Poetry Fishbowl Open!
Aug. 6th, 2019 01:15 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 am still writing.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from 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.
I'm also allowing the inverse: "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology." Some nations in The Ocracies, like the Plutocracy of Aurea, have built much of their civilization on this.
Among my more relevant series:
Frankenstein's Family involves early-idiom science that can do some things modern-science can't.
The Godship Wanderers features a living ship and a variety of alien technology unfamliar to the characters.
Laquerware is Edopunk about technology built in layers.
P.I.E. is urban fantasy where magic and technology sometimes mix.
Polychrome Heroics has a great deal of gizmology and super-gizmology, along with some people whose superpowers blend magic and science.
The Steamsmith features alchemy instead of the science that underlies our world, which looks magical but follows the principles of scientific method.
The Blueshift Troupers is far-future SF featuring some alien technology, including hiveships and jumpgates, that nobody really knows how it works.
Schrodinger's Heroes is quantum science fiction about saving the world from alternate dimensions. What Alex does with the laws of physics can look like magic to anyone else.
Or you can ask for something new.
Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:
End of Summer Bingo Card 8-2-19
Hurt/Comfort Bingo Card 6-18-19
Click to read the linkback poem "The Beautiful Thing About Fear" (11 verses, Officer Pink).
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 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from 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 Dreamwidth, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, 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 Beautiful Thing About Fear" has 11 verses and belongs to Officer Pink.
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; four of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be four 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 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I'll be soliciting ideas for end users, new users, geeks, mechanics, designated users, inventors, Super-Gizmologists, living ships, futuristic soldiers, shysters, minions and masters/mistresses, apprentices, explorers, other people who use (or try to use, or purport to use) advanced technology, inventing tools, exploring new discoveries, creating connections, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, frob twiddle and tweak, bending the laws of physics, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, laboratories, factories, courtrooms, military bases, battlefields, supervillain lairs, police stations, public institutions, alien planets, alternate dimensions, cyberspace, other places where technology advances, gizmos, super-gizmos, ansibles, sufficiently advanced artifacts, other exotic devices, exotic materials (such as phlebotinum and unobtanium), quantum mechanics, mysterious archaeological artifacts, magical artifacts, instruction manuals (or lack thereof), user agreements, sorcery using the idiom of science, apprenticeship, fraud, free will, personal growth, determination, imprint vulnerability, failure, success, rites of passage, levels of civilization, 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 Beautiful Thing About Fear." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for future use.
Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from 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.
I'm also allowing the inverse: "Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology." Some nations in The Ocracies, like the Plutocracy of Aurea, have built much of their civilization on this.
Among my more relevant series:
Frankenstein's Family involves early-idiom science that can do some things modern-science can't.
The Godship Wanderers features a living ship and a variety of alien technology unfamliar to the characters.
Laquerware is Edopunk about technology built in layers.
P.I.E. is urban fantasy where magic and technology sometimes mix.
Polychrome Heroics has a great deal of gizmology and super-gizmology, along with some people whose superpowers blend magic and science.
The Steamsmith features alchemy instead of the science that underlies our world, which looks magical but follows the principles of scientific method.
The Blueshift Troupers is far-future SF featuring some alien technology, including hiveships and jumpgates, that nobody really knows how it works.
Schrodinger's Heroes is quantum science fiction about saving the world from alternate dimensions. What Alex does with the laws of physics can look like magic to anyone else.
Or you can ask for something new.
Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:
End of Summer Bingo Card 8-2-19
Hurt/Comfort Bingo Card 6-18-19
Click to read the linkback poem "The Beautiful Thing About Fear" (11 verses, Officer Pink).
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 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from 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 Dreamwidth, other blog, Twitter, Facebook, 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 Beautiful Thing About Fear" has 11 verses and belongs to Officer Pink.
