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There's a saying I heard in a writing workshop: If you don't know what you want to say or how you want to say it, write a novel. If you know what you want to say, but not how you want to say it, ...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/1774 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/1774 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
There's a saying I heard in a writing workshop: - If you don't know what you want to say or how you want to say it, write a novel. - If you know what you want to say, but not how you want to say it, write a short story. - If you know what you want to say, and exactly how you want to say it, write a poem. This means that whatever your subject, you should find precisely the right words to convey your meaning. Remove everything which doesn't belong. (I might also add that in my humble opinion, I wouldn't write poetry to win a prize, but your mileage may vary, of course.)