Poetry Fishbowl Open!
Jan. 2nd, 2018 12:29 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 assistance. Please keep an eye on this page as I'm still writing.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Do you believe in magic?" 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.
Among my projects that involve magic: The Ursulan Cycle, Clay of Life, A Conflagration of Dragons, Fiorenza the Wisewoman, Fledgling Grace, Gloryroad Crossing, Hart's Farm, The Inkeer, Kande's Quest, Monster House, The Ocracies, One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis, The Origami Mage, Path of the Paladins, P.I.E., Practical Magics, Seeing Hearts, and Sort Of Heroes. Polychrome Heroics has sorcery, but it's rare.
Click to read the linkback poem "Mysterious and Impermanent" (20 verses, Walking the Beat).
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 "Do you believe in magic?" 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. "Mysterious and Impermanent" has 20 verses and belongs to Walking the Beat.
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 "Do you believe in magic?" I'll be soliciting ideas for wizards, witches, familiars, gods and goddesses, outcasts, magical nulls, mystical creatures, spirits, other magical beings, casting spells, asking questions, reading tomes, setting up circles, facing thresholds, questing, learning what you can do, believing, disbelieving, woodstoves, temples, stone circles, hearths, the forest primeval, the dark, bottle shops, sacred groves, stages other places where magic happens, artifacts, magical books, wands and staves, enchanted jewelry, spells, curses, protection, stage magic, schools of magic, kitchen witching vs. altar witching, household supplies, regalia, equality and inequality, self-discovery, self-awareness, alienation, rejection, privacy, auras, energy, 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 "Mysterious and Impermanent." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Do you believe in magic?" 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.
Among my projects that involve magic: The Ursulan Cycle, Clay of Life, A Conflagration of Dragons, Fiorenza the Wisewoman, Fledgling Grace, Gloryroad Crossing, Hart's Farm, The Inkeer, Kande's Quest, Monster House, The Ocracies, One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis, The Origami Mage, Path of the Paladins, P.I.E., Practical Magics, Seeing Hearts, and Sort Of Heroes. Polychrome Heroics has sorcery, but it's rare.
Click to read the linkback poem "Mysterious and Impermanent" (20 verses, Walking the Beat).
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 "Do you believe in magic?" 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. "Mysterious and Impermanent" has 20 verses and belongs to Walking the Beat.
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 "Do you believe in magic?" I'll be soliciting ideas for wizards, witches, familiars, gods and goddesses, outcasts, magical nulls, mystical creatures, spirits, other magical beings, casting spells, asking questions, reading tomes, setting up circles, facing thresholds, questing, learning what you can do, believing, disbelieving, woodstoves, temples, stone circles, hearths, the forest primeval, the dark, bottle shops, sacred groves, stages other places where magic happens, artifacts, magical books, wands and staves, enchanted jewelry, spells, curses, protection, stage magic, schools of magic, kitchen witching vs. altar witching, household supplies, regalia, equality and inequality, self-discovery, self-awareness, alienation, rejection, privacy, auras, energy, 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 "Mysterious and Impermanent." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 06:42 pm (UTC)"Seeing is Believing" only applies to science, it's more accurate to say "Believing is Seeing" when it comes to magic.
Not as on topic, but maybe the next Davide+Elonso poem in Polychrome could have a "do you believe in me/us" theme to it? Or the 'magic' of being helped and protected by people who you wouldn't expect? What if they meet a street magician who works for the Family? IDK, I just really want more of them.
Poem
Date: 2018-01-02 10:55 pm (UTC)190 lines, Buy It Now = $95
Poem
From:Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 06:48 pm (UTC)When the tower still has the mage's things in it when you stow the inconvenient princess.
(I've put a bally up on tumblr.)
Thank you!
Date: 2018-01-02 11:13 pm (UTC)https://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/4567851.html
Poem
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:Poem
Date: 2018-01-02 06:52 pm (UTC)Hold for original prompter.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 07:00 pm (UTC)Belief powers magic. Focused intent.
The James Randi million.
Athena and Arachne.
Garlic magic.
Athame.
Poem
Date: 2018-01-03 01:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 07:12 pm (UTC)And someone posted this quote from Terry Pratchet:
It doesn't stop being magic, just because you know how it works.
(thanks, Terry!)
After typing that out, that seems like a good fit for Scheodinger's Heroes, which we haven't heard from in a while...
Poem
Date: 2018-01-04 04:25 am (UTC)66 lines, Buy It Now = $33
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 07:29 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2018-01-05 10:15 am (UTC)254 lines, Buy It Now = $127
Re: Poem
From:Try these
Date: 2018-01-02 07:32 pm (UTC)Along similar lines, there's blue smoke, the stuff that keeps your electronics working until it leaks out. I'd link you to Paul Kwinn's filk song (lots of fun) about that, but it's not online.
Finally, the magic someone believes in does not necessarily correspond to the magic that actually exists. The ensuing complications undoubtedly range from hilarious to horrifying.
Re: Try these
Date: 2018-01-03 06:49 am (UTC)Re: Try these
From:Re: Try these
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 08:04 pm (UTC)Not sure if that's allowed, or even helpful towards the fishbowl though...
Poem
Date: 2018-01-03 01:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 08:06 pm (UTC)and now, free of the ice.. they think the Great War is still on...
Poem
Date: 2018-01-16 10:36 am (UTC)446 lines, Buy It Now = $223
Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 09:50 pm (UTC)When a newbie witch (or psychic) first starts seeing energy critters.
