It's Here!

At some point, every student must not only learn about different poetic forms, but try their hand at penning a few. It can be daunting, even for those who enjoy poetry.

Following the same plain language, straight forward vein of Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers, So You Have to Write a Poem gives novices an easy-to-read guide with step-by-step processes and fun examples while giving more advanced poets a technical guide to the rules behind all their favorite poetic forms.

This volume includes:

• Nine forms of poetry, including chapters on ballads, blank verse, haiku, heroic couplets, limericks, the pantoum, sestinas, sonnets, and the villanelle. 
• Overviews on poetry basics like meter and rhyme scheme. 
• Detailed, easy-to-understand instructions and “cheat sheets” that outline the rules for each form of poetry. 
• And a section with a detailed explanation of how to analyze a poem.

So You Have to Write a Poem is designed to not only help students get through their poetry assignments, but also shows poetic skeptics how to enjoy the act of writing poetry, and gives poetry lovers a chance to learn some classic styles.

Find it on AMAZON

Coming Soon!

My new book, So You Have to Write a Poem: A Poetry Guide for the Non-Poetic - Coming Oct 6th!

At some point, every student must not only learn about different poetic forms, but try their hand at penning a few. It can be daunting, even for those who enjoy poetry.

Following the same plain language, straight forward vein of Ms. McLean’s Homework Helpers: Essays and Term Papers, So You Have to Write a Poem gives novices an easy-to-read guide with simple step-by-step processes and fun examples while giving more advanced poets a technical guide to the rules behind all their favorite poetic forms.

This volume includes nine forms of poetry, along with overviews on poetry basics like meter and rhyme scheme, detailed, easy-to-understand instructions and “cheat sheets” that outline the rules for each form of poetry, and a section with a detailed explanation of how to analyze a poem.

Available at your favorite bookstore or online retailer!

Announcement

In an effort to simplify things a bit, I've decided to keep everything in one place and will be moving all past and future posts to my main blog, Author Michelle McLean. There is now a tab on my main blog where you can find information on writing essays. As always, please email me if there are any questions you may have.

Thanks for following me - I hope to see everyone over on the main blog! :)

Poetry Game

Time for another poetry game! Head over to the Magnetic Poetry Online site (HERE), and choose up to 20 tiles to create your poem. Post them in the comments section. Here is mine:

Yesterday the universe slowed
My present lingers
Time is free
To haunt me.

How to Write an Essay or Term Paper - Characters

Sorry for the long absence - life has been crazy with a capital "C". But, on with our elements.

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Characters are one of the most important, if not THE most important, element in any work of literature. Without a character, there is no story. Even if the story is about a frog...that frog is your main character. So, characters are a great element to look at when analyzing a work of literature for a paper or essay. Here are some questions you could ask about the characters in the story:

• Who are the characters?
• Who is the main character?
• Who is the main villain?
• What qualities/vices/characteristics/quirks/mannerisms do these characters have?
• What do these characteristics do for a particular character?
• What is the author trying to show with a certain character? For example, is the extreme evilness of the main villain supposed to symbolize the evil side of mankind? Does it work? Why or why not? 
• Do the characters personify anything? Qualities/characteristics/feelings? For example, if you were analyzing a story about a girl named Hope who went up against a villain named Dr. Evil, do these characters exhibit the qualities of hope and evil? Is Hope an optimistic person, etc?
• What flaws do the characters have? Or are they too perfect?
• Are the characters believable? Can you relate to them? Are they likable, intriguing, mysterious? How do these qualities affect the story?

Look at the characters from every possible angle and analyze what each character brings to the story. Think about why they are a part of the story, what their presence does, or does not, do for the story.

Contest!

Head over to my main blog (address on the sidebar) for the details on the awesome contest I've got going! The grand prize is a query critique by my wonderful agent, Krista Goering, Elana Johnson's awesome book, From the Query to the Call, and a $20 gift card to Barnes and Noble.

Entries will be accepted until midnight on Monday, March 1st!!

How to Write a Paper or Essay - Imagery

All stories have some kind of imagery. Imagery is the descriptive or figurative language that authors use to create a mental image or picture in the readers' minds. (Figurative language includes literary tools such as similes and metaphors - we'll discuss them more next week).

