Survival Tips for SingPoWriMo 2020
2020 has been a wild, vicious ride so far. Luckily, we can still look forward to the one major event of the year that viruses cannot cancel (yet): the highly social distancing-friendly Singapore Poetry Writing Month 2020.
If you’ve done it before, you know the drill: keep refreshing your browser while waiting patiently for prompts to get released every night around 10pm, either get hyped for a prompt that’s right down your alley or groan at a prompt that takes too long to research, scream at the bonus challenge and try them all anyway, carve out time between work/school/sleep to write a poem or have the prompt haunt you for the rest of the day, then post your poem and keep refreshing your browser for likes and heart reacts, occasionally checking out other people’s interpretations in between until the next prompt rolls around. Rinse and repeat for 30 days. Or maybe that’s just me.
In any case, SingPoWriMo is an incredible month, full of camaraderie, laughter, inspiration, meeting new friends and discovering new voices, including voices you never knew you had inside of you. But it can also be a stressful, exhausting and emotionally taxing month (poets are, after all, full of feelings). This is why we at the SingPoWriMo magazine did a small survey to get tips from various wizened and wise SingPoWriMo participants on how to make the most of SingPoWriMo. Whether it’s your first year trying out this masochistic month of poetry madness or your seventh (yes, we are in our seventh year!) we hope this will help you enjoy SingPoWriMo 2020 as much as you can while taking the best possible care of yourself.
For being a part of the community
Use the Sandwich Method to give feedback: start with a positive or complimentary point, insert an area that needs improvement, and end off with a positive note again.
Read widely across the group! Don’t read poems just by your friends. Reading different types of poems by different people might give you more insight into writing yours, and what you feel works for you and what doesn’t.
Leave a quality comment a day. The writer will appreciate it greatly, whether it’s a critique or a subtle thing you notice and like.
Give comments about how the entry makes you feel. No need to give complicated ones.
Learn how to differentiate between critique meant to help you, and critique which basically says “This isn’t to my taste”. Do not weigh in on everything.
Criticism is something to be grateful for, not to fear. Don't take any of it – the prompts, the poetry, the responses to your poetry – too seriously.
For avoiding burnout
Take care of yourself and try to assess what your goals are, if they're realistic, and how you can stay okay while being creative.
Don’t worry about quality per se – after all, you are doing this on hard mode.
Skip the prompts you don't want to, it's more than fine; you're a person first and writer second. If something doesn't work it doesn't.
Please drink water, get enough sleep. And remember to breathe.
Accept the fact that you will not be able to write good poems every day – but that’s fine, don’t stress over it. The point is that you tried to write, stretched your creative muscles a bit.
Posting late is fine. Posting a poem that doesn't respond to the day's prompt is fine. Posting something you think isn't good is fine. Posting something you didn't put much effort in is also fine.
If you don’t feel like posting what you wrote, then don’t.
Don't worry too much about any single poem. For me, the whole point is the discipline of producing a single poem each day for 30 days. Along the way, you might find some image or form or technique you want to explore further after April.
Sometimes a poem isn’t meant to be written now, and that’s okay.
For staying motivated
Don't be afraid to sacrifice prompts or bonuses if it makes for a better poem.
It's hard, sometimes, to see a poem you didn't connect with get a gazillion likes (especially when your own piece, that might be better in some respects, gets merely a few likes) Ironically, the way I've found to combat this is to just keep writing and posting in April.
Break the association that likes are a barometer of ’"poetic quality’. Celebrate other people receiving recognition for their poems. We're all on our own poetic journeys!
Find friends to read/write with! Writing is a pretty solitary journey, but having a few friends might be a good motivating factor to write.
A Google search can be your best friend for inspiration.
If a prompt stumps you, brainstorm by jotting down images and lines, even if they are disconnected, silly, or totally mad. Jot down as many as you can without censoring yourself. Then, strike out those that don't resonate and keep those that do, and you'll have the bones of a poem.