Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry [Paperback]

Nikki Moustaki (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0028641418 | ISBN-13: 978-0028641416 | Edition: 1

Discover the poet within! You've read poetry that has touched your heart, and you'd like to improve your own writing technique. But even though you have loads of inspiration, you're discovering that good instruction can be as elusive as a good metaphor. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry will help you compose powerful, emotion-packed poems that you can be proud of. You'll learn simple explanations of poetry building blocks such as metaphor, imagery, symbolism and stanzas; steps to the poetic process; easy-to-follow guidelines for writing sonnets, sestinas, narrative poems and more; fun exercises to help you master the basics of poetry writing; cliches and other poetry pitfalls to avoid; advice on writers' conferences and workshops; tips on getting your poetry published; good poems that will inspire your own work; strategies to beat writer's block.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Remember the excitement of writing that first haiku in fourth grade, how proud you were of counting those syllables, 5-7-5, and having the poem come out just right? I do. I also remember writing a term paper on the poet Robert Frost in 11th grade – I fell in love with his language and found myself intrigued with his tragic history. I’ve been hooked on poetry ever since. I’ve made it a big part of my life.

If you’re reading this letter, chances are that you share a similar feeling. Once it gets into you, poetry has a way of staying put. Poetry is an art whose fans and critics are also practitioners as well. Rarely does a fan of classical music take up composing, or an art critic take up sculpting. But poetry is special. You can practice it anywhere – at home, work, in prison, on a deserted island – provided you have a pencil and a scrap of paper.

I believe that beginners first come to poetry as an art partly because they already own the tools to make it. If you can read and write, chances are you also can pen a poem. But there’s a misconception that a pen and paper is all you need. A great poem takes more than just the ability to form legible words with a ballpoint. Much more.

This book will take you though the skills you require to become a good poet. I can’t promise you greatness and fame, but I can promise you that you’ll learn the parts and pieces that make up a poem – the feeling and inspiration are between you and your muse. You’ll also get practical advice on journaling, revision, workshops, reading in public, poetry exercises, and the recognition most poets desire – publishing.

Are you going to find everything you need to know about poetry here? Well, no. But you’ll find more than a start – this book will take you far beyond novice status if you practice along with the exercises and suggestions – you may even find some great successes along the way.

From the Back Cover

Discover the poet within! You've read poetry that has touched your heart, and you'd like to improve your own writing technique. But even though you have loads of inspiration, you're discovering that good instruction can be as elusive as a good metaphor. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry will help you compose powerful, emotion-packed poems that you can be proud of. You'll learn simple explanations of poetry building blocks such as metaphor, imagery, symbolism and stanzas; steps to the poetic process; easy-to-follow guidelines for writing sonnets, sestinas, narrative poems and more; fun exercises to help you master the basics of poetry writing; cliches and other poetry pitfalls to avoid; advice on writers' conferences and workshops; tips on getting your poetry published; good poems that will inspire your own work; strategies to beat writer's block.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Alpha; 1 edition (March 23, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028641418
• ISBN-13: 978-0028641416
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

With more than a half a million pet books in print and hundreds of articles on pets and their care and training to her credit, Nikki Moustaki is considered one of the country's leading pet experts. She also is an award winning freelance writer, animal trainer, and pet industry expert, and her tireless work feeding shelter pets with her innovative website, The Pet Postcard Project, along with her hands-on rescue efforts and vocal advocacy for homeless animals has led her to be dubbed "Saint Nik."

Nikki Moustaki is also considered an "Urban Dog Guru," specializing in training city dogs for their particular needs. She has published more than 42 books of nonfiction, primarily on the care and training of pets. Her pet books and articles have been translated into 5 languages. Along with working as a dog trainer, Nikki is one of the country's foremost experts on parrots, having authored more than 24 books on birds and their care and training. Her expertise in pets ranges from dogs and cats to fish and hermit crabs, and everything else in between.

An energetic, lively and personable TV and radio guest, Nikki currently hosts a pet-related cable show on The Beach Channel in Miami Beach, and she hosted, co-produced, and co-wrote the national NBC/MSN show, The Celebrity Pet Dish, with her Miniature Schnauzer, Pepper, as her co-host. Nikki has appeared on CNN, Howard Stern (XM Sirius Radio), NBC News, FOX News, CBS News, Martha Stewart Radio, BBC Radio, Animal Radio, Pet Talk Radio, and Talkin' Pets Radio, among others, and was the animal handler for the second season of the Tony Danza Show, where she often appeared on-air along with her parrot and dog. Nikki has also been featured in The New York Times, Glamour Magazine, The Humane Society Magazine, and Dog Fancy, among others.

Nikki also writes, collaborates and co-writes books on a variety of topics. She also created a canine focused blues album, Dog Training Tracks: A Musical No Bark Solution: Blues for Buster, for "alarm barkers" and dogs who suffer from separation anxiety.

A self-professed "pet product geek," Nikki also enjoys working as a consultant for pet product manufacturers, helping them brand, position, and develop their products and succeed in social media. She has worked on projects ranging from microchips to dog toys to pet food research and development. Her many years of expertise with pet products at both the consumer and the trade level give her unique insight, and she is able to communicate about pets and pet products in any medium.

Nikki's two primary interests - writing and animals - collide in her work, allowing her to travel through both the landscape of the literary writer and the interesting world of the pet industry. She writes feature articles for many pet-related magazines, including Dog Fancy, Popular Dogs, Dogs USA, CATS Magazine, Cat Fancy, Pet Product News, Bird Talk, Birds USA, and Water Garden News, among others. Nikki has written for Latina Magazine, the Village Voice, Jane, Time To Spa Magazine, and the National Endowment for the Humanities Magazine.

