[Maryann Corbett]

I've completed both the survey and the e-mail interview, which has questions that are open ended and that allow for expansive answers. What's remarkable to me is that the questions seem to assume that there will be folks who compose poetry, from the outset, with a word processor.

I write letters and legal prose that way, but not poetry. I can't, and I really don't know what gets in the way of that. My only theory is that the mindset of touch typing somehow interferes for me.

I'm curious to hear from people who start out at the screen.

[Susan McLean]

I used to draft poems on paper at all times, and I still do so if I am traveling or would find the computer inconvenient to use (when I am drying my hair, for instance). But as I have become more used to writing on the computer for other things, I have started to draft poems there, too. It is simpler to move sections of the poem around on the computer and easier to change words and whole lines multiple times. I always revise as I write, never just sitting down and writing a whole poem in draft form before I change anything. Of course, when one uses complex rhyming forms, as I often do, it would be hard to write the whole thing in one go with no changes.

Susan

[Jean L. Kreiling]

Hi, all--

What a fascinating thread. I hope many more will contribute.

Like Susan, I do lots of "writing" directly to the screen--it's just faster (I can type faster than I can write), and easier to revise as I write.

But I also second Philip's comment: nearly every time, I've composed a heck of a lot in my head (silently repeating phrases over and over) before anything appears on the screen or paper.

And like Jayne (and most of you, I'd bet), I keep a notebook by my bed, one in the car, one next to my favorite reading chair, etc. I think I need to start carrying one during my morning walks--I'm not as good at remembering a whole sonnet (for three miles) as I used to be!

BTW, I took the survey, declined the e-mail interview.

--Jean

[Jayne Osborn]

Jean, what you need for those 3-mile walks is a dictaphone like I keep in the car.
They fit into the palm of your hand and you can talk to yourself for a long time, then just record over it next morning. Put one on your wish list for Christmas

[Rory Waterman]

Originally Posted by Philip Quinlan

"Writing" happens in the head. Not on paper. Not on a computer.

What on earth does this mean?

I'm having trouble accessing the survey. But I can tell you something about my habits here. I never sit down in order to write a poem, and when an idea comes along I scribble it down at once - which is one of several reasons why I always have a pen and paper in my pocket. This is most likely to happen when I'm driving along a motorway or something like that. Sod et al (1993) have a law about that. I used to carry around - or mean to carry around - an A5 hrdback notebook, but never used it because it was always in a bag or something, so these days I use little pocket notebooks that look a bit like passports. These notebooks contain more doodles and phone numbers and 'interesting thoughts' than poem drafts, but there you go. I normally have just a line or so in my head at first, and an idea, and then I graft away at it a couple of times in a notebook before transferring it to the computer. By this point, it normally needs tinkering wqith quite a bit, normally over the period of a few weeks. Most of my notebook/chit of paper jottings come to nothing and are pitiful. If something isn't working I tend to abandon it as a matter of course.

[John Whitworth]

I start (and finish) nearly all of my poems at the screen. The only time I write stuff down is when I am in bed. I never have poetic thoughts when I am out walking - too busy puffing and blowing, though I do compose when swimming. Then I just remember it until I get home. Since all my poems rhyme and scan they are pretty easy to remember.

I've had trouble completing the survey. The thing just sort of disappears. I don't know why.

Who was it wrote his poems on the cardbaord inserts of fag packets? You'd need the old ones which haven't beeen around for thirty years at least.

Auden? MacNeice? Auden was an Olympic smoker.

[Maryann Corbett]

There are quite a few of us reporting trouble accessing the survey. I hope Eric is reading these replies, because it might be important for him to take these problems into account in evaluating his results. It seems as though particular browsers and ISPs are excluding a lot of his participants. So far, everybody who has reported trouble has been in the UK.

[Adam Elgar]

I haven't tried it yet. I will at the weekend.
I've PMd Eric.

[W.F. Lantry]

Yikes! Looks like I'm the odd duck here. I have habits. Used to have other habits, and thought *they* were the way to do things...

So: I only write at the machine. Used to have two monitors, now I just use one big monitor. I wish it were bigger: I've got half a dozen windows open when I'm writing a poem. Dictionaries, thesauri, rhyming dictionaries, points of research, it's an entire datastream. Need music playing, the music can't have words. Has to be done on a private, hidden blog: the actual inscribing of the text has to be as far away as possible from me. The blog is hosted in California.

I never have ideas. There's nothing to jot down for later. My mind is nearly always completely blank. Like those old jokes about a polar bear eating marshmallows in a snowstorm. There's nothing in there: it's just a fogbank. So I sit down to write, but only because I've been told: "No soup for you until you write a poem!" I can't take more than 30 minutes. I just don't have the attention span. And once I click 'save', it's not mine anymore. I can look at it the next day, and say "wow, who wrote that?"

I admire people who can hold ideas in their head. I just can't do it. And I admire people who can think, and ponder, and consider. I can't do that either. But mostly, I admire people who can revise, reframe, work on something for more than half an hour. I'm hopeless at that.

Oh, and the reason people are getting bounced out of the survey isn't nefarious. It's because of the free survey hosting site Eric used. There are much better hosts out there, but they cost actual money, and I don't think the project's funded.

Thanks,

Bill

[Jean L. Kreiling]

Jayne, thanks for the tip. Great idea!

--Jean