«Opening Image»
ACT I - START [the problem]
1. Thesis {Inciting Incident}
«Initial Choice»
ACT II - MIDDLE [the road]
2. Information {Fun & Play}
3. Explanation {B-Story}
4. Doubt {Midpoint}
5. Alternative {Insight}
6. Example {Downfall}
«Critical Choice»
ACT III - END [the solution]
7. Conclusion {Final Fight}
«Closing Image»
[Editor's note: We use the numbered terms in non-fiction, while the {between curly brackets} terms represent the same phenomenon in works of fiction.
This is the index of this book (seven steps), but also the index of each step (seven poems), of every poem in this book, and also the index of every story of fiction, every magazine article, every essay, every news item, every commercial message, every lesson at school...
It's even the index of life itself:
You are born happy (Opening Image), laughing all day while others take care of you, but (1. Inciting Incident) when you find out the world isn't perfect, you start learning (2. Information) and playing with friends (3. B-story) until the exam-moment of starting your own family (4. Midpoint), but instead of having fixed everything, you find out it's an even bigger mess (Aristotle called this moment the Agnition), so you decide to work on it (5. Alternative), but life goes from bad to worse, from crisis to crisis (6. Downfall), and finally, you retire (7. Final Fight), lift your shoulders and laugh about it all day while others take care of you (Closing Image).
Our Opening Image (front cover) and Closing Image (back cover) look the same. The difference is that the hero has learnt something and is satisfied with the outcome. The B-Story is a metaphor, a lesson we need to make a better Critical Choice and win the Final Fight. Our Conclusion should have a twist, an element of surprise, and it's also the moment of synergy: everything comes together to give meaning to the story or our life. If, in the end, the hero gets what he wants, we call it «a comedy» and if he gets what he deserves, we call it «a tragedy».
The writer of this collection of poems lives under the impression that every human being already knows this «index of life». The editor of this book has a different opinion; she believes that adding the meaning of poetry to each poem improves the feelings-to-words-to-feelings translation from writer to reader.
Did you notice that even this footnote has three acts: a problem (it's not clear), some information, an example, the doubt, the alternative opinion of the editor in this epic conflict between poet and critique, which also leads to our conclusion to laugh about it? Congratulations. You've passed the Intelligent Reader Standard test. Your reward is permission to read on. Remember: this is your Inciting Incident. Everything depends on your Initial Choice now: are you ready for the adventure of learning nothing new about writing precious poetry?]
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Precious Poetry
PoetryFrom PROBLEM to POEM in 7 steps the Why, Where, When, What, Who, How & Wow of writing poetry Ai Ni and Ronaldo made this book to help poor people in Haiti, to build a school and teach them the art of a happy life. A warning upfront from the editor:...
