Poetry Fishbowl on Tuesday, May 5
Apr. 28th, 2026 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis is an advance announcement for the Tuesday, May 5, 2026 Poetry Fishbowl. This time the theme will be "Older Scenes and Forgotten Characters." I'll be soliciting ideas for characters we haven't seen in a while, dimensional travelers, time travelers, man out of time, alternate self, historians, futurists, explorers, inventors, quantum mechanics, quantum physicists, mad scientists, partners, teachers, clergy, leaders, superheroes, supervillains, teammates, alien or fantasy species, failure analysts, ethicists, activists, rebels, other remnant characters, revisiting older scenes, filling in details, missing scenes, learning from the past, moving on to the next scene, researching, revising theories, teaching, adventuring, leaving your comfort zone, discovering things, conducting experiments, observation changing experiments, troubleshooting, improvising, adapting, cleaning up messes, cooperating, bartering, taking over in an emergency, saving the day, discovering yourself, studying others, testing boundaries, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, sharing, preparing for the worst, expecting the unexpected, fixing what's broke, upsetting the status quo, changing the world, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, returning home, older storylines and series, the multiverse (quantum physics), the multiverse (F&SF), landing pads, world portals, liminal zones, schools, churches, libraries, laboratories, supervillain lairs, makerspaces, nonhuman accommodations and adaptations, starships, alien planets, magical lands, foreign dimensions, mysterious storms, crystal balls and other magical scrying devices, chronoscopes and other technological scrying devices, psychohistory (academic), psychohistory (science fiction), puzzling discoveries, sudden surprises, travel mishaps, the buck stops here, trial and error, weird food, secret ingredients, supplements that turn out to be metagenic, intercultural entanglements, asking for help and getting it, strange loops, fix-its, enemies to friends/lovers, lab conditions are not field conditions, superpower manifestation, the end of where your framework actually applies, ethics, innovation, problems that can't be solved by hitting, teamwork, found family, complementary strengths and weaknesses, personal growth, and poetic forms in particular.
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
An Army of One features the autistic secession in space.
Arts and Crafts America is largely about using crafts to solve problems.
The Bear Tunnels is about time travel to early colonial New England.
The Blueshift Troupers travel space to help planets in distress.
A Conflagration of Dragons involves civilization collapse.
Daughters of the Apocalypse is mostly about poor, brown, nonmale, queer, and/or disabled people.
Eloquent Souls features soulmates and soulmarks.
Feathered Nests is science fiction about avian aliens with unusual sex/gender dynamics.
Fledgling Grace has a mortal realm, an angelic realm, a demonic realm.
Hart's Farm is a Swedish free-love commune.
The Hollow Way features various mystical occurrences including strange travel paths, but the series is apparently unpublished.
Kande's Quest has a mortal realm and a demonic realm.
Monster House includes a variety of unusual characters.
Not Quite Kansas has an angelic realm, a demonic realm, and two versions of a mortal realm.
The Ocracies is a fantasy setting with diverse political systems.
One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis has a mortal realm and a divine realm.
Path of the Paladins has a mortal realm and a divine realm.
P.I.E. is urban fantasy with a disabled hera.
Schrodinger's Heroes is all about trying to save the world from alternate dimensions.
The Steamsmith features a black, genderqueer, British steampunk engineer.
The Time Towers compares time travel to Jenga.
Tripping into the Future is about one-way time travel and its consequences.
Walking the Beat is lesbian romance.
Shorter series appear on the Serial Poetry page.
Or you can ask for something new.
Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.
If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.
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.
I'm going to host a Poetry Fishbowl on my blog on Tuesday, May 5. I'll be soliciting ideas for thematic characters, plots, settings, objects, and poetic forms in particular. Chances are I'll spend a good chunk of the day, from afternoon to evening or more, alternating between this site and doing stuff offline so my back doesn't weld itself to the chair.
Perks: I will post at least one of the resulting fishbowl poems on the blog for everyone to enjoy, and an extra one if there's at least one new prompter or donor. The rest will be available for audience members to buy, and whatever's left over will go into my archive for later use.
If donations total $100 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.
I want to promote linkbacks pointing people to the "Fishbowl Open" post on Tuesday. Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Twitter or LiveJournal, rather than all on Dreamwidth.
If you enjoy my poetry -- or if you just love poetry in general, or want to revive interest in older storylines or characters -- please mark the fishbowl date on your calendar. Drop by and give me some ideas, comment on the posted poetry, encourage people to come look, whatever tickles your fancy. I hope to see you then!
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
An Army of One features the autistic secession in space.
Arts and Crafts America is largely about using crafts to solve problems.
The Bear Tunnels is about time travel to early colonial New England.
The Blueshift Troupers travel space to help planets in distress.
A Conflagration of Dragons involves civilization collapse.
Daughters of the Apocalypse is mostly about poor, brown, nonmale, queer, and/or disabled people.
Eloquent Souls features soulmates and soulmarks.
Feathered Nests is science fiction about avian aliens with unusual sex/gender dynamics.
Fledgling Grace has a mortal realm, an angelic realm, a demonic realm.
Hart's Farm is a Swedish free-love commune.
The Hollow Way features various mystical occurrences including strange travel paths, but the series is apparently unpublished.
Kande's Quest has a mortal realm and a demonic realm.
Monster House includes a variety of unusual characters.
Not Quite Kansas has an angelic realm, a demonic realm, and two versions of a mortal realm.
The Ocracies is a fantasy setting with diverse political systems.
One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis has a mortal realm and a divine realm.
Path of the Paladins has a mortal realm and a divine realm.
P.I.E. is urban fantasy with a disabled hera.
Schrodinger's Heroes is all about trying to save the world from alternate dimensions.
The Steamsmith features a black, genderqueer, British steampunk engineer.
The Time Towers compares time travel to Jenga.
Tripping into the Future is about one-way time travel and its consequences.
Walking the Beat is lesbian romance.
Shorter series appear on the Serial Poetry page.
Or you can ask for something new.
Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem.
If you're interested, mark the date on your calendar, and please hold actual prompts until the "Poetry Fishbowl Open" post next week. (If you're not available that day, or you live in a time zone that makes it hard to reach me, you can leave advance prompts. I am now.) Meanwhile, if you want to help with promotion, please feel free to link back here or repost this on your blog.
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.
I'm going to host a Poetry Fishbowl on my blog on Tuesday, May 5. I'll be soliciting ideas for thematic characters, plots, settings, objects, and poetic forms in particular. Chances are I'll spend a good chunk of the day, from afternoon to evening or more, alternating between this site and doing stuff offline so my back doesn't weld itself to the chair.
Perks: I will post at least one of the resulting fishbowl poems on the blog for everyone to enjoy, and an extra one if there's at least one new prompter or donor. The rest will be available for audience members to buy, and whatever's left over will go into my archive for later use.
If donations total $100 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.
I want to promote linkbacks pointing people to the "Fishbowl Open" post on Tuesday. Linkbacks reveal a verse of any open linkback poem. One person can do multiple links if they're on different services, like Twitter or LiveJournal, rather than all on Dreamwidth.
If you enjoy my poetry -- or if you just love poetry in general, or want to revive interest in older storylines or characters -- please mark the fishbowl date on your calendar. Drop by and give me some ideas, comment on the posted poetry, encourage people to come look, whatever tickles your fancy. I hope to see you then!
