Poetry Fishbowl Open!
Apr. 4th, 2017 12:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThe Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your time and attention. Please watch this post as I am still writing.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "living in the cracks." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.
Click to read the linkback poem "The Quick Brown Fox" (11 verses, Polychrome Heroics).
What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?
Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.
In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "living in the cracks." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.
Cyberfunded Creativity
I'm practicing cyberfunded creativity. If you enjoy what I'm doing and want to see more of it, please feed the Bard. The following options are currently available:
1) Sponsor the Fishbowl -- Here is a PayPal button for donations. There is no specific requirement, but $1 is the minimum recommended size for PayPal transactions since they take a cut from every one. You can also donate via check or money order sent by postal mail. If you make a donation and tell me about it, I promise to use one of your prompts. Anonymous donations are perfectly welcome, just won't get that perk. General donations will be tallied, and at the end of the fishbowl I’ll post a list of eligible poems based on the total funding; then the audience can vote on which they want to see posted.
2) Swim, Fishie, Swim! -- A feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated. There are multiple perks, the top one being a half-price poetry sale on one series when donations reach $300.
3) Buy It Now! -- Gakked from various e-auction sites, this feature allows you to sponsor a specific poem. If you don't want to wait for some editor to buy and publish my poem so you can read it, well, now you don't have to. Sponsoring a poem means that I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with the name of the sponsor (or another dedicate) if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. You'll need to tell me the title of the poem you want to sponsor. I'm basing the prices on length, and they're comparable to what I typically make selling poetry to magazines (semi-pro rates according to Duotrope's Digest).
0-10 lines: $5
11-25 lines: $10
26-40 lines: $15
41-60 lines: $20
Poems over 60 lines, or with very intricate structure, fall into custom pricing.
4) Commission a scrapbook page. I can render a chosen poem in hardcopy format, on colorful paper, using archival materials for background and any embellishments. This will be suitable for framing or for adding to a scrapbook. Commission details are here. See latest photos of sample scrapbooked poems: "Sample Scrapbooked Poems 1-24-11"
5) Spread the word. Echo or link to this post on your LiveJournal, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social network. Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl and #promptcall. Encourage people to come here and participate in the fishbowl. If you have room for it, including your own prompt will give your readers an idea of what the prompts should look like; ideally, update later to include the thumbnail of the poem I write, and a link to the poem if it gets published. If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.
Linkback perk: I have a spare series poem available, and each linkback will reveal a verse of the poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Dreamwidth or Twitter, rather than all on LiveJournal. Comment with a link to where you posted. "The Quick Brown Fox" has 11 verses available and belongs to Polychrome Heroics.
Additional Notes
1) I customarily post replies to prompt posts telling people which of their prompts I'm using, with a brief description of the resulting poem(s). If you want to know what's available, watch for those "thumbnails."
2) You don't have to pay me to see a poem based on a prompt that you gave me. I try to send copies of poems to people, mostly using the LJ message function. (Anonymous prompters will miss this perk unless you give me your eddress.) These are for-your-eyes-only, though, not for sharing.
3) Sponsors of the Poetry Fishbowl in general, or of specific poems, will gain access to an extra post in appreciation of their generosity. While you're on the Donors list, you can view all of the custom-locked posts in that category. Click the "donors" tag to read the archive of those. I've also posted a list of other donor perks there. I customarily leave donor names on the list for two months, so you'll get to see the perk-post from this month and next.
4) After the Poetry Fishbowl concludes, I will post a list of unsold poems and their prices, to make it easier for folks to see what they might want to sponsor.
5) If donations total $100 by Friday evening then you get a free $15 poem; $150 gets you a free $20 poem; and $200 gets you a free epic, posted after the Poetry Fishbowl. These will usually be series poems if I have them; otherwise I may offer non-series poems or series poems in a different size. If donations reach $250, you get one step toward a bonus fishbowl; three of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be three months in a row. Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it may be a half-day rather than a whole day. If donations reach $300, there will be a piece of bonus material.
Feed the Fish!
