I was cruising around on social media when my favorite local bookstore, Bookman's, posted something about a virtual speculative poetry workshop... happening today... in four hours. What is speculative poetry? I wondered. I'd never heard of it! I'm still in my year of poetry, so I decided I'd like to learn more. I know how our new world works, though. There's usually only X number of participants allowed in a zoom meeting. Was I too late to sign up? Would there be space for me? I found the registration email and asked. I received a reply instantly, and was told that (of course!) I could still join, and I was given the zoom link to jump in when it started, which I did! At first, I thought there might have been something wrong with my zoom. I could see the Bookman's dude, Todd, and someone else who must be the presenter, but where were all the participants? It turned out that I was the only one. ha ha! Well, y'all missed out! What inspires us? After brief introductions, the presenter asked us what inspires us to read. In other words, what keeps us reading a book? I said characters. I didn't say it, but I didn't finish Twilight because I couldn't stand Bella. I couldn't imagine going on an adventure with her, no matter how popular or engaging the plot premise was. Todd said setting, which is another great answer! Especially as we were talking about sci-fi and speculative fiction. Some of the best stories I know are those set in space or in fantastical worlds. The presenter agreed and said that the reason we read sci-fi or speculative fiction is because we want to be somewhere other than where we are. What is speculative writing? In short, it's asking speculative questions:
An example of the first one would be, what if there were a school for witches and wizards? (Harry Potter.) The second might be if only humanity could travel through intergalactic space (Star Trek), and the third might be if these games go on, we're going to be in deep sludge (Hunger Games). Writing Practice As you'd expect from a writing workshop, there were a few writing exercises. The presenter gave about 5 minutes for each and played some music while we drafted. Because I wanted to combine the speculative writing we'd just learned about with my poetry practice, I wrote poems for all the exercises! I posted my poems in the poetry tab, but I'll also include links to the individual poems associated with the exercises... Exercise #1 Write about a triumph or challenge. I wrote about finding a single Oreo in the back of the package. Exercise #2 What would that triumph or challenge look like 200 years ago? (I wrote about 2,000 years ago.) Exercise #3 Rewrite that triumph or challenge as though you were using a superpower and/or how that triumph or challenge will be described in generations to come. These were supposed to be separate exercises, but I combined them. We ran out of time, so after I read my last poem, we got disconnected. (Oops!) But I had a really fun time, and I think I might try these exercises out again sometime.
I'm glad I learned about speculative poetry because it makes me think about poetry in all genres. Poetry in sci-fi. Poetry in horror. Poetry in romance. Poetry in adventure. Poetry in... every day life! What poetry should I try next? Let me know in the comments.
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