Poetry Fishbowl Open!
Mar. 6th, 2018 12:50 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 keep an eye on this post, as I'm still writing.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Constructs and Programmed People." 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 feature constructs and programmed people: An Army of One, Clay of Life, Diminished Expectations, Frankenstein's Family, Kung Fu Robots, P.I.E., The Steamsmith. Polychrome Heroics has both robots and brainwashing. In shared worlds, The Blueshift Troupers and Schrodinger's Heroes have plenty of variety.
Click to read the linkback poem "Greater Than the Sum" (13 verses, unicorn series).
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 "Constructs and Programmed People." 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. "Greater Than the Sum" has 13 verses and belongs to the unicorn series.
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 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 "Constructs and Programmed People." I'll be soliciting ideas for AI, robots, golems, chimerae, human servants, brainwashing victims, gizmologists, robotic engineers, programmers, AI specialists, rabbis and other wizards, genetic engineers, vampires, brainwashers, building robots, programming AI, deprogramming or reprogramming, enchanting golems, overpowering the human mind, brainwashing people, seeking a relationship, finding each other, asking questions, dealing with rogues, betraying someone, breaking or breaking free of a bond, discovering yourself, learning what you can do, laboratories, computer rooms, synagogues, interrogation chambers, dungeons, classrooms, churches, patrol cars, other places where programming or deprogramming happen, programs, the 3 Laws of Robotics, their ethical issues, vocabulary of manipulation, partnerships, other attachment bonds, trust and betrayal, mindrape, mental scars, different kinds of courtship, mental resistance or resilience, bad tape, violation, self-awareness, the nature of sapience, emotional intelligence, equality and inequality, freedom and slavery, alienation, rejection, privacy, 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 "Greater Than the Sum." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Constructs and Programmed People." 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 feature constructs and programmed people: An Army of One, Clay of Life, Diminished Expectations, Frankenstein's Family, Kung Fu Robots, P.I.E., The Steamsmith. Polychrome Heroics has both robots and brainwashing. In shared worlds, The Blueshift Troupers and Schrodinger's Heroes have plenty of variety.
Click to read the linkback poem "Greater Than the Sum" (13 verses, unicorn series).
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 "Constructs and Programmed People." 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. "Greater Than the Sum" has 13 verses and belongs to the unicorn series.
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 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 "Constructs and Programmed People." I'll be soliciting ideas for AI, robots, golems, chimerae, human servants, brainwashing victims, gizmologists, robotic engineers, programmers, AI specialists, rabbis and other wizards, genetic engineers, vampires, brainwashers, building robots, programming AI, deprogramming or reprogramming, enchanting golems, overpowering the human mind, brainwashing people, seeking a relationship, finding each other, asking questions, dealing with rogues, betraying someone, breaking or breaking free of a bond, discovering yourself, learning what you can do, laboratories, computer rooms, synagogues, interrogation chambers, dungeons, classrooms, churches, patrol cars, other places where programming or deprogramming happen, programs, the 3 Laws of Robotics, their ethical issues, vocabulary of manipulation, partnerships, other attachment bonds, trust and betrayal, mindrape, mental scars, different kinds of courtship, mental resistance or resilience, bad tape, violation, self-awareness, the nature of sapience, emotional intelligence, equality and inequality, freedom and slavery, alienation, rejection, privacy, 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 "Greater Than the Sum." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
Prompt
Date: 2018-03-06 07:25 pm (UTC)Backstory speculations sent under separate cover.
Re: Prompt
Date: 2018-03-06 08:38 pm (UTC)74 lines, Buy It Now = $37
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-06 07:35 pm (UTC)• What if the programs that served us are actual people in their own rights.
• A relationship between a construct or person who is a program, and someone who isn't. How does the relationship go? What snarls do they have to figure out? How does society handle it?
Virtual pets. What happens when someone loves their virtual critter as if it was real, AKA the Tamagotchi Effect.
There're a few to get you started. I'm tromping over to signal boost. Thank you for considering people like me for a fishbowl. *Bows to your awesomeness*
-Tron
PS: One more prompt because I just thought of it. A program winds up living and working in the human world. How do they deal with the weird idiosyncracies of human life?