Now's your chance to participate in the creative process by posting ideas for me to write about. Today's theme is "living in the cracks." I'll be soliciting ideas for ordinary people, outcasts, the misunderstood, fish out of water, abuse survivors, troubled relationships, the women that men don't see, QUILTBAG folks, people of color, bodyguards, hermits, people with detested superpowers, "evil" races, untouchables, burakumin, former or current criminals, foster children, others on the fringes of society, looking in the window, standing in the rain, taking people for granted, expecting the unexpected, pushing people into the cracks, surviving oppression, hiding, upstanding, speaking truth to power, facing your demons, punching up, protesting, keeping a lid on it, reservations, cities, slums, classrooms, counseling offices, lairs, alleys, subways and sewers, liminal zones, government buildings, playgrounds, self-sacrifice, disruptions, soup care, unusual vulnerabilities, minority languages, the inescapable, poorskills, humility, humiliation, history written by the losers, appreciation, useful junk, and poetic forms in particular. But anything is welcome, really. If you manage to recommend a form that I don't recognize, I will probably pounce on it and ask you for its rules. I do have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco which covers most common and many obscure forms.
I'll post at least one of the fishbowl poems here so you-all can enjoy it. (Remember, you get an extra freebie poem if someone new posts a prompt or makes a donation, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations. Linkbacks reveal verses of "The Quick Brown Fox." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "living in the cracks." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.
Click to read the linkback poem "The Quick Brown Fox" (11 verses, Polychrome Heroics).
What Is a Poetry Fishbowl?
Writing is usually considered a solitary pursuit. One exception to this is a fascinating exercise called a "fishbowl." This has various forms, but all of them basically involve some kind of writing in public, usually with interaction between author and audience. A famous example is Harlan Ellison's series of "stories under glass" in which he sits in a bookstore window and writes a new story based on an idea that someone gives him. Writing classes sometimes include a version where students watch each other write, often with students calling out suggestions which are chalked up on the blackboard for those writing to use as inspiration.
In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is "living in the cracks." I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.
Cyberfunded Creativity
I'm practicing cyberfunded creativity. If you enjoy what I'm doing and want to see more of it, please feed the Bard. The following options are currently available:
1) Sponsor the Fishbowl -- Here is a PayPal button for donations. There is no specific requirement, but $1 is the minimum recommended size for PayPal transactions since they take a cut from every one. You can also donate via check or money order sent by postal mail. If you make a donation and tell me about it, I promise to use one of your prompts. Anonymous donations are perfectly welcome, just won't get that perk. General donations will be tallied, and at the end of the fishbowl I’ll post a list of eligible poems based on the total funding; then the audience can vote on which they want to see posted.
2) Swim, Fishie, Swim! -- A feature in conjunction with fishbowl sponsorship is this progress meter showing the amount donated. There are multiple perks, the top one being a half-price poetry sale on one series when donations reach $300.
3) Buy It Now! -- Gakked from various e-auction sites, this feature allows you to sponsor a specific poem. If you don't want to wait for some editor to buy and publish my poem so you can read it, well, now you don't have to. Sponsoring a poem means that I will immediately post it on my blog for everyone to see, with the name of the sponsor (or another dedicate) if you wish; plus you get a nonexclusive publication right, so you can post it on your own blog or elsewhere as long as you keep the credits intact. You'll need to tell me the title of the poem you want to sponsor. I'm basing the prices on length, and they're comparable to what I typically make selling poetry to magazines (semi-pro rates according to Duotrope's Digest).
0-10 lines: $5
11-25 lines: $10
26-40 lines: $15
41-60 lines: $20
Poems over 60 lines, or with very intricate structure, fall into custom pricing.
4) Commission a scrapbook page. I can render a chosen poem in hardcopy format, on colorful paper, using archival materials for background and any embellishments. This will be suitable for framing or for adding to a scrapbook. Commission details are here. See latest photos of sample scrapbooked poems: "Sample Scrapbooked Poems 1-24-11"
5) Spread the word. Echo or link to this post on your LiveJournal, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, or any other social network. Useful Twitter hashtags include #poetryfishbowl and #promptcall. Encourage people to come here and participate in the fishbowl. If you have room for it, including your own prompt will give your readers an idea of what the prompts should look like; ideally, update later to include the thumbnail of the poem I write, and a link to the poem if it gets published. If there is at least one new prompter or donor, I will post an extra freebie poem.