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; four of these activates the perk, and they don't have to be four 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 "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I'll be soliciting ideas for end users, new users, geeks, mechanics, designated users, inventors, Super-Gizmologists, living ships, futuristic soldiers, shysters, minions and masters/mistresses, apprentices, explorers, other people who use (or try to use, or purport to use) advanced technology, inventing tools, exploring new discoveries, creating connections, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, frob twiddle and tweak, bending the laws of physics, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, laboratories, factories, courtrooms, military bases, battlefields, supervillain lairs, police stations, public institutions, alien planets, alternate dimensions, cyberspace, other places where technology advances, gizmos, super-gizmos, ansibles, sufficiently advanced artifacts, other exotic devices, exotic materials (such as phlebotinum and unobtanium), quantum mechanics, mysterious archaeological artifacts, magical artifacts, instruction manuals (or lack thereof), user agreements, sorcery using the idiom of science, apprenticeship, fraud, free will, personal growth, determination, imprint vulnerability, failure, success, rites of passage, levels of civilization, 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 Beautiful Thing About Fear." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for future use.
*sigh*
Date: 2019-08-07 01:33 am (UTC)If you think having a child with a disability is hard on the budget, try having a superkid who sneezes fireballs ... and everyone telling you how LUCKY you are to have a superhero in the family. O_O This is a key reason why the rates of abuse and abandonment are so much higher for superkids.
Re: *sigh*
Date: 2019-08-07 02:29 pm (UTC)Re: *sigh*
Date: 2019-08-07 08:27 pm (UTC)* Small issues are covered by the family. Frex, Skippy needs hi-visibility clothes so people can find him easily when his superpower stutters and lands him up a tree or whatever. These cost the same as, or slightly more than, regular clothes so no assistance is needed.
* Slightly larger issues are covered by local government and/or insurance. If someone melts a piece of playground equipment, the town can usually afford to replace that but most families cannot. Insurance can also function at this level, even if it is a relatively small provider.
* Medium issues are best covered by the state government, much as each state has its own welfare programs. If someone needs special housing, such as reinforced floors and walls due to Mass Shifting, then Public Housing can and should accommodate that. It is beyond the means of all but the rich and very-upper-middle-class to do so. Large insurance companies can also function at this level.
* The largest issues require national support. If someone's toddler flickers and sparks a wildfire, you're not fixing that with smaller resources, you need to bring in disaster response from all over. Unlike here, T-America has a fully fluent emergency system to solve a crisis, pull civilians away from ground zero, and clean up the mess efficiently afterwards.
Other organizations can slot themselves in wherever they fit. Soup to Nuts already helps people gather resources offered from other sources -- like a chamfer or an ombudsman. SPOON has some programs to help people with special needs, but it's not a cohesive effort yet, because the group has always been a loose conglomeration rather than something official.
The thing is, superpowers have been publicly visible now for about 80 years. The density has gradually gone up. It's high enough now that what started out as adaptive responses to a rare occurrence no longer suffice when that sort of thing is happening somewhere most or all the time. They need to upgrade their ways of handling superpowers, not just with insurance, but with education and emergency services and everything else.
The Maldives has gotten a jump on this because climate change made them aware of impending doom if they didn't do something about it. So they pulled together soups, and as the density spiked in a very small population, they started seeing some of these issues very quickly. But they'd already put in the solution, as bait to attract soups: the first offer included a government seat. That means they have representation, which makes it much easier to solve problems as they come up. They had one teleport collision before deciding that they needed to make a teleport-airport to organize as much of the traffic as feasible, which would cut down the remaining amount to safe levels.
These are some of the interesting things that will be developing in the next few years. The berettafly incident sparked a lot of conversations about what does or does not constitute heroic behavior. As more towns give the key to the city to local superheroes, they'll talk more about how to handle damages. The Big One is the galvanizing event to mesh emergency services between soup and nary efforts. And so on.
It's a fun time to write about. :D
And to think that some people have spent slightly longer than that whole timespan on mainstream comics, and they're still writing about ... people hitting each other.