The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem came out of the November 4, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from rix_scaedu and siliconshaman. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Dr. Infanta thread of the series Polychrome Heroics.

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Stark Trek ...

I bet Tony's bedpost has even more notches than Jim's, of infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Also the ship/captain interactions would be even more awesome because of JARVIS.

Let's see now, obviously Bruce is the chief medical officer, but Hulk is security when he comes out. Steve must be the head of security. Bucky is Steve's second, recently recovered after being reported MIA, but now he's got a weirdly powerful metal arm and holes in his memory. Natasha is probably security too. Clint is so much a scout as well as an assassin, I think he'd be in charge of landing parties. (Ship's casualty rate goes down, enemy's goes up.) He might also man the weapons station on the bridge. Pepper would be the communication officer. Betty for science officer ... but she *transferred* from security and if you mess with her or Bruce, she will rearrange your face and ribcage. Phil has the helm, and never gets tired of using "don't distract the driver" lines when the bridge gets fractious. Engineering has some poor, henpecked redshirt because of course Captain Stark came up through that department and if the ship is really hurt, he delegates the bridge and goes down to fix the engine *personally*.  Also 50% of the crew should be female, the way God and Gene Roddenberry intended.

I would read/watch the hell out of this.  Anyone want to write me some?

This poem is from the December 2, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from helgatwb and janetmiles. It has been sponsored by rix_scaedu. This poem belongs to the Danso & Family thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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 New website, looks like an interesting dance style.

Remember Save the Cat, the book that made movies all the same?  There's a sitcom code too. 

This is why I don't watch many movies and have given up on television.  It is all the same.  It is almost always boring.  A film or show has to come up with something extraordinary to get my attention.  What counts as extraordinary?  The black guy lives to the end.  Two women talk to each other about something other than a man.  The cast has ethnic and gender diversity. The setting is so awesome I don't care about the plot -- shut up, asshole, I'm watching the alien plant eat the not-butterfly. There is a plot that does not look like #1 (but #2 is a favorite of mine, that's a hurt/comfort ratchet).  

Now it's true that if you boil things down enough, most plots consist of "someone tries to solve a dilemma."  Within that lies tremendous potential for variation.  A certain amount of structure aids cohesion; too much chaos is incoherent and rarely entertaining.  "The first thing the hero tries, never works," is a good rule because it prevents challenges from being resolved too easily.  But the more you narrow down down the acceptable options, the more stories go untold and the more predictable the remainder will be.

I want diversity.  I want uncertainty.  If the mainstream continues not giving me what I want, I will continue mocking it and spending most of my money and attention elsewhere.

This month's theme was "games & fun."  I worked from 2:15 PM to 4:45 AM, so about 12 hours 30 minutes accounting for breaks.  I wrote 9 poems on Tuesday and another 8 later, with a pretty good mix of lengths.

Participation dropped notably this month.  There were 38 comments on LJ and 28 on DW.  A total of 21 people sent prompts, nobody new.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the December 2, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"The Adventure Building"
"The Anything Goes Games"
"As Long as There Are Games to Play"
"Bluff and Show"
"Chances Old and New"
"The Fate of a Nation"
"Foursquare"
"Fun Weighs Nothing"
"The Liberty Stones"
"Puzzling People"
"Under the Table"

"House of Cards"


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, read the unsold poetry list from December 2.  That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.

Currently sponsored poems have been posted.  Prompters have their backchannel copies.  There were no additional perks this month.

The donor post is "Having Fun with Poetry."  This month janetmiles was the only donor.  There were no new donors.


The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.

This jigsaw puzzle has 1000 pieces, each of them a different color.  That's all.  No picture, just the color scale.  It's gorgeous, and a perfect gift for puzzle fans or artists.  The site has a video of people assembling the puzzle.

I have written at least one poem for each prompter, and a few extras since many of these combined multiple prompts, so that should be it for this batch.  Thumbnails for the poems appear in the Fishbowl Open posts on Dreamwidth and on LiveJournal, if you're planning to sponsor poetry.  So far nobody has this week.  0_o

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED for prompts; more poems may appear later.  Thank you for your time and enthusiasm.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open!  Today's theme is "games and fun."  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 "House of Cards" (Polychrome Heroics, 26 verses available).


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 "games and fun."  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. "House of Cards" belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics and has 26 verses available. 


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, you get a piece of bonus material, since the mid-month slot is already reserved for the Holiday Poetry Sale.


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 "games and fun."  I'll be soliciting ideas for gamers, game designers, sportstars, tricksters, comics, clowns, referees, gamemasters, spoilsports, sport fans, playing fair, cheating, making the big score, learning a new game, scheming, playing pranks, cracking jokes, strategy & tactics, competition, cooperation, slapstick humor, game stores, sport fields, living rooms, children's museums, parties, playgrounds, games, sports, entertainment equipment, gaffs and gags, gaming guidebooks, 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 first edition of Lewis Turco's The Book of Forms 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 "House of Cards.") The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.

So the new Star Wars trailer has a new style of lightsaber, and it didn't take long for people to make fun of it.  Honestly I found that collection of joke images more entertaining than the trailer.  Some thoughts ...

1) That kind of ridiculous weaponry development has actually happened  with polearms and handheld blades such as knives and swords.

2) Even imaginary weapons need to be plausible.  If your audience can glance at the weapon and point out flaws, then you haven't done a very good job of design or portrayal.  Imaginary technology should have consistent rules which shape its development, just as the laws of physics and metallurgy shape historic weapons.

Take that lightsaber.  The horizontal quills make it easier to block an opponent's blow, because one lightsaber blade can stop another; but more importantly, they allow strikes to the side.  A drawback is that they raise the chance of cutting yourself.  If the handle of the weapon is not also invulnerable to the lightsaber blade, then quills raise the damage chance by channeling strikes toward the hilt; but if the handle is invulnerable, that's not a problem.  

Far more interesting is that this is a Force weapon wielded by a Sith or Jedi, which means with a little practice they ought to be able to control  those blades not just by hand and technology, but by will.  Imagine having a hilt that can extend a blade in three directions, or four if you remember the original double-bladed lightsaber with a hilt in the middle, as needed.  This adds a great deal of versatility and danger, although it also raises the amount of time required to become proficient in using the thing without slicing your own limbs off.  I'm serious about the risk factors, though; it's basically a giant laser switchblade.  Guys love to play with switchblades and butterfly knives because they're cool, but 9 out of 10 guys will cut themselves on one.  I've seen it repeatedly.  Like true ninja weapons, they're only useful if you know exactly what you are doing.