Imagery is a very powerful tool in an author's arsenal, and as such, it's a great tool to discuss when writing a literary analysis. Here are some things to think about when discussing the imagery in a literary work:

• What are some examples of imagery in the work?
• Are there recurring images? What do they mean?
• for instance, say there are images of water throughout a book; streams, lakes, rivers, rain falling, waterfalls, a cup of water being tipped over and trickling off a table, spilling drip by drip onto the floor, echoing the drip, drip of the MC's blood as it flows from his body - what might be the purpose of these images? What does the water represent? (this is getting a bit into symbolism, which often goes hand in hand with imagery). Why are there so many watery images in the story?
• Does the descriptive and figurative language used by the author work well in creating the intended image? Is it too overdone, creating something more amusing than powerful? Would another description or image have worked better or worse?
• What are the most important examples of imagery in the story?
• How do these images relate to the main theme of the book? Do they help enhance the point the author is trying to make? Why or why not?

You could focus on one main image (like our water example) or discuss several instances of imagery in the work you are analyzing. But in each case, discuss the importance of the imagery. Don't just point it out, giving the reader the WHAT...give us the WHY. Why are these images important? Why are they in the book? Why did the author use that particular image? What sort of picture does the imagery paint and does it work better or worse than another might? Why or why not?

How to Write Papers and Essays - Plot

One of the most basic components of a story is its plot. A story with a bad plot is...well, really boring. A plot can make or break a story, so it is a really good thing to look at when doing a literary analysis.

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The plot of a work is it's basic storyline, what the story is about, the reason why the events in the story happen. Say you are analyzing Romeo and Juliet. What is the plot? In a nutshell, boy and girl meet, fall in love, are forbidden to see each other because of family rivalries, and commit suicide because of a horrible misunderstanding. Now, if the story was just "boy commits suicide, girl commits suicide," there is no real plot. Who cares? But if you have a Why, a reason behind what goes on, a story that builds to that conclusion, then you have a plot.

So what are some things you can question or discuss?

• Does this plot work?
• Would it have been better if R and J were killed by the rival family instead of killing themselves? Would the story have worked better if they didn't kill themselves at all but instead ran off and lived happily ever after? What elements of the story work well and which don't?
• What are the main elements or events of the plot? 
• The background info or exposition (the info you need to understand what's going on)
• Is this element present? Should there be more or less? In Romeo and Juliet, if the plot didn't contain the information that their families were bitter rivals, we never would have understood why they couldn't be together
• The complication that leads to the main conflict and the main conflict
• Is this present? Should there be more or less or more explanation? What is the spark that lights the fire on the main conflict in the book? Does it make sense? Does it work? Would the events that unfolded in Romeo and Juliet have worked better if Romeo hadn't killed her cousin? If their families hadn't been locked in a bitter rivalry that resulted in the deaths of their friends and family members?
• The climax
• What is it? Does it work? Is there sufficient build up to it to make the climax, well, climactic? Would something else have worked better? Do you agree with the widely accepted climax or do you think the climax occurs elsewhere in the story? Why or why not?
• The resolution
• How does the story end? Does this ending work? Does it resolve everything that has been built up in the story? If not, why do you think this is? Is there a sequel that is being set up? Do you think another resolution would have worked better? Why or why not?
• What is the main theme or point of the story? Does the plot work well to develop that theme? 
• If the point of the story is to show how stupid feuds are, does the plot serve this theme well? 
• If the point of the story is to illustrate how children should obey their parents and the horrible things that can happen if they don't, does the plot further that theme?
• Are there things the author could have done to develop the plot better? What and why?
• Are there elements or events that would have developed the story better if they had been presented earlier in the plot, or later, or left out altogether?
• For instance, in a mystery, does it work better knowing who the murderer is right up front? No. This element of the plot works much better left at the end of the story.

Which brings us to another point - the plot is a great element to analyze in conjunction with other aspects of the story. Characters, setting, point of view, themes...all these things are what make a plot what it is. So when analyzing the plot, it is a great idea to take a look at these elements as well and analyze whether or not they are working for the plot.

How To Write An Essay or Paper - The Author

Sorry for the long break. Had a bit of a fiasco with the move, but things are slowly getting back to normal.

So! On to our essays!

Another aspect to look at when analyzing a literary work is the author. As a writer, I can tell you that a lot of the author bleeds into their work, whether they intend it to or not. So by taking a look at the author, you can sometimes get a deeper glimpse into the story.

