me, leme quickly type again

TiffanyJ: I just realised i've lost all that i typed, please bear with me, leme quickly type again

*Faints*
*Wakes*
*Faints again*
*Wakes again*
Tiffanyj has mur...mur..murd...murdered me ooo
Ehwu...

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHARACTERS


A character is an important ingredient to a writer. It is the character that gives stories their meaning.


IN A FICTIONAL WORK, WHO IS A CHARACTER?


The word character is derived from the ancient Greek word kharakter. A character is a person in a narrative work of arts (prose, drama, poetry, television series or film).

CHARACTERIZATION

this refers to a character's personality or the method by which the writer reveals this personality. Every character in a narrative piece of art have personalities and traits that is peculiar to him or her. It is the duty of the writer to bring out the best he or she wants in a character.

WHAT CHARACTERIZATION DOES IN A STORY?
Characterization allows us to empathize with the protagonist and secondary characters. It gives us a sense of the semblance of living reality in such a way that it allows both writer and readers to insert their foot into the shoes of the character. An important part of characterization is dialogue, for it offers us the opportunity to see into the characters' heart and examine their motivations. It is actually characterization that moves the story along. Characterization can be divided into two, namely;
Direct
Indirect.

DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION
This occurs when a writer tells us about the character(s) personality in a piece of work in such a way that readers cannot pretend not to understand.
EXAMPLE:
'John is kind, easy going and smart'
The above sentence is direct and exact.

INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION; This occurs in a situation whereby a writer reveals a character's personality through his or her actions or dialogue.
EXAMPLE;
'Anthony hit Tara hard, across her face'
The above sentence portrays Anthony to be violent. Indirect characterization is the direct opposite of direct characterization.
THE PROTAGONIST/ ANTAGONIST.
The leading character, hero or heroine of a literary work is known as a protagonist. The plot of the work revolves around the main character.The protagonist must command involvement on the part of the reader or yet, empathy. Sometimes, a work will offer a particular character as the protagonist, only to dispose of that character unexpectedly. Such a character is called a 'False protagonist'
On the other hand, an antagonist is the principal opponent of the protagonist. The antagonist, creates obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. As there may be more than one protagonist in a story, there may also be more than one antagonist in a story. The antagonist may be the story's hero; for instance, where the protagonist is a muderer, the antagonist could be a law enforcement agent that tries to stop or capture him.
TYPES OF CHARACTERS
In fictional literature, writers use many different types of characters to tell their stories. These charcters fulfill different roles in the narrative process.
MAJOR OR CENTRAL CHARACTERS;
These set of characters are very important to the development and resolution of the conflict. In other words, the plot and resolution of conflict revovles around these people.
MINOR CHARACTERS.:
These characters complement the major characters and help move the plot events forward.
TO BE CONTINUED

Divepen, please i need more time, please. Allow me to continue typing

Contunu

Tiffanyj

DYNAMIC CHARACTER
A dynamic character is a person who changes over time in the course of the story. This usually happens as a result of resolving a entral conflict or facing a major crises. This character may change in his or her behaviour or way of thinking.
STATIC CHARACTER
A static character is someone who does not change over time; his or her personality does not transform or evolve. This character is not affected by the events of the story.
ROUND CHARACTER.
A round character is anyone who has a complex personality; we know a great deal about this person. This character is complex in temperament and motivation; capable of growth and changes during the course of the the story.
FLAT CHARACTERS
This is the opposite of the round character. This character is notable for one kind of personality or trait. We know very little about the flat characters.
FOIL CHARACTERS
A foil is any character (usually the antagonist or an important supporting character) whose personal contrast with another character (usually the protagonist). By providing contrast, we get to know about the other chacter
SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS
A symbolic character is any major or minor character whose very existence represents some major idea or aspect of society
CREATION OF CHARACTERS
In fiction writing, writers create dynamic characters by many methods. These include
A MaGIC CHARACTER
This kind of character comes into the writer's head and "lives there". Sometimes, dictates their story to the writer.
A BORROWED CHARACTER
This kind of character is created by taking an emblematic quality or trait from real person, plugging that trait into a fictional situation and then the writer uses his imagination to transform the character into a unique construct.
A MADE-UP CHARACTER
This character is created from the 'ground up' often standing from expediency as a two-dimensional creation which the writer then tries to get to know better, sometimes by adding trouble and conflict.

Now, to my question, 'how do I feel about my characters?'

Divepen, can i please continue?