Linkback perk: I have a spare series poem available, and each linkback will reveal a verse of the poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Dreamwidth or Twitter, rather than all on LiveJournal. Comment with a link to where you posted. "The Quick Brown Fox" has 11 verses available and belongs to Polychrome Heroics.
Additional Notes
1) I customarily post replies to prompt posts telling people which of their prompts I'm using, with a brief description of the resulting poem(s). If you want to know what's available, watch for those "thumbnails."
2) You don't have to pay me to see a poem based on a prompt that you gave me. I try to send copies of poems to people, mostly using the LJ message function. (Anonymous prompters will miss this perk unless you give me your eddress.) These are for-your-eyes-only, though, not for sharing.
3) Sponsors of the Poetry Fishbowl in general, or of specific poems, will gain access to an extra post in appreciation of their generosity. While you're on the Donors list, you can view all of the custom-locked posts in that category. Click the "donors" tag to read the archive of those. I've also posted a list of other donor perks there. I customarily leave donor names on the list for two months, so you'll get to see the perk-post from this month and next.
4) After the Poetry Fishbowl concludes, I will post a list of unsold poems and their prices, to make it easier for folks to see what they might want to sponsor.
5) If donations total $100 by Friday evening then you get a free $15 poem; $150 gets you a free $20 poem; and $200 gets you a free epic, posted after the Poetry Fishbowl. These will usually be series poems if I have them; otherwise I may offer non-series poems or series poems in a different size. If donations reach $250, you get one step toward a bonus fishbowl; three of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be three months in a row. Everyone will get to vote on which series, and give prompts during the extra fishbowl, although it may be a half-day rather than a whole day. If donations reach $300, there will be a piece of bonus material.
Feed the Fish!
Now's your chance to participate in the creative process by posting ideas for me to write about. Today's theme is "living in the cracks." I'll be soliciting ideas for ordinary people, outcasts, the misunderstood, fish out of water, abuse survivors, troubled relationships, the women that men don't see, QUILTBAG folks, people of color, bodyguards, hermits, people with detested superpowers, "evil" races, untouchables, burakumin, former or current criminals, foster children, others on the fringes of society, looking in the window, standing in the rain, taking people for granted, expecting the unexpected, pushing people into the cracks, surviving oppression, hiding, upstanding, speaking truth to power, facing your demons, punching up, protesting, keeping a lid on it, reservations, cities, slums, classrooms, counseling offices, lairs, alleys, subways and sewers, liminal zones, government buildings, playgrounds, self-sacrifice, disruptions, soup care, unusual vulnerabilities, minority languages, the inescapable, poorskills, humility, humiliation, history written by the losers, appreciation, useful junk, and poetic forms in particular. But anything is welcome, really. If you manage to recommend a form that I don't recognize, I will probably pounce on it and ask you for its rules. I do have The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco which covers most common and many obscure forms.
I'll post at least one of the fishbowl poems here so you-all can enjoy it. (Remember, you get an extra freebie poem if someone new posts a prompt or makes a donation, and additional perks at $100-$300 in donations. Linkbacks reveal verses of "The Quick Brown Fox." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-04 05:52 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2017-04-05 05:58 am (UTC)From this I got the free-verse poem "Climbing Through the Cracks." An abused teen seeks refuge in an unlikely place.
375 lines, Buy It Now = $188
(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-04 06:46 pm (UTC)2) Facet goes to Popcorn Puggles to check out the buggles.
Poem
Date: 2017-04-08 08:19 am (UTC)On hold.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-04 07:23 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2017-04-09 09:38 am (UTC)60 lines, Buy It Now = $20
(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-04 07:24 pm (UTC)The hermit in the mountain.
Anne Boleyn writes her own story.
Poem
Date: 2017-04-05 09:18 am (UTC)22 lines, Buy It Now = $10
Fishbowl prompts - living in the cracks
Date: 2017-04-04 07:34 pm (UTC)Army of One: Aston dealing with someone from xyr past, the inescapable, speaking truth to power
ANYWHERE, ANYPLACE: sizism, fatphobia, or how people who don't FIT the prevalent standards for body type get shoved into cracks, survive oppression, become heroic, and help others.
