To repeat what is explained in the About section for this blog, most if not all of these creative writing ideas began as resources for teaching/working with students. That means they are primarily made for classroom use and working with young writers. But as also stated, and I have subsequently mentioned in introductions to each writing idea, these are to a degree re-purposed for any and all writers – the common denominator often being guidance and prompts for new writers, whatever age and whatever context.
Concrete Poetry is a great place to start with younger writers. My teaching experience was entirely in the secondary sector, and if introducing students to concrete poetry as a precise type, many may have come across these as shape poems at primary school, and the idea is to move beyond this, though not always. I also taught students at GCSE and especially A Level and this is where more complex ideas about the visual representation of language can be explored, and this is why the ideas presented here can have a broad appeal.
Interestingly, in re-purposing these – in other words, revising – I have been made aware of how technical/digital advances have usurped the ‘practical’ [cut and paste] aspect of how these were originally envisaged! Though not entirely – think of collage. But in this respect there will be an expertise with apps and processes beyond my experience and which may take these ideas so much further, and perhaps with more ease of production.
There is a wealth of online access to concrete poetry models, past and present. If a Concrete Poetry 4 appears eventually in the Resources below, that means I have added a few more examples of mine. Otherwise, the resources from 1 -3 should provide all the detail and explanation required.
Creative Writing for Copycatters 