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How Poetry Shapes Fiction

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How Poetry Shapes Fiction

Like a football player learning ballet, some skills are best refined on a smaller stage, with intricate and deliberate movements. Fiction and poetry might seem like separate disciplines; one built on expansive storytelling and the other on compression. In poetry we are staring directly at the labored, birthed, & naked craft, yet novelist are frequently told to murder their young—or darlings¹—something like that.

So what can poetry offer to to novelist? Turns out, a lot—learning how to write poetry has profoundly shaped my fiction in unexpected ways. Through poetry, I’ve uncovered narrative gems that the strictly prose-writer might not be as intimate with than the experienced poet.

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5 Ways Poetry Improved My Novels

1. Defamiliarization

2. Deconstructing Senses

3. Emotional or Observational Tunneling

4. Economy of Words

5. Diction and Tone Refinement

Bonus* Breaking the Rules in syntax/spacing.