Lara D. Elliott - Inspirations

There was a lot of negativity in the world in the past week. Made me sick to think about how much hate there is out there. When my online writing group posted the picture prompt for this week (below), my first instinct was to write about fighting and destruction. But something stuck out in the photo that really spoke to me. The word "hope." Despite the decay and crumbling of the building, there is still hope. I hope for a world without hate. And so I wrote this poem. (For Heather) When walls crumble and roofs collapse, Hope. Despite the hatred and the hurt, Hope. Amidst the dead and dying, Hope. When a battle is lost but not yet the war, Hope. Resisters rise up and fight for what’s right and Hope. Love will overcome with Hope. Like my poetry? Check out more  here !

I'm still relatively young in my writing life. Just under two years now of serious writing. I've written several novel drafts, but nothing is quite right yet. There is an online contest where mentor writers accept submissions and choose one they would like to work with before submitting to agents. So many of the mentors mentioned a strong voice as a necessary element. I didn't really understand what they meant. I did some searching about voice. The Seekerville blog has a good list of posts addressing voice ( http://seekerville.blogspot.com/search/label/Voice ). Several of the posts related writing voice to singing voice. Voice is personal. Billie Holliday sounds different than Etta James. Writers write with different vocabulary and rhythm. Their style is personal. So what does this mean for me? Looking at my writing, it was too generic, too robotic. No life. No personality. I had a brainstorm. I needed to write like I was writing in my diary. Unfiltered and honest. B...