Creative Writing : Generating Ideas

In this post I will be discussing my process of choosing a main idea that I will be focusing on for my work on the creative writing project.

Before producing a focus for the project, let us first discuss what a chapbook is. According to Richardson (2014), they were considered miniature and affordable pieces of literature mainly for kids that were sold in streets containing either a fairy tale or politics and so on and so forth; they were mostly seen through the 17th to the 19th century. One example is as shown below.

Moral Emblems. A Second Collection of Cuts and Verses

by : Robert Louis Stevenson

Within the chapbook I will be creating, I will focusing on creating poems about flowers and each of their meanings to me both metaphorically and through my attachments to their image.

The title I have decided that would fit the contents of my chapbook would be "枯れた僕の花畑" (in romaji : Kareta boku no hanabatake). Most of the poems would be of Tanka, which by definition as stated by Poets.org (N/D), is a 31-syllable poem which is traditionally written in a single unbroken line which is also know as a "short song" when translated into Japanese. It has a 5 line, 5/7/5/7/7 syllable metre form. It is one of the oldest Japanese poem writing forms, closely resembling a sonnet, having 2 parts to the form : the kami-no-ku and shimo-no-ku. One example of a Tanka can be seen below.

Two Leaves by : Jun Fujita

Reference :

Poets.org (no date) Tanka, Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Available at: https://poets.org/glossary/tanka (Accessed: January 30, 2023).


MasterClass (2021) 10 types of Japanese poetry: A guide to Japanese poetic forms - 2023, MasterClass. MasterClass. Available at: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-guide-to-japanese-poetic-forms (Accessed: January 30, 2023).

Richardson, R. (2014) Chapbooks, British Library. British Library. Available at: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/chapbooks (Accessed: January 30, 2023).