>> I really want to catch the time that Dr. G takes Shiv on a field trip to a graffiti festival while he's in prison. <<
Art definitely counts as magic.
Magical (seemingly or real) places?
Haikus are typically about nature; what would a pagan haiku reveal?
Patiently explaining to somebody that just because demons in their belief system are evil does not mean that demons as a species are. (Or insert any magical species you'd like; angels, monsters, ghosts, whatever.)
Related, dealing with magical racism.
- Tom
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 09:57 pm (UTC)- Tom
Thank you!
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 10:18 pm (UTC)imps of the marginalia
I'm stuck on the idea of believing in the magic of words making all kinds of incidental magic.
Poem
Date: 2018-01-03 02:48 am (UTC)36 lines, Buy It Now = $15
Re: Poem
From:Re: Poem
From:Crafting
Date: 2018-01-02 10:55 pm (UTC)In so many worlds with Magic, somebody has to be a Crafter. It's a quiet type of Magic and Art, but also a good explanation of the French jewelers in Polychrome Heroics jewelry artifacts.
Re: Crafting
Date: 2018-01-02 11:34 pm (UTC)Re: Crafting
From:Re: Crafting
From:Re: Crafting
From:Re: Crafting
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 11:23 pm (UTC)So here's a prompt to have fun with: an acoustic musician sidelined by circumstance, anger management problems, and bad life choices, gets her act together, forms a new band, and goes from obscurity to the big leagues, over the course of a year.
Poem
Date: 2018-01-03 08:23 am (UTC)187 lines, Buy It Now = $94
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 11:34 pm (UTC)Also I boosted. http://readera.tumblr.com/post/169242928687/poetry-fishbowl
Thank you!
Date: 2018-01-02 11:51 pm (UTC)https://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/4567851.html
Re: Thank you!
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-02 11:43 pm (UTC)On Kande's Quest, I'd love to learn more about what happens next. Maybe she consults with ancestor spirits, or encounters a magician/sorceror/medicine worker (good or bad)?
Poem
Date: 2018-01-18 03:41 am (UTC)90 lines, Buy It Now = $45
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-03 01:02 am (UTC)"The Night Kitchen" in Rain City... a little kitchen witchery?
Poem
Date: 2018-01-11 02:05 am (UTC)359 lines, Buy It Now = $180
Poem
Date: 2018-01-03 01:24 am (UTC)88 lines, Buy It Now = $44
Poem
Date: 2018-01-03 02:05 am (UTC)5 lines, Buy It Now = $5
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-03 02:59 am (UTC)I'ma poke my dreds out to:
*Schrodinger's heros: What's goin' on with Wendy an them?
*Alternate reality somethin' or other: When two magicians get togetha an's start geekin' out abouth how they magic differsan' shit.
*Polychrome heroics: How do Calliope (SP?) and Vaguery react to somethin' they can't explain-that most consider sorcery? I know you say it's rare, but Curious tiger. :
*Army of one: is they anyone theah people would consider magical? Like really good at somethin' so it's indistinguishable from, even though it might be just that they that skilled at whatevah it might be.
*slides out*
-Jay~
PS: boosted: https://we-are-spc.dreamwidth.org/90673.html
Thank you!
Date: 2018-01-03 03:17 am (UTC)https://ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com/4567851.html
Poem
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-03 03:06 am (UTC)And a lot of magic is deliberately set in a time without time and a space without space.
It can be interesting seeing someone in such a setting who doesn't believe in magic.
Poem
Date: 2018-01-04 05:44 am (UTC)66 lines, Buy It Now = $33
(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-03 03:28 am (UTC)Prompt the second, also Terramagne: Aubrey the Alabaster meets a low-level soup charmworker of some sort, and maybe gains a once in a while mentee?
Prompt the third, Monster House: There's a portal in the alleyway, and another in the shallows of the lake. The water dragon who hangs around the latter is friendly, but the alleycat who likes the former is actually an alley manticore, and he's a little temperamental...
Poem
Date: 2018-01-04 03:29 am (UTC)25 lines, Buy It Now = $10
Prompt
Date: 2018-01-03 04:16 am (UTC)Re: Prompt
Date: 2018-01-03 05:02 am (UTC)Re: Prompt
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-03 05:01 am (UTC)To put in any universe/storyline your heart desires: The lengths a parent will go to, to explain away what their child does as anything but magic, because "magic is impossible". The child, on the other hand, believes firmly that magic is entirely possible, and has become quite accomplished in its practice.
Or the obverse: the lengths the child will go to, to avoid distressing their parents with anything too obvious to explain away.
Does music create magic...or does magic create music?
The cat that's been watching the family, deciding whether they're worthy of adoption, turns out to be a Familiar deciding whether she approves of the mage she's been sent to before she accepts the assignment.
pen/ultimate
Date: 2018-01-03 06:54 am (UTC)As for this:
>> Does music create magic...or does magic create music? <<
My lived experience is that both can and do happen.
Thoughts
From:(no subject)
Date: 2018-01-03 10:20 am (UTC)Clay of Life, keeping an eye on the golem and taking him seriously, and not leaving him by himself to do your work for you. Perhaps Menachem tells an object lesson story.
Poem
Date: 2018-01-11 02:06 am (UTC)359 lines, Buy It Now = $180
Done!
Date: 2018-01-03 10:48 am (UTC)