When do poets tend to have a creative peak?

Question

I'm 16, and I wanted to make sure I'm not gonna just suddenly get bad at writing poetry. I feel like I'm still getting better, but I'm afraid one day I'll just wake up and have lost all ability to write poetry.

Answer 1

A poet will not know when they've had a peak until the end of their days. Looking back you'll say, "I think my best poems were written when I was...", but until then you just write when the mood hits you. If you want to improve your skills, try writing on a single subject in several different styles, rhymed and unrhymed. Look at the subject from different perspectives and see which style fits both the subject and you the best. Famous artists could paint and draw in many different styles, but they settled in one just one or two and their fame came from those few. If you feel like your poetry is getting 'bad', it could be that you're reading old poems and realize they weren't as good as you thought, or repeating an old style and realize you've grown out of it or that your tastes have changed. Read other poetry, and not just poetry you find online. Read old poetry and new poetry, see how it's changed, see how the form either helps or hurts the subject. Pay less attention to what's popular and more attention to the style and content, it will help you unlock resources within yourself you never knew existed.

but most of all...keep writing

Answer 2

Good question, but hopefully it never happens.

For me, I hope each new day is a new "peak" or even each new piece. Certainly that doesn't suggest that every piece will TOP the last. nor should I attempt to think it might.

I agree in part with answer one, in that it SHOULD flow naturally. Oddly enough the writer isn't always the critic that defines good or not so good. Certainly too, as answer one states "poetry" or anything we write creatively CAN come from pain, but more importantly it's often driven by any/every emotional experience or thought we have. DARK need not always be the vehicle.

Another thought in those regards is to ALLOW your emotions to flow, and express them/ record them if you wish, even in a single written word or line, for use later, in some composition. I've certainly lost or tossed more than I've ever published.

Finally, and still in my opinion; Writing can be many things specific to/for the writer. Obviously we would like recognition and affirmations, but you should be writing more for yourself than others. Theraputic, Cathartic, Medicinal, are three words that might define your personal reasons, or anyones?

It's a form of venting as well, especially through any dark times.

What does your work do for you, might be a question you'll constantly ask yourself, and answer.

An exercise I often use, beyond exercising the Muse, is to "change up" once in awhile. That too may be inspired, or insisted upon, by emotions, as they ebb and flow.

If you begin to feel redundant, bored, or just grow weary of some specific emotion, change direction, just for a break. IE:

Perhaps one day you'll write, feeling deeply impassioned about romance? At some point write a limmerick, that is humorous. In any case never FORCE your work. You are really only the technician, the work will essentially create itself.

Steven Wolf

Answer 3

Its nothing like that. If you have the ability to write poems it will not lost but might fade with time if you discontinue writing for a long period of time. You will have to re-polish it. But in my opinion at this age don't stop exploring new things through your poetry. Anything and everything you have in your mind, let it be expressed by your pen. Time will come when you have your unique style of writing.

Just keep going and don't think about what gonna happen.

About your main question, in my opinion a poet is at his/her creative peak either when he is emotionally high or emotionally low, it just start to flow from his/her heart then.

Good Luck

Answer 4

im 16 as well and i used to write for family and friends just because i was good. then i stopped for a long time due to writers block. about a month ago my friend sent me an email for a poetry contest and said i should enter an old poem
i decided to write a new one
it just so happened that it was the best poem i have ever written
i won first prize nationwide and have the first three pages in a published book to myself. i also won ten thousand dollars.
i have not stopped writing sense.

in other words i think the answer to your question is that one does not get bad at writing but simply loses interest. all you need is a boost to make it fun when it starts to get boring an dyou will have all the inspiration you need.

Answer 5

usually people are best at writing poetry when they feel a strong emotion like.. happiness or sadness.. I dont think you can lose your ability to create poems unless you loose your emotions

Answer 6

I write best when I'm alone with no pressures. So I guess if you have no time to yourself, that could cause a dryspell. I've been a writer since 1981.

Answer 7

it does not work that way.

Naturals are naturals but their best stuff comes from traumatic events in their life.

Answer 8

It depends on your mood and inspiration...