Some things you can question might be:

• What is the author's background?
• Where did they grow up?
• What were their experiences?
• What did they study in college?
• What are their beliefs?
• Where is their favorite vacation spot? (and other personal tidbits)
• What are their political views?
  
• What is their education and career background?
• What is their family like?

For example, I once wrote an essay analyzing the poem To Althea, from Prison, by Richard Lovelace. I dissected it for evidence of his political leanings. Lovelace was a Cavalier, a Royalist - he spent a lot of time in prison because he was loyal to his king. The poem is full of Cavalier imagery; specifically the love of women, wine, and king. I went through and discussed the imagery and symbolism and all that fun stuff, but the main point of my paper was that the author's background was the reason behind everything he was saying in the poem.

Taking a look at the author can give you a much deeper insight into their work.

On Hiatus For A Bit

I am getting ready to move across the country so will be temporarily suspending posts here. Regular posting will resume in January for sure, hopefully sooner, but please feel free to send me any questions you may have. Use the question link on the sidebar, the contact button to email me, or leave a comment and I'll get back to you!

Poetry Game

Time to play! Head to Magnetic Poetry and choose up to 20 word tiles to create your poem and leave it in the comments! :) Have fun!

Here is mine:

A vast universe of time
devours me
work
think
listen
have heart
change
ask
know
wake
dance
laugh
embrace
Do

How To Write an Essay or Paper - Tone

Moving on with our literary tools for analysis - let's take a look at tone.

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The relevant dictionary definition for tone is: The sound of a person's voice, expressing a feeling or mood; (or) the general character of something.

Now, obviously, when talking about literature, the tone isn't a literal, audible sound (unless read aloud). But the concept is the same. The tone of the piece expresses the mood of it and the meaning behind it. The tone of something can put quite a different spin on its meaning. For example, look at the sentence:

She's lame.

Said (or read) with a serious or sad tone, this would mean that the person in question is disabled or injured. With a sarcastic, snide, or mean tone, it would be an insult.

So, when analyzing a piece of literature, see if you can determine the tone of the story or a particular scene. Is it:

• serious?
• saracastic or tongue-in-cheek?
  
• sad?
• excited or happy?
  
• toneless? (a simple narration of facts with no clue as to the meaning behind the words)

Then analyze what the tone does for the piece:

• Does it lighten the mood?
• Make the scene more serious?
• Create drama or tension?
• Create a sense of mystery or danger?
  
• Does the tone affect or influence the reader?
• Or maybe purposely, by lack of tone, not influence the reader in any way?
  
• Would a different tone have worked better?
• Why or why not?

 Go through the piece in question and see what the tone does - try reading lines in different tones and see how it works. What does it do? How does it work? And be sure to back up your statements with outside sources :)

Poetry Game - Word Magnets

Time for another game! Go to Magnetic Poetry Online and choose up to 20 word tiles to create a poem. Leave it in the comments!!

Here is mine:

My prisoner
your sacred secret
I remember
squrim
worry
or voice it
and embrace peace

How to Write an Essay or Paper - Point of View

Another literary tool that you could analyze for a literary anaylsis paper would be Point of View.

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Simply put, the point of view is the perspective from which the story is told. First, you need to determine what point of view is present in the literature you are analyzing. Here are the common choices:

First person - the narrator is generally the main character in the book and tells the story as "I" (I did this, I said, I felt)

First person plural - more rare, with the story told by "we" (we did this, we said that)

Second person - very rare - the reader is treated as a character and is referred to as "you." This type of POV works well for some non-fiction works. For example, if I was writing a How-to article, I could use this to say "First, you take the paint brush and apply paint. Then you do this and this and this." For fiction though, this POV isn't used often.

Third person limited - the narrator is outside the story but focuses on one character at a time. (He said, she said). While the POV may change between different characters, these changes would be separated by scene or chapter breaks.

Third person omniscient - the narrator is outside the story but doesn't focus on one character. The narrator knows all, sees all, conveys all.

Once you know which type of POV is being utilized in the piece of literature you are writing about, you can analyze how the use of the POV works in the story. Some questions you might ask could be:

• Does the POV work well?
• Why or why not?
  
• Would it work better told from another POV?
• Why or why not?
  
• If the POV is third person limited, is the story told by one character or several?
• If told by only one character, would the story have worked better told by more than one, or by a different character than the one chosen?
• Why do you think the author chose the POV they did?
• Does the POV limit the story? Intensify it? Create mystery? Create confusion?

