Featured WRITER
Featured by Vigilo
Elmara writes prose and poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and all of their writing, whichever category it fits into, is absolutely gorgeous. (Which is why I've featured two poems and two pieces of prose, one fiction and one nonfiction, here, so you can see how right I am about this.) I first came across their work through either the last poem in this feature or the last prose in this feature, I can't remember which, but I have no words to describe how utterly delighted I was when I was looking for writers to feature and found that Elmara was a member of this group.
I'm probably going to use the word 'gorgeous' a lot in this feature but Elmara's work is just that, as well as widely varied in topic and theme, but always expertly and deftly written. If you read anything at all today, let it be one of the four pieces (or more!) I've agonised about choosing here (it was really difficult and I'm really sad we only do four), because Elmara's writing deserves your time and your eyes, and you deserve to read it.
Seriously, go. Read.
The Everyday
"Where does love
go when the heart is still and the eyes,
searching, find nothing, and the mind, alone,
conjures up such quiet ghosts, the phantoms"
This is one of their most recent poems and it's as wonderful as anything else you'll find in the gallery - simple and lovely in its delicacy of language and style, from beginning to end.
Our Last Azaan
"I'm not sure who walks the frigid, Friday-lit streets of Karachi this morning. I'm not sure whose lank frame casts this bleak shadow on the tar-black surface of the cold streets. It could be Iblees. It could be but I'm not sure. The world looks pale through this smoked glass window."
It's a short story and it's a stunningly told piece of fiction, a story of cities and more. I love it. It was incredibly difficult to pick out a short quote from this because the whole piece is so gorgeously rich in language and style - go read it immediately, it's so, so worth it.
The Mundane Magic of Med School
"There will come a day in your 2nd year, when you'll be whistling as you walk into the Dissection Hall, nonchalantly talk about lunch with your best mates and then still have time to muse about what dreams the brain in your Instructor's hand must have dreamed once."
This is gorgeous nonfiction - the story of a journey, of being a med student and facing the morgue, told in a lovely and heartfelt manner, and incredibly powerful because of that.
A Ghazal for Naga
"Karachi's cold azaans creep upon my bones. You demon-lovers weep from abandoned rooftops.
You are Indus; a liar, shifting with each millennia; a desert-forming snake."
Ghazals are one of my favourite fixed forms of poetry ever. If I had to choose my top three forms, ghazals would definitely be there. Also, I don't like snakes. So, trust me when I say this is an absolutely lovely ghazal about snakes - one that deserves your time and attention.
We
Elmara.Featured CRITIQUES
on Heart by annafuru
I would change the fourth line, though. "You can't be awaken" doesn't make grammatical sense to me. Do you mean that the "life once taken" cannot be awakened? If so, I'd use "you can't be awakened" or "you can't re-awaken". If you're referring to another 'you' (the heart-taker, for example) I'd use either "you can't reawaken" or simply "you can't awaken". Also, I don't see whether the second-to-last line fits in with the line before it or after it. It seems to make most sense as being a continuation of the line before it, and if that's the case, you don't need the full stop after 'stay'.
[Read more here.]
on . by Royplayer89
Punctuation. Keep it consistent. I personally think you should not capitalize the first letter of each line because each line is so short, but that's ultimately up to you. (The way it is right now, for example, the first stanza is pretty hard to understand because it doesn't feel like one complete, grammatical sentence. Instead, it feels more like a succession of images. It really worked for me but it took me a while to understand what it actually meant. So, up to you.) However, it's super important that you keep it consistent unless there's a very, very good reason not to.
[Read more here.]
Featured RESOURCES
102 Resource For Fiction Writers by CSS.
"Here are 102 resources on Character, Point of View, Dialogue, Plot, Conflict, Structure, Outlining, Setting, and World Building, plus some links to generate Ideas and Inspiration. Also, I recommend some resources for Revision and some online Tools and Software."
Tips For the Novice
Tips For The Novice
It's an all-too common occurrence on my periodic forays into the world of internet poetry - writing weakened by a lack of fundamental knowledge concerning the essence of poetry writing. There are no rules set in stone about creative writing. The writer that strikes new trails can make a lasting impact on the world of poetry, but the chances of a writer stumbling upon golden words without a solid knowledge base are slim to none. The following tips for novice writers are intended to help shore up those fundamentals, to help the young writer breathe the essence of life into their poems, and to better share that essence with the reader.
The most important element you can inject into your poetry is imagery. Imagery is made up of sense data: color, sound, smell, temperature, the feeling of physical contact. When we remember anything with any vividness, we remember in images. When we fantasize or hallucinate, it is i
"If you are a novice poet, read on and start building a solid foundation for your creative writing. These are not "rules" that must be adhered to, but rather a few simple pointers to help you get started."
