Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Poets & Writers Toolkit: Paper

By L.L. Barkat 19 Comments

Poets and Writers Toolkit-Paper
Our geography affects our actions. It simply does.

I could give you a big historical low-down on the matter (all very interesting, if you have time for some talk on island cultures, peace in Switzerland, and Alaskan ice fishermen) or I could state it matter-of-factly, based on my experiences in teaching art and writing.

You see where this is going. Matter of fact: I have watched artists, poets & writers produce wildly different writing and art simply by providing them with different kinds of paper. Post-It Notes© versus rolls of brown butcher paper. Lined versus plain. Rough versus smooth. You name it. Paper has a geography, and it affects our creative actions.

In just a couple of weeks, our Mastering the Elements of Story Workshop will begin. Maybe you have chosen that as part of your creative geography. Maybe not. If you have, it will change your creative actions, I assure you. But either way, you can give yourself the gift of a new creative geography today, on the most basic of scales: your paper choices.

Why not create a writing box (or corner, or bookshelf, or drawer)? Start simply with paper. Stock different sizes, shapes, colors, textures. Make that part of your poet’s & writer’s palette. See what comes. Then tell us about it. We want to hear your adventures.

Photo by Claire Burge. Used with permission. Post by L.L. Barkat, author of Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing

Thanks to Maureen Doallas for recommending the Moleskine notebooks in our comments! Check ’em out…

________________

Buy a year of Every Day Poems, just $5.99 — Read a poem a day, become a better poet. In February we’re exploring the theme Purple, Plum, Indigo.

Every Day Poems Driftwood

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' She has also served as a writer for The Huffington Post blog. Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.
L.L. Barkat
Latest posts by L.L. Barkat (see all)
  • Bookstore Tour: Transom is a Tarrytown Delight! - August 31, 2023
  • Poetry Prompt: Into the Cave - August 14, 2023
  • Where Poetry Lives—Interview with Beekeeper & Poet Sara Eddy - August 16, 2022

Filed Under: Blog, poetry teaching resources, Poets and Writers Toolkit, writer's group resources

Get Every Day Poems...

About L.L. Barkat

L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' She has also served as a writer for The Huffington Post blog. Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.

Comments

  1. Monica Sharman says

    February 11, 2013 at 11:10 am

    Oh, my. You said the P word. When I go into a store here called Meininger Art Supply (which has an entire back stock room just for paper), I literally start drooling. Mmm.

    Reply
  2. L. L. Barkat says

    February 11, 2013 at 11:13 am

    we want pictures 🙂

    Reply
  3. L. L. Barkat says

    February 11, 2013 at 11:13 am

    Um. Of the paper, not the dr… 😉

    Reply
  4. Will Willingham says

    February 11, 2013 at 11:18 am

    No, please, no drool pictures. 😉

    Graph paper, sometimes. If I write while I’m out on the road.

    Reply
  5. L. L. Barkat says

    February 11, 2013 at 11:27 am

    Does the graph paper change the way you write?

    I was talking to a friend who lived in Europe, and she said they were writing on graph paper in that region and they couldn’t believe the margins in her notebook. A lot of waste, they thought.

    I wonder if margins create a different psychological expectation? Not that we’d be conscious of it. 🙂

    Reply
    • Will Willingham says

      February 11, 2013 at 11:38 am

      Interesting question. I waste space when I use graph paper, probably more than if I had margins.

      But I also write wherever I want on the page, maybe starting right in the middle. And it might have drawings along with it. I don’t do that with regular lined or blank paper.

      Little square boxes can be good for me. 🙂

      Reply
      • Monica Sharman says

        February 11, 2013 at 11:45 am

        Ah. So you can’t color outside the lines unless there are…lines.

        Reply
  6. Maureen Doallas says

    February 11, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    Moleskin has a “squared” notebook; paper is acid-free; it comes in colors, too.
    http://www.moleskineus.com/largesquared.html

    Reply
    • L. L. Barkat says

      February 11, 2013 at 1:30 pm

      Tres cool, Maureen! 🙂

      Reply
  7. Donna says

    February 11, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    Interesting… and this will be fun to play around with when writing.

    I notice that different medium change the way I see myself as a person who tries to draw. When I draw on paper I feel…well, like it would not inspire drooling…. BUT when I draw using the Draw Something game app I think “heck, I could illustrate my OWN children’s book”. I mean, you should have seen the chicken I drew yesterday! And then I go back to paper and it just doesn’t work again. And how many times I find myself in the art store buying tablets and water color that sit in a drawer until I give them away to someone with young children who like that sort of thing.

    My Artist Within is fickle, just or particular… I am not sure which. Maybe she’s just a digital babe.

    This will be interesting to try with words…

    Reply
    • L. L. Barkat says

      February 11, 2013 at 1:27 pm

      you may recall that we kinda have a thing for chickens around here.

      So.

      Chicken picture evidence please? 😉

      Reply
      • Donna says

        February 11, 2013 at 3:00 pm

        Lol! If I get to drawn another chicken there I’ll try to save it!! She was cute, all sleepy on her nest. 🙂

        Reply
  8. Bethany Rohde says

    January 21, 2015 at 3:13 am

    What a great post. 😀 Even though I have two beautiful journals (which I received as gifts), I tend to write poetry most freely on loose sheets of college ruled paper.

    I like the idea of trying graph paper or other textures and types.

    Reply
    • L. L. Barkat says

      January 21, 2015 at 11:50 am

      I look forward to hearing if writing on different types, styles, and sizes of paper has any affect on the writing (or maybe the creativity level you feel? 🙂 )

      Reply
      • Bethany R. says

        October 16, 2018 at 4:23 pm

        This post inspired me to brainstorm and then write the poem “Set,” which was edited and published in Casual: A Little Book of Jeans Poems & Photos, by T.S. Poetry Press. I started by scrawling words onto an oversized piece of paper that covered about half of my kitchen table. Thank you for this!

        Reply
        • L.L. Barkat says

          October 16, 2018 at 4:28 pm

          Very cool, Bethany. Maybe I need to get out a big piece of paper and play around with it, to shake something new loose. 🙂

          Reply
          • Bethany R. says

            October 16, 2018 at 4:30 pm

            I found the experience playful and freeing. Wishing you the same.

Trackbacks

  1. Poets & Writers Toolkit: The Ultimate Website You Can Totally Make - says:
    May 25, 2016 at 4:51 pm

    […] tools we use often frame the explorations we engage in. If you don’t already have a website, consider how having an easily-customizable […]

    Reply
  2. Poets & Writers Toolkit: Use Your Hands - says:
    June 2, 2016 at 8:47 am

    […] we have as writers has nothing to do with whether we use a fountain pen or Blackwing pencil or if our paper is recycled or vellum or the never-ending question of paper at all versus digital. A prize tool is […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For the Writer in You

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our September Menu.

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

Your Comments

  • Megan Willome on By Heart: ‘Motherload’ + Li-Young Lee Challenge
  • Nichoel Saltekoff on By Heart: ‘Motherload’ + Li-Young Lee Challenge
  • Sandra Heska King on Do You Remember the First Poetry Book You Bought?
  • L.L. Barkat on The Honey Field—19: Corrie is Gone, Your Master is Gone

Join the Year of the Monarch

How to Write Poetry

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Annual Theme 2022: Perspective
  • • Annual Theme 2021: Generous
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2023 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy

We serve poetry with our cookies. Because that's the way it should be.
We serve poetry with your cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you... accept the cookies with a smile.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
update cookie prefs

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT