Category: writing process

  • Et Tu, Scriptor?

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    Constance Brewer
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    Et Tu, Scriptor? Did you know that March 15 has another important meaning, besides it being the day Julius Caesar was assassinated in Rome in 44 BC? The Romans also observed this day as a deadline for settling debts. It’s a good time for writers to settle their debts also. Especially the ones they have…

  • Wild Places for Wild Poets

    Wild Places for Wild Poets

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    Today is the anniversary of the creation of Yellowstone National Park. Established on March 1, 1872, Yellowstone was the first national park in the world, a place set aside as a public park…for the benefit and enjoyment of the people (wording from The Yellowstone National Park Protection Act). In thinking about this place, a place…

  • About Poetry Resources

    About Poetry Resources

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    Last week on our Instagram account (@gyroscopereview), we ran a series of helpful resource books for poets that people seemed to like quite a lot. We’ve also noticed that writers love blogs that publish interviews with editors – we see them shared around Facebook all the time. Facebook, by the way, offers multiple groups that…

  • This is the End, My Friend

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    Constance Brewer
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    This is the End, My Friend: How to not get a poem rejection I realize poets don’t get much feedback on their rejections. I wanted to address some common problems we see that can get your poem rejected from our slush. The biggest thing we are seeing is an ending that just falls flat. The…

  • Villanelle – A Racy Import With An Interesting Form

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    Constance Brewer
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    If you’re a sucker for poetic homework, expand your horizons by working on a villanelle. A villanelle is only 19 lines long, but has a strict form. The lines can be of any length, contain five tercets and a quatrain in the last stanza. The rhyme scheme is aba with the same end-rhyme for every…

  • Free Verse Is Not a Free For All

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    Constance Brewer
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    Since today is Memorial Day, and Freedom is on my mind — “Free Verse Poetry, what’s that all about?” A question from a friend who is often bewildered by modern poetry in general. She likes reading it, but was raised in the grand tradition of Poetry That Rhymes. Don’t get me wrong, I love Shakespeare,…