Go through every aspect of the POV used in the story that you can think of, analyzing if it works well or not, using specific examples from the book and outside sources to back up your statements.

My Apologies

Sorry for the absence of posts this week! I'm battling an allergic reaction to a new medication and the medicine to get rid of the reaction sort of knocks me out :D I'll be back next week!

Poetry - Magnet Game

Well, I found out how to make the magnets for this game, theoritcally, however, had trouble when I actually attempted to do it :)

But, I found another site where you can play this game. So! Everyone go to Poetry Game and create a poem using the poetry tiles. Then post what you come up with in the comments.

This is mine:

Your velvet voice haunts
A ghost of smoke
Devouring my fire
Listen
Remember
For eternity

Remember - if anyone has a question on how to write a specific type of poetry, hit the Ask Me button!

How To Write an Essay or Paper - Settings

The literary analysis is a type of essay or paper that every student will be asked to write at some point in their educational career. In fact, it is probably the most common type of assignment - at least in classes that involve literature.

Simply put, a literary analysis analyzes a piece of literature. Well, I suppose that is pretty obvious :)

But what types of things should you look at when writing a literary analysis? 

You've got your piece of literature, you know you are supposed to analyze it, but what in the world do you talk about?

While there are many ways of going about this, one of the best ways is to analyze different aspects of the book by looking at the literary tools the author has utilized.

What are these tools? 

They include things such as settings, characters, plot, imagery, symbolism and allegories, tone, point of view, and things like metaphors and similies (figurative language).

For today, we'll take a look at Settings. Now, some stories have more pronounced settings than others. In some books, the setting is more of a subtle background, the stage on which the actors play, while in others, the setting is almost a character in and of itself. Either way, the setting is a very important part of a story and as such, is a literary tool that is worthy of exploration.

Say you are asked to write a literary analysis of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Some questions you may want to consider when analyzing the setting of this book are:

• What is the time period? Would this story have worked better set in a different time?
• What is the location? Would the story have worked better elsewhere? Are several locations used in the story? Do they work? Would a specific scene have worked better in another setting? If all the scenes are set in the same location, would the story have worked better set in several different locations?
  
• What season is the story set in? If it is set in winter, would it be better set in summer? Does the season echo what is happening in the story? (example: Do the love scenes occur in the summer while the trial occurs in the winter, or vice versa?)
• What time of day is it when important events in the story take place? Do the sinister things happen at night while the happy things happen during the day? Why do you think this is? 

While the setting may seem like a simple part of the story, it can actually have a huge impact on what is going on. The events detailed in The Scarlet Letter either wouldn't have happened or would have happened in a very different way with a very different outcome if the story had been set someplace like the farthest frontier outpost or an indian village or in the southern states...even during the same time period.

The setting of a story, not just the physical location but everything about it (time of day, season, outside (forest or beach) or inside (and what type of building if inside)) can greatly impact the success of a story. Thoroughly exploring this literary tool can be a great start to your literary analysis.

Thursdays Haiku

Here is another one to tickle your inspiration :) Leave your beautiful haiku in the comments ;D

How to Write Papers, Poetry and Essays - Schedule Change

Okay, we are going to have a slight change in posting topics. I apologize for the change up...still trying to get everything organized :) For anyone who still wants to know how to write a paper in six weeks or less (as we began discussing last week), check out the sidebar for the cheat sheet. Basically, all the steps for writing a paper are broken into six steps, one for each week. Simple and easy :D

For the next month or so, starting next week, Monday's will be reserved for paper and essay discussions. To start off, we'll focus on things like formatting, correct citations, types of things you'd examine in papers and essays like literary devices, symbolism, imagery, and how those things can help in analyzing literature - that type of stuff. Thursdays will be our poetry days. I like the games, I'll try and come up with more :) Poetry fun for all :D

I am also interested in what everyone out there would like to know. Are there questions you have on a certain assignment? Something you've never understood about writing papers, poetry, essays or other prose? Something else you'd like to ask me? :D Just leave your question in the comments section or hit the Ask Me button on the sidebar and I'll do my best to answer your question. If it is okay to post your question and my response, please let me know as I'd like to share as much info with everyone as I can.

In a few weeks, I'll also begin to take you through the anatomy of papers and essays by posting a few of my own assignments from my school days and dissecting them for you. Lots of fun :)

In the meantime, please bear with me as I get all the bugs ironed out of my schedule. :) Thanks for stopping by!!