The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem came out of the March 3, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from Shirley Barrette and LJ user My_partner_doug. It has been sponsored by janetmiles.

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This poem came out of the March 3, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by librarygeek who, being a figure skater and related to another one, wanted to explore what could happen mixing superpowers with skating challenges. This also fills the "accidents" square of my 9-29-14 card for the origfic_bingo fest. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics. Be advised that this is a sequel to "April Showers" in that it follows Jackie Frost after the birth of her daughter, but it happens several months later, so that's a jump forward compared to the timeline of most other PH stuff in play thus far.

WARNING: This poem contains some intense scenes which may not be to everyone's taste. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. Baby Aurora needs to stay tethered to a parent for safety, so she and Fireheart are attached with climbing harness and strap. Two teen girls have a skating accident. Natalia slices her leg. Anaïs has an emotional overload and develops superpowers. That includes some messy medical descriptions. There are also hints of how developing superpowers could undermind a skating career. But the issues are nothing life-threatening and comfort is available. Consider your tastes and headspace before deciding whether to read onward.

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The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED for prompts.  I hope to keep writing for the last few prompters.

Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open!  Today's theme is "surviving the worst."  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 "To Choose a Direction" (Heliodrax, 17 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 "surviving the worst."  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. "To Choose a Direction" belongs to Heliodrax and has 17 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, there will be a half-price sale in one series.


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 "surviving the worst."  I'll be soliciting ideas for urvivors, desperate people, heroes, villains, innocent bystanders, being prepared, facing challenges, solving problems, thinking outside the box, proving yourself, glorious success, abject failure, damage along the way, souvenirs and mementos, the bad part of town, dungeons, doom planets, the wilderness, that place everybody told you not to go but you did anyway, situations where the deck is stacked, shipwrecks or other transportation failures, endings and beginnings, worst case scenarios, whatever doesn't kill me had better run for its life, the end of the world as we know it, survival skills, coping skills,  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 "To Choose a Direction.") The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.

Here is my lovely banner from the Valentine's Fest, courtesy of vexed_wench.

This poem came out of the February 2015 Crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from chordatesrock. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. This poem belongs to the Aquariana thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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 Thanks to a donation from Ng_moonmoth, you can start on the first 33 verses of "Often Buried Deep."  It belongs to the series An Army of One and follows Astin's new trade route, so you can see how the different parts of the Lacuna are starting to connect with each other.

This poem is spillover from the February 17, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from dialecticdreamer and LJ user My_partner_doug. It also fills the "I want a lifetime with you" square on my 1-31-15 card for the Valentine's Day Bingo Fest. This poem has been sponsored by technoshaman. It belongs to the series Fiorenza the Wisewoman.

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I just dropped $5 into "Endless Poetry" on Kickstarter.  I want more poetry to exist, I want to support crowdfunded poetry, and I want to encourage multicultural writers.  Triple score!  :D

This poem came out of the February 17, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from ellenmillion and Shirley Barrette. It also fills the square in my 1-31-15 card for the Valentine's Day Bingo Fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the series Fiorenza the Wisewoman.

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This poem came out of the February 2015 Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from anke. It also fills the "You are my treasure" square in my 1-31-15 card for the Valentine's Day Bingo Fest. This poem has been sponsored by lynnoconnacht. It belongs to the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem is paired with "The Strength to Persevere," each revealing how the characters think about themselves and each other, but in mirror images -- there are things they haven't figured out how to communicate yet. They have some rough emotional history which may cause headspace issues for readers who've had similar experiences. The tone of the actual poems is positive, though; these folks are very good for each other.

Spoiler alert! These poems are based on characters Glyn and Ruggiero, created by myself and dialecticdreamer, already introduced elsewhere ... but these are "in the future" compared to what has actually been published as of 2/20/15, and based on some stuff that is still in development. So if you only read series in their internal-chronological order, make a note of these to be read later.

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