Writing is a hobby many of us have. Even writing this article requires a certain knowledge of language and form of writing. It’s not an easy task by any means. When English is not your first language things can get complicated, especially if you want to honor a certain creative form. Are you aspiring at being a poet? This is a nice dream to have. The best way to make your poems recognized is to write them in the world’s most popular and widespread language – English.
Is this a goal of yours? If it is, we can support you. But, as we said, it’s not an easy task. Not having English as your first language also further complicates the matter. But, things are not all that bleak. First of all, it’s important to know what you’re counting on. If it’s a narrative form of writing, you’re selecting a good and well-developed road of writing. Putting pen t paper is a great way to express yourself and we’re all for it. But, can you do it? The language barrier is a real thing, and it’s not one you can overcome with ease.
For the best possible result, you need to at least know some rules of writing, and follow them closely. While the rules can be bent at will, in this case you at least need to have proper guidelines. This is what we’re going to provide for you in this article. If this style of writing poems and songs is what you’re seeking you have come to the right place. Below we’re going to show you how to write a narrative poem if English is not your first language. Of course, don’t aspire to write A Song of Ice And Fire as you’ll fall short, as the original author did, but you can dream. For now, listen to what we have to say.
Table of Contents
1. Select a Subject
As it’s usually the case, you need to have a subject for what you’re about to write. A theme is quite important when it comes to narrative writing. You need to have one, and you need to have it repeat itself. This might not be the hardest of tasks, but it’s a place to start. If you’re not a native English speaker, and you’re a beginner in this domain you should select one of the standard subjects such as love or friendship. Once you have a theme and subject in place, you can slowly start working on your poem. The next step in creating a proper one would be to equip it with ideas.
2. Pile up Ideas
Having the upper part finished leads to more work. A narrative poem is a story in its essence. As such it can’t be filled with empty words. No, you need to have ideas; proper ideas. The telling story is never an easy task. You need to have characters in place, a storyline, a recurring theme, action, movement, and many other things. Considering details such as location, and character behavior are vital for a good poem.
You need to make sure that you’re focusing on the right things. As a non-English speaker, it might be hard to conjure your ideas the right way into a poem, but that’s why hard work is necessary. You need to put it in, and in addition to having ideas, and incorporating them it’s vital to do it the right way. If you remain unsure about how to handle matters after the two steps we suggested you might need more help. Luckily you can find it directly at wr1ter.com/narrative-poem
3. Change Angles
When it comes to a narrative poem you need to take good care of the details. They’re the centerpiece of your story, and you need to thread them with emotions. This is where you need to be creative. Having a plan and incorporating ideas is one thing. Bringing emotions to the table is another factor. You need to be able to tell your story from all the different angles. You not only need to change your angles. You also need to be able to change the perspective of the readers.
The goal needs to be to make them see the world with different eyes. Show them a story through your lenses. This might not always be easy, but you can look at what famous writer GRR Martin and his HBO TV Show House of The Dragon do with the Targaryen family. While you’re watching the show, you do not see incest as a bad thing, right? Do you know why? Because he changed your angle and perspective. He also imbued the characters with a lot of emotions. Those emotions are what you can relate to. Strive for that with each of your poems!
4. Start From The Bottom
Make your poem a success story. Do you know what we’re talking about? Starting from the bottom, and now you’re where? Drake is not the best narrative poet out there, but you can’t argue with his success. While you might not get far with your first few poems you can at least try different styles of writing. Every poem has a start, a middle part, and an end. But it’s not always necessary to start from the beginning. No! You can choose to tell your story from the back end. Some pets even start from the middle and then go back and forth. This type of writing can add charm to what you’re trying to do.
5. Speak and Describe
You need to be strong in these departments. Narrative poems need to tell a story. What’s the best way to do it than to have characters having dialogue? But, having people in your poem sprouting nonsense is not wise. Have them have real conversations. You’ll do this by mimicking real life. But, you can go a little overboard. This is done by being descriptive. You don’t only need to describe people and places. You need to be descriptive when tic comes to what they have to say. With this and the few paragraphs we have given you above, you can start the best poem of your life. As for more advice, maybe listen to some professional advice as we already suggested.