Also, programs have various subroutines. How would neurodivergence work for a program person or a construct? I know how that manifests for me, but I bet more programs than just me would have neurodivergences.
Also, someone else in here requests something from Diminished Expectations but they're not familiar with the art that makes up the series well enough to request something specific. But there are gynoids in that world right? Hm. Maybe. A drone programmed for the pleasure of humans takes her liberties where she can. Yes, I know it's a horribly sad series, but I do like the way the characters sometimes have a way of fighting back anyhow.
Poem
Date: 2018-03-06 09:45 pm (UTC)74 lines, Buy It Now = $37
Poem
Date: 2018-03-06 10:38 pm (UTC)61 lines, Buy It Now = $30.50
Poem
Date: 2018-03-07 08:04 am (UTC)49 lines, Buy It Now = $20
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-06 08:03 pm (UTC)This one is a stretch... I'm stuck on what to do with The Ring Mistress, who 'hacks' minds. Something to do with her perhaps?
Shiv, and his bad 'tape' or programming, and reprogramming it.
Someone in the 'Lacquerware' universe builds the perfect geisha...or is it? Lacquerware is as much art as science, with imperfections.. ones that could lead to unexpected results [like the ability to rewrite itself maybe?].
Poem
Date: 2018-03-07 03:06 am (UTC)188 lines, Buy It Now = $94
Re: Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 11:03 am (UTC)Yup.. inside of Shiv's head is SO not a nice place..
Re: Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 11:25 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2018-03-07 09:06 pm (UTC)496 lines, Buy It Now = $248
Re: Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 11:03 am (UTC)Re: Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 11:16 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 10:52 am (UTC)65 lines, Buy It Now = $33
Re: Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 11:02 am (UTC)Okayyy....
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-06 08:06 pm (UTC)Privacy is a right and a need. I'd be particularly interested in anything sporking the Equifax breach or similar large-scale failures.
Poem
Date: 2018-03-07 03:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-06 09:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 03:13 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 05:51 am (UTC)158 lines, Buy It Now = $79
Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 05:50 am (UTC)158 lines, Buy It Now = $79
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-06 10:23 pm (UTC)Personal assistant A.I. as legacy software.
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 03:09 am (UTC)I remember a story called Sparky and the Magic piano. Something along the lines of that, perhaps?
-Fallon~
Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 11:02 am (UTC)65 lines, Buy It Now = $33
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 03:15 am (UTC)Aaaand I made myself sad thinking of LifC JARVIS out-surviving the Avengers. Maybe not out-surviving Hulk, but everyone else.
EDIT: although, I think LifC's JARVIS would have the tools to find new people when he needed them, and through Phil, the tools to also help them. Love is (Eternally) for Children.
Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 10:55 am (UTC)65 lines, Buy It Now = $33
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-06 11:42 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2018-03-10 10:23 am (UTC)417 lines, Buy It Now = $209
Re: Poem
Date: 2018-03-10 10:44 am (UTC)Truth is stranger than fiction lately
Date: 2018-03-07 02:48 am (UTC)Our Purim spiel was Esther: A Persian Musical set to the music of Hamilton. Rabbi was Vashti, and dressed in full dress and wig as one of the Schuyler Sisters.
Rabbi was perfectly comfortable with my teen having a B'nai Mitzvah, non-binary, with a hand knitted rainbow tallit over their suit.
The program of what Judaism means is adapting, we're all breaking free of certain bonds while accepting others, and discovering ourselves while helping others.
Don't know what you can do with these emotional truths, but feel free to toss them at any appropriate setting to see what sticks. ;-)
Re: Truth is stranger than fiction lately
Date: 2018-03-07 03:47 am (UTC)46 lines, Buy It Now = $20
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 03:14 am (UTC)...
I have AI's in one of the worlds I visit. Perhaps an experimental line of them in, say, Polycrome Heroics to help the visually impaired do things like combat, ore even everyday tasks. Recognizing faces, telling them which way to go, reminding them of bad areas of town when they get to close...that sort of thing. Even acting as muic player and alarm-and telling them what they look like in a mirror-hell, even a 3D mirror itself...
