As a new poet, where can I find help from a professional to judge my work? [closed]
Closed by System on Mar 5, 2019 at 21:10
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I often write short poems and quotes here: https://www.mirakee.com/atd, but I really want to hear from someone professional to give their valuable feedback on my work, so that I know where exactly I stand in the world of poets and poetry and improve myself at the same time.
How can I connect with someone like that?
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3 answers
Go to a local university and speak with a writer in residence or a professor who is well-respected. Take creative writing courses and listen to the feedback.
Join a writers group - but remember, being told that your work is far from perfect is the point.
Poetry is such an intensely personal and universal form that you must just keep writing. Listen to others, but heed your own instincts too. Write to develop your voice and eventually you will break out of your juvenilia and into your mature works.
Read the great poets - see what they did and learn from them. Immerse yourself in their works.
Understand that poetry is not something one usually writes for profit, but for pleasure and the absolute soul-driven necessity of getting those brilliant images down on paper.
Learn the constraints of your chosen form and discover the freedom within them. Study the rules so that you will know when you can ignore one.
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There are many places to get good feedback for your work. You said you wanted a professional to look over your work and in that case, if you plan on publishing, I would suggest hiring an editor.
But you can go to a community of good writers such as silver pen writers or scribophile. However, I would like to point out that you also need to get feedback from normal people, as they are the ones who will one day be reading your work. wattpad is a great community for this. Who knows maybe I'll read it if it's on there :)
For more communities here is a link to an article I believe will help: https://nybookeditors.com/2015/11/11-top-writing-communities-you-should-join-and-why/
Hope this is helpful :)
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Step one is to get feedback that you're basically on the right track. A lot of people don't feel ready to show their poems to anyone (maybe outside of close friends or family) and need some encouragement first. You're past this step.
Step two is a professional editor or reader. Other answers have covered this in detail.
So I'm going to give you some intermediate steps. Ones that give you direct feedback from consumers of your poetry.
Go to open mike nights for poetry (I'd avoid mixed open night unless you're sure it's one where people stick around and listen to the poetry) and see what sort of reaction you get. Audience reactions during and immediately after your reading and also reactions from people who might come up to you afterwards.
Submit your poetry to a few magazines (low level, not top board quite yet) or contests. My local county fair includes poetry categories with the arts submissions; yours might too.
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