Re: Fishbowl prompts - living in the cracks
Date: 2017-04-04 09:24 pm (UTC)Re: Fishbowl prompts - living in the cracks
From:(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-04 07:41 pm (UTC)What happened in Nigeria with Storm Walks Beside Her? [from Play the Pipes and Beat the Drum].
Are there are any other Wastelanders out there?
Who does the garbage run [for recycling] in the Lacuna?
Poem
Date: 2017-04-04 08:24 pm (UTC)182 lines, Buy It Now = $91
Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-04 08:14 pm (UTC)A place between / sleep and awake / end of innocence, unending masquerade / that's where I'll wait for you... Nightwish: Sleepwalker (with plenty of Phantom of the Opera references in the lyrics)
Poem
Date: 2017-04-06 04:35 am (UTC)144 lines, Buy It Now = $72
Prompts
Date: 2017-04-04 08:53 pm (UTC){2} Making do - poor skills
{3} the women men don't see.
Signal boosted here on DW.
Re: Prompts
Date: 2017-04-05 05:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-04 09:28 pm (UTC)Mallory and Heron...
Oh, damn, the name of the G-d of Drunks escapes me... but so many bottle people live between the cracks...
Oh, and STRONG second for "poor skills" above.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-05 03:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:Poem
From:Well...
From:Re: Well...
From:Re: Well...
From:Re: Well...
From:Re: Well...
From:Re: Well...
From:Poem
From:Poem
From:Poem
From:Some cracks to explore
Date: 2017-04-04 10:26 pm (UTC)In Polychrome Heroics, I'd love to have a story featuring the Iron Horses. They're in the crack between First People and Europeans, and bikers to boot.
Also, Kobayashi-san experienced T-Japan's rise to international prominence from the ecological catastrophes he was busy locating and attempting to create mitigation efforts for (timeline is in my obit for him, linked on the PH main page). What was his outsider's view from the cracks in Japan's veneer of industrial leadership and mastery, clean and smoothly functioning with all the messy parts hidden away?
I'm moving into a gender identity crack closely circumscribed by my birth gender, "joke", "fraud", "freak", and "pervert". Any of your gender-variant characters in there with me?
Re: Some cracks to explore
Date: 2017-04-05 04:02 am (UTC)Re: Some cracks to explore
From:Re: Some cracks to explore
From:living in the cracks
Date: 2017-04-04 11:24 pm (UTC)Someone with a field effect that they can't turn off of anti-shielding that can break though both mental physical shields and trying to find a way to survive without hurting others.
Someone with a mental illness that keeps them from thriving but who's good enough at pretending that no one notices.
Someone who grew up "in the cracks" trying to navigate talking about their experiences to people who don't or can't understand.
Re: living in the cracks
Date: 2017-04-05 10:17 am (UTC)Hi.
Date: 2017-04-05 12:09 am (UTC)+this:
A blind superhera child learning to use her power and the reactions she gets )OR he if superhero)
A poly relationship between soups+1 regular human.
Someone raising an animal soup and how that would work
A soup animal helping rais a child when the parent is not home
If any of those don't fit, i'm sorry. He
-Fallon~
Re: Hi.
Date: 2017-04-08 08:23 am (UTC)98 lines, Buy It Now = $49
(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-05 12:16 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2017-04-05 08:37 am (UTC)a handful of fluttery leaves (prompts ahoy)
Date: 2017-04-05 12:29 am (UTC)2: Also in Terramagne, what's Hallah of the alluded-to owl wings up to?
3, An Army of One: The refugees from Epizygis give more details as to what's going on planetside. Plus, how are they settling in in the Lacuna? We've seen the young family, but what about the others?
4, also An Army of One: V, Astin, and a positive conversation about gender identity and people respecting same. I recall V's reaction to Astin on their first meeting, and I am intrigued where it might lead regarding V's presentation, identity, or both.