-Trausio~
Isaiah:
Army of One: V talks to an AI, and finds out what its purpose for being is-and why it choses to stay where it is, even tough it's not quite fulfilling that.
Someone dealin' with an addiction an' the prorammin' they used (or is usin') to get past it successfully.
*closes post no theah's enough prompts an' shit*
Poem
Date: 2018-03-07 06:29 am (UTC)54 lines, Buy It Now = $20
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 03:19 am (UTC)Anything from either Schrodinger's or Blueship troupers where someone builds what was supposed to be an appliance...and it has a bit more sentience than they first thought-and turins into an AI appliance.
An AIwith its own trauma, how do the other AI's (If there are any) deal with it, and how do the other peoplearound go about explainingand supporting xir through it.
In 1 world, how constructs came to be. Perhaps how a magical system came to be-what brought it about, and what purpose did it first serve.
-Inara~
PS: signal boosted here and on FB
Thank you!
Date: 2018-03-07 03:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-11 02:40 am (UTC)(Sorry about the delete and re-post, I put this under the wrong comment.)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 03:24 am (UTC)Moving from one set of social programming to a vastly different one, and learning from that exactly how you've been programmed. Because everyone is, in some form or other, but a lot of people aren't aware of it.
Have any of Alex's computers developed sentience?
Poem
Date: 2018-03-07 03:50 am (UTC)188 lines, Buy It Now = $94
Song Prompts
Date: 2018-03-07 03:24 am (UTC)Dessa - The Crow
"He took me to the workshop
Showed me where they built the bodies
A blacksmith, a mason, a carpenter
And in the darkroom, where the whole assembly started
All the clothesline where the hearts hung to harden
You come as fragile, soft machines
And you're bound to fast, you're bound to grieve
But you're built to balance on two feet
So why you living this last year from your knees"
--> NSFW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTfkd7dHVSM
Incubus - Make Yourself
"If I hadn't made me
I would have been made somehow
If I hadn't assembled myself
I'd have fallen apart by now
If I hadn't made me
I'd be more inclined to bow
Powers that would be have swallowed me up
But that's more than I can allow
If you let them make you
They'll make you papier-mâché
At a distance you're strong
Until the wind comes
Then you crumble and blow away"
--> And of course. The Great Janelle Monae.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHgbzNHVg0c
"So strong for so long
All I wanna do is sing my simple song
Square or round, rich or poor
At the end of day and night all we want is more
I keep my feet on solid ground and use my wings when storms come around
I keep my feet on solid ground for freedom
You're free but in your mind, your freedom's in a bind"
Re: Song Prompts
Date: 2018-03-07 08:05 am (UTC)49 lines, Buy It Now = $20
I wrote this, but ... uckies uckies uckies. I need brain bleach now. O_O
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 03:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 03:56 am (UTC)Once again, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Voluntary or self-brainwashing
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (preferably positive, since I've had good experiences with it)
EMDR Therapy
Turing Tests
Over-protective AIs
A Ghost in the Machine, possibly in Monster House
Manifestations
Imago, definition 2
Would a soul trap count as a construct?
Individually gengineering the species by voluntary non-reproduction
I think I read somewhere that all calico cats are actual chimerae
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 04:07 am (UTC)-BlendyFallon&~
Poem
Date: 2018-03-07 06:29 am (UTC)54 lines, Buy It Now = $20
(Yes, the portrayal of CBT is positive.)
(no subject)
Date: 2018-03-07 07:49 am (UTC)Ok, several of your suggestions bite. ^_^
Vampires - I would like to see more of Csilla and how her relationship with Dorottya and Denes grows.
Seeking a relationship, finding each other, different kinds of courtship, bad tape - This just begs for Gray/Shiv. I would love to see more of Shiv working out how to 'court' Gray.
Laboratories - can we see some Uncle Fang hunting, please? ^_^
Poem
Date: 2018-03-12 06:59 am (UTC)356 lines, Buy It Now = $178
Re: Poem
Date: 2018-03-12 07:36 pm (UTC)Done!
Date: 2018-03-07 09:34 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2018-03-08 03:32 am (UTC)Hold for original prompter.