Spend time on your comments and think about whats in your comment, do NOT spam comment anyone..

If your comments are well typed out and truly thoughtful, then, surly like-minded people will see the comment and read your stuff..

Also, read this http://en.support.wordpress.com/getting-more-views-and-traffic/ :) :)

http://wordpress.com/#!/read/topic/poetry/

...you'll find other poetry blogs, comment on their work, and chances are they'll come back and comment on yours.

I am a young writer (highschool age) and I am looking for platforms and ideas to help me grow. I've been writing poetry regularly for a little over a year, blogging, and entering a few competitions.

I would really like to expand: receive feedback from published poets/writers who teach and write poetry regularly and gain experience presenting my work on a solid platform. I am open to suggestions, opportunities, and resources! Thank you for your time!

I was wondering if there was a theme that was particularly set up for poetry.

No there isn't and you're welcome.

I'm lazy, ok? :) So I really like just clicking into the quote and clicking the quote button, like I'd been doing, rather than having to select the whole text, and only the text, first. So I still do that a lot.

But when I forget to do it before formatting, and I select the text, it works fine. So at least I don't have to reformat the whole thing again. So, helpful.

But yesterday, I forgot to turn it into a quote before formatting. I selected text, but not all of it, clicked the quote button, and instead of turning it all (or any of it) into a quote, it collapsed the formatting. Annoying.

Stupid computer. I'm sure it knew what I wanted it to do. :)

This is workable, Richard. It doesn't let me be as lazy as I'd like, but I know now when I have to be careful, and how to handle it if I don't turn it into a quote first. So, all good. I'll mark it as resolved.

Just checking in, how has is been going for you with the quotes technique I explained? Let me know if you need anything else. :)

1) Just placing the cursor in the text. In the past (until a couple months ago) that always turned the whole paragraph into a quote. It still does on the second click. I'll try what you suggest (though to be honest, one click in the text and two on the button is probably faster / easier than highlighting all the text).

2) Almost never. I only go to text mode if I'm making a table or something, which is very rare. I'm generally html clueless, not a high-powered blogger at all. :)

Try as might, I can't reproduce what you are describing, but I want to ask you a few questions to make sure I completely understand what you're doing:

1) "I paste a quote into my post (usually using plain text). I click on it, and then click the quote (") button"

Are you selecting all of the text that you want format as a quote, before clicking the quote button? Or are just placing your cursor in the text and then clicking the quote button? It might work better for you if you select/highlight all the text first.

2) Do you switch back and forth between the Visual and Text modes?

The first time this happened, I thought it was just me, doing something strange or not clicking when I thought I did, or something. The second through tenth time, I thought it was as well. It isn't just me. It doesn't happen every time, but it happens most of the time.

I'm using Firefox 18.0.1. I just updated, it was happening on earlier versions, too. It's been happening for quite a while.

2. I frequently quote both poems and (especially) Scripture. I paste it in (plain text). I don't want each verse of Scripture, or each line of the poem, to be a separate paragraph. So I use shift-return to format it, and then, since it is a quote, I hit the quote button. Beautiful, single-spaced poetry or Scripture in quote format.

A few months back, when I hit the quote button (and it worked, see #1 above), I started getting a different behaviour. Instead of formatting the quote, it collapsed the line I was on with the next line (removing the single-space line feed/CR) without putting it in quote format at all. If I then clicked the quote button again, it would quote format it -- but I'd have to reformat the poetry by using shift-return again.

So basically, I now have to remember to put a poem in quote format before formatting it as a poem. If I forget, then putting it in quotes destroys all my poetry formatting, and I have to re-format it.

Again, I can live with this by simply remembering to do it in that order, but it IS annoying when I forget, and it didn't work this way previously.

I could go back to using IE if it's a Firefox issue, but my kids make fun of me when I use IE. Horrible, isn't it? :)

Just wondering if there is a community, or an area here that will help me with this.

Also if there is sections where you can group the content of your blog....I have no idea if mine is in the creative writing one, if there even is one, or how to categorize it!

Help please :)

Thank you very much :)

@lmjakob: See here, under "Single line indents":
http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/formatting-text-pt-2/

And a good evening to you.

(2) If you are working in the Visual editor, to get single spacing between paragraphs hold the SHIFT key down and simultaneously click ENTER at the end of the paragraph. If you are working in the HTML editor, a single click of ENTER will give you a single-spaced line, and two clicks of ENTER will result in double spaced lines. http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2011/09/13/wordpress-formatting-and-spacing/

Does that help?

Please help!