Her popular websites include The Pet Postcard Project, a fun and charitable site that raises awareness, food, and funds for shelter animals, and has raised over 120,000,000 pieces of kibble for shelter pets. The site has no advertising - all of her efforts are to help feed the homeless pets.

Nikki holds an M.A. in creative writing from New York University, an M.F.A. in creative writing from Indiana University, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from NYU. She taught creative writing at several universities for 10 years, including both NYU and IU, as well as at The New School in New York City. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant in poetry, and has been awarded many national prizes and honors for her writing, including two Pushcart Press nominations, and her poetry and essays have also appeared in various anthologies and college textbooks, including Poetry After 9-11: An Anthology of New York Poets, and America Now, chosen by Robert Atwan, editor of the Best American Essays series.

Before beginning her career as a freelance writer and editor, Nikki worked as an acquisitions and development editor at Macmillan Publishing and IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., where she specialized in the non-fiction market and edited more than 60 non-fiction titles. Nikki splits her time between New York City and Miami Beach with her two rescued Schnauzers, Pepper and Zoey, one rescued Schnoodle named Pearl, and two parrots. When she's not writing, you can find Nikki rocking out on the drums, teaching herself 80s metal on her Gibson guitar, rescuing dogs from the shelter, and working on her various charity projects.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stranded on a Desert Island Beginner's Poetry Writing Book, May 26, 2001

By 

Bob F. (Bethlehem, PA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry (Paperback)

On page 261, there is a quote from the poet, Sylvia Plath: "nothing stinks like a pile of unpublished writing." This friendly introduction to writing poetry has everything--forms, writing and revision exercises, workshop and formal classroom advice, and some very humorous and helpful quotations from those who have been through the process. One's writing might still "stink," but this guide gives the novice poet a chance to give thought, coherence, and polish to those random scribblings.

I'm a retired public acquisitions librarian who started writing poems in his forties. I could have avoided spending a lot of money and saved a lot of room on my shelves had this book been available sooner. Just a cursory look shows that it accomplishes more in less space than anything else I have on my shelves, and I'm talking well over 30 volumes on how to write poems. The explanations are crystal clear and the advice is right on target.

There are some wonderful textbooks such as Mary Kinzie's, "A Poet's Guide to Poetry" and Wallace & Boisseau's, "Writing Poems," but this book is perfect for the person who has no access or wants no access to formal classes or just wants to get his/her feet wet. A competitor to the "Idiot's" series has a look-a-like volume, "Poetry for Dummies," but that volume is more of an all-inclusive reference work with a major portion devoted to the history of and facts about poetry--nevertheless also a good introductory volume.

For the aspiring poet with little or no exposure to poetry writing, this has to be the first choice.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars if you can keep it in perspective...., September 25, 2004

By 

Elizabeth A. Genco "http://www.elizabethgenco... (Brooklyn, New York USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry (Paperback)

I'm completely new to the world of writing poetry; in fact, it's one of those things I never thought I'd be picking up a book for, let alone an Idiot's guide. I'd like to learn the basics because not only am I a big word nrrd whose idea of an exciting night in is hunkering down and learning what "iambic pentameter" really means, I know darn well that all those economy of words and lyrical language skills are really going to come in handy on the fiction writing tip, too. Overall, the other reviewers here are right on the money: this book does a great job of explaining the basics, is an excellent reference for all those poetry terms you never learned, and is packed with fun exercises that are sure to get you writing. I've been very happy with this book -- I carry it around on the subway and whip it out when I have a free minute, and always have a good time when I do.

However.

There's one thing that really sticks in my craw about this book, so much so that I'm sitting down to type out this review. And that's the unrelenting admonishments designed to steer us humble students in the direction of writing "good" poetry. I'm thinking that anyone who is picking up a Complete Idiot's Guide to Poetry has probably got a heck of a long way to go before their work is what you would consider "good". I'm also pretty confident that, for anyone picking up said Complete Idiot's Guide, writing "good" poetry is probably a little further down the list of priorities, perhaps nestled somewhere between "adapting all of MOBY DICK as a fixed-form ballad" and "writing ''Twas The Night Before Christmas 2: Electric Boogaloo'".

One thing that really troubles me, here, is that the author never misses the opportunity to bring up the "good poetry" issue. Perhaps she's just had to read a lot of bad poetry, in the course of teaching or editing literary journals or whatever, and is just plain sick of it. I can appreciate that. Here's the thing, though: bad poetry is just a fact of life for beginning writers. And beginning writers, especially those who have been traumatized into not writing for one reason or another, don't need yet another negative voice in their head to concern themselves with, no matter how well-meaning. They've probably got images of their horrid seventh grade English teacher in there already, the one who humiliated them in front of the entire class or sucked all the joy out of putting words together. A concern for "good" too early in the game is misplaced, in my opinion, and I found all the comments on it to be condescending distractions that just served to get my dander up.

All in all, this book is excellent, but gosh darn it all, it would have done well with a little less schoolmarming and a little more cuddling.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Demystifies Poetry and Inspires, May 7, 2001

By 

"shannon32" (Hoboken, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry (Paperback)

This book completely demystifies the process of writing poetry. It shows how to write, what to aim for, gives some real, concrete guidelines for starting, yet doesn't encourage your poetry to be formulaic. The author so enjoys reading and writing poems that she reminds the reader what we love about them too. Title is a misnomer, though: this book is not for "complete idiots" at all; it is for anyone enthusiastic about the craft.