As I mentioned in my last post, I haven’t written fiction or worked on fiction in a long time, although I’m okay with that. What writing I have been working on is poetry.

There are a few things I have discovered about poetry as I started writing my “sonnets from the desert,” as I eventually decided to name them. I discovered that poetry can teach a fiction writer many things.

I clung at first to the truth that my poetry was for me and that I was under no obligation to share it with anyone else. And believe me, I needed that reminder, regularly, to allow myself to be raw and real in my sonnets. With prayer and reflection I did decide to publish them on a new blog and am rolling them out little by little, but that is no requirement for a poet. Poetry does not need…

by Monique Hall

Up until recently, I was writing in the closet. By choice, the only person I had to speak to about my writing was my husband. Luckily, he’s interested and very supportive of everything I do, but as I recently finished the first draft of my very first manuscript, I knew it was time to start seeking feedback elsewhere.

by Jacqui Murray

Poetry is not something I’m good at writing, so I enjoy it vicariously through online friends like Audrey Dawn of Oldest Daughter and Red-headed Sister. I’ve been following her for several years and always find her poetry startlingly personal, quick peeks into a world ruled by emotion and heart. I’m way too structured for that, so I only enjoy it through someone else’s eyes.

To honor April’s National Poetry Month, here are fifteen tips from those who have no trouble delivering this concise-but-pithy form of writing:

by Sue Coletta

I’ve become a structure-holic. I see it everywhere: books, TV, movies, and in life. This obsession has now spilled over into my blog, because I firmly believe knowing how to structure our novels is crucial. It ensures our stories flow properly, shows our character arc, and gives readers satisfaction. When it comes to writing fiction, it’s everything.

by Vincent Mars

While my medical adventures drag on, slowed down by paperwork and the (un)availability of doctors, I am trying to take things easy, to eat healthy food, to go on enjoyable walks every day, to rest, and, of course, to read and write.

You know already that writing about your life and problems can be cathartic and that reading has numerous benefits for your brain. When you combine the two, reading with writing, the result is a highly effective home-brewed potion against anxiety, worry, and even depression, a much better way to spend your time than watching TV or YouTube, stalking people on Facebook, or letting yourself be alarmed by Google’s worrisome results.

The cat is out of the bag, finally we know exactly how many self-published authors make it big: 40.

Yes, that’s not a typo.

40 self-published authors “make money”, all the others, and they number in the hundreds of thousands, don’t. This interesting statistic, recently revealed in a New York Times article, applies to the Kindle Store, but since Amazon is in fact the largest digital publishing platform in the world, it is a safe bet that self-published authors are not doing any better elsewhere.

“Making money” here means selling more than one million e-book copies in the last five years. Yes, 40 authors have managed that, and have even gone on to establishing their own publishing house, like Meredith Wild. Her story is fully reported in the New York Times, here, and well worth pondering over.

That story reveals some further nuggets about the current…