5, in Terramagne again: A teleporter in the fuse box by necessity misjudges a clandestine hop and jumps over the border of their home (bottom 10 or 15 or so) country. Now they're freer, but they're also alone and on the run, and probably culture shocked to boot. What happens? Bonus points if they get some support, at least.
Re: a handful of fluttery leaves (prompts ahoy)
Date: 2017-04-09 11:14 pm (UTC)156 lines, Buy It Now = $78
(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-05 01:30 am (UTC)Nebuly, Amergin, & Marjoram, facing some of the troubles -- & joys -- of living on the road.
When you're vandwelling, sometimes you live here:
or here:
& other times you live here:
(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-05 02:44 am (UTC)Anyone or anything that needs to keep their true nature concealed, for whatever reason. If the spirit of wisdom were born into the body of a cat, how would she handle that?
Sorry. I have all sorts of swirling ideas, and lack the spoons to verbalize them. :( This will have to do.
Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Hmm...
From:Re: Hmm...
From:Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-05 04:20 am (UTC)Mosaics.
ETA: the atheist from Path of Paladins.
Poem
Date: 2017-04-05 09:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-05 04:36 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2017-04-08 09:02 am (UTC)cracking the mold
Date: 2017-04-05 05:03 am (UTC)- do they do any scouting/recruiting in bottom-ten countries?
- how many soups somewhere above the bottom rung of the Kraken hierarchy are from bottom ten countries, and what are some of their stories?
- are their legends/myths/stories/rumors in such countries, either of bogeymen who snatch adolescents and take them away, or "fairy godmothers" who whisk them off to better lives, either/both of which are actually Kraken cover identities
... fevered minds go strange places
Re: cracking the mold
Date: 2017-04-09 11:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2017-04-05 05:25 am (UTC)(Probably Schrodinger’s Heroes.) A group of people from one world who are quite different from each other, who each have their own life histories and bodies and experiences and perspectives, wind up taking (or sharing) turns interacting with a different world through a single other body. They do not feel right about calling themselves a system, or plural or multiple, and they are still thrashing out what words to use to describe how they relate to each other - especially because, sometimes, they don’t! Bonus points if there is both physical and mental travel between worlds confirming, or adding to, the complete wtfness of the situations. Also bonus points if trauma is successfully *avoided* or outsmarted instead of setting everything in motion.
long comment
Date: 2017-04-05 06:59 am (UTC)"I at least have some idea for a prompt that reflects our and related groups' situations now. "While meditating, X finds a link to the astral that connects to an uninhabited body Elsewhere. Through experimentation, thon finds that this link can be shared with other people." Or something like that. It works a lot better when we don't focus on here-world to describe things."
He was trying to find a way that's kind of close to how people connect to this body and the one on another earth, and what seems close to how other groups connect to their shared body on this side.
If you want to get fun with it, it doesn't have to be a single body either. We know another group who has a connection to two bodies in this world through a single realm.
We and a few other groups have found it damaging for ourselves that plural and related are the new defaults, since our group and most groups we know don't like the terminology or community as it stands and are trying to get away from it, since it doesn't describe us anyway. Just describing ourselves *as we exist* instead of using inaccurate shorthands is a lot better.
We've noticed that since plurality has become more widely known, it's become a default assumption and people will routinely assume that any people who body-share are all intrinsically related to each other or work together or with the body in ways they aren't necessarily accurate, and they WILL routinely be de-personized and treated as a collective even if it isn't the intent of others to do so. It's that feeling when we realize that if we didn't sign or all used separate journals, we'd be perceived and treated differently.
Our group and others in similar situations have been more or less driven into the cracks, between not belonging with people who are ONLY ever bound to one body here and people who are members of systems, and having our reality rejected by either party. It would be good to find more fiction about body-sharing groups who don't follow DID/psychological models, don't live IN a single body together or its head, and don't automatically get plural terminology tacked on to them, but instead are given the agency to discover and describe themselves and DECIDE for themselves whether or not that is accurate.
- Marx
Re: long comment
From:Re: long comment
From:Re: long comment
From:Re: long comment
From:Poem
From:Done for the night!
Date: 2017-04-05 10:18 am (UTC)