Having Trouble With Abstract and Concrete language...  

Posted by Anonymous

After going though some examples in class of how to take abstract language and change it to concrete, I am having issues in my own poems. I feel like when we went step by step I could see the variety of concrete words I could use for vague words like "everything" and "reality". I was surprised as to how many different ways you change simple words. But as soon as I tried to do it myself I feel as though none of my words fit with my poems and it all seems to be crazy and all over the place. It is very weird because I always thought of abstract language would be better because it is very vague and could have many different meanings. I do see now why it is better to use concrete language because even though it might be talking about something specific you can see or hear, it can still mean so many different things to different readers. Still none of mine seem to really fit well. I suppose it is just something you have to practice and will eventually become more natural when writing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 3/28/2012 03:26:00 PM . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

2 comments

It definitely comes with experience. Thst experience also helps you to think and then write in concrete language and you might find yourself with less revision work than you might need to do now. Although, I warn you, revising can into your system and take over! I get too caught up in it at timesd overevise the hell out of my work.

I've also been a believer than when you train yourself to think and write like that, it can improves other aspects of your life. When you begin to think in clearer language, you start speaking it and that can only help you.

March 28, 2012 at 7:51 PM

I had discovered the need for concrete language this year when one of my other teachers was talking about it in class. I had never realized the difference it made or how much harder it is to come up with original concrete language. some days my poems for this class seem alright to me and other days I feel like writing is near impossible to do well especially when revising to become more concrete and suitable for an audiences' perspective. plus being cliche is a whole other can of worms.

March 29, 2012 at 9:26 PM

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