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the fanciest word is the wrong one
Your poem is dressed up like it's going to court. Take it off.
Poetry is precision, not vocabulary. The poets you actually remember use the boring word in an unexpected place, not the fancy word in the obvious one. We walk through Maven poetics: the boring word, the unexpected line break, the small humility that turns a workshop draft into a real poem. Includes a five-poem exercise that strips your work back to its actual nerve. The thesaurus is a tool. So is restraint. Use one and skip the other for now.
Workshop poetics · Maven poetics
| Workshop default | Maven move |
|---|---|
| Fancy word, expected place | Plain word, unexpected place |
| Long line, clever | Short line, devastating |
| Metaphor stacked on metaphor | One image, fully earned |
| Capitalized abstract nouns | Specific concrete nouns |
| Closing twist | Quiet thud |
The five-poem strip-back exercise
- Take five of your finished poems.
- Remove every adjective and adverb.
- Remove every word above your character's natural register.
- Re-read. Notice what survives.
- Rewrite the strongest one with new line breaks.
Poetry isn't vocabulary. It's precision and restraint, in a small room, with the lamp on.
— L.A. Walton, The Book Maven
From the Maven Catalog
- Master Course — Maven Poetics
- eBook — Plainer, Sharper, Truer
- Planner — The Poet's Planner
- Toolkit — Poetic Revision Toolkit
Put the thesaurus down. Strip back five poems. Notice what survives. That's what poetry actually is. Write the next one that way.