Poetry Fishbowl Open!
Sep. 8th, 2009 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithStarting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! 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. (The permanent landing page for the Poetry Fishbowl project is here.)
In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is folk tales. I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.
EDIT: The Poetry Fishbowl is now closed. Thank you for your enthusiasm.
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.
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) 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.
3) Matching donations. You can pledge a certain amount (say, $10) toward a poem if somebody else puts up the same amount, or you can pledge to match donations up to a ceiling (say, $30) as long as other people are contributing. Matching donations are also allowed for the general fund.
4) Call for cosponsors. If you crave a particular poem but can't afford the whole thing yourself, you can team up with one or more other people to sponsor it. This is a good way to fund the epic poems with custom pricing. You can post your call for cosponsors in the comments here, or make a separate post on your own blog, or both. Please let me know when you're calling for cosponsors for a poem, so that I can echo that in a separate post here and more people will see it.
5) 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. Details are here.
6) Spread the word! Post about the Poetry Fishbowl on your blog and link to it. Tell your friends about it and encourage them to participate. Do you belong to another social network such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.? Spread the word there too, and include a link back to the project. Rate my poetry on Poetry Blog Rankings so it will attract more attention.
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.
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 through LJ's private-message function. If you're not logged in but you want to see the poem inspired by your prompt, give me your eddress; I recommend using {at} and {dot} to discourage spammers. 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.
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 "folk tales." (Traditional folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, legends, etc. from any culture count. Alien or fantasy cultures are eligible if you can match them to this theme somehow or suggest what their folk tale poetry would include.) I'll be soliciting ideas for folk heroes, scoundrels, symbolism, notable weapons or tools, apcryphal history, social rules or gaffes, morals, traditional plots, modern retellings, pastoral settings, modern analogs of traditional settings, and poetic forms in particular.
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. If at least one new person participates as a prompter or donor, I will post a second freebie poem. The rest will go into my archive for magazine submission.
In this online version of a Poetry Fishbowl, I begin by setting a theme; today's theme is folk tales. I invite people to suggest characters, settings, and other things relating to that theme. Then I use those prompts as inspiration for writing poems.
EDIT: The Poetry Fishbowl is now closed. Thank you for your enthusiasm.
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.
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) 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.
3) Matching donations. You can pledge a certain amount (say, $10) toward a poem if somebody else puts up the same amount, or you can pledge to match donations up to a ceiling (say, $30) as long as other people are contributing. Matching donations are also allowed for the general fund.
4) Call for cosponsors. If you crave a particular poem but can't afford the whole thing yourself, you can team up with one or more other people to sponsor it. This is a good way to fund the epic poems with custom pricing. You can post your call for cosponsors in the comments here, or make a separate post on your own blog, or both. Please let me know when you're calling for cosponsors for a poem, so that I can echo that in a separate post here and more people will see it.
5) 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. Details are here.
6) Spread the word! Post about the Poetry Fishbowl on your blog and link to it. Tell your friends about it and encourage them to participate. Do you belong to another social network such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc.? Spread the word there too, and include a link back to the project. Rate my poetry on Poetry Blog Rankings so it will attract more attention.
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.
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 through LJ's private-message function. If you're not logged in but you want to see the poem inspired by your prompt, give me your eddress; I recommend using {at} and {dot} to discourage spammers. 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.
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 "folk tales." (Traditional folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, legends, etc. from any culture count. Alien or fantasy cultures are eligible if you can match them to this theme somehow or suggest what their folk tale poetry would include.) I'll be soliciting ideas for folk heroes, scoundrels, symbolism, notable weapons or tools, apcryphal history, social rules or gaffes, morals, traditional plots, modern retellings, pastoral settings, modern analogs of traditional settings, and poetic forms in particular.
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. If at least one new person participates as a prompter or donor, I will post a second freebie poem. The rest will go into my archive for magazine submission.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Here, here!
Date: 2009-09-08 06:17 pm (UTC)The topic is irresistible, let's see:
The Fae wife (one year and a day or up to the birth of a child, whatever comes first).
Changeling: what's really like on the other side?
Harun al-Rashid and Ja'far walking in disguise through ancient Baghdad
An 'unusual' animal helper
And that's it... for now ;-)
Re: Here, here!
Date: 2009-09-08 07:42 pm (UTC)"The Cuckoo's Song" -- excerpt
A young lord went riding through hills rolling green,
As lovely a land as he ever had seen.
Then softly a song touched his ears and his heart,
More comely than any of his minstrels’ art.
What song is that song in the meadow I hear,
That’s ringing out boldly, so sweet and so clear?
I must find the singer and rest my own eyes
Upon the fair source of this wonderful prize!
A maiden danced there with her hips all a-sway
Beneath a green gown that proclaimed her as fey.
The points on her ears were as sharp as a sword
And lightly she bowed to the mesmerized lord.
O suitor, O suitor, what’s this that I hear?
You want a good wife for the span of a year?
Last night as I walked from our hill to the down,
I heard it three times – it’s the talk of the town.
Re: Here, here!
Date: 2009-09-08 07:50 pm (UTC)Enjoy your lunch!
Re: Here, here!
Date: 2009-09-08 08:20 pm (UTC)From your "Fae wife" prompt I got "The Cuckoo's Song," a couplet-rhymed ballad about a young lord who wants a wife, but not forever ... and a fey woman who finds that this suits her needs exactly. It's a sharp, funny twist on the old stories about mortal men taking advantage of faery women. I also pulled in some other motifs, like the cuckoo bird's habit of brood parasitism, the idea of faeries based on specific animals or plants, and the famously rapacious appetite of changelings and of cuckoo hatchlings.
I think anyone who has ever gone through a pregnancy and/or raised a baby will be able to relate to the results.
96 lines, Buy It Now = $48
Thank you!
Date: 2009-09-09 12:41 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2009-09-09 09:35 am (UTC)BTW, the prompt I gave you about Harun al-Rashid and Ja'far turned round and bit me, I'll post my own take on the topic later.
Have you ever considered doing a sort of 'communal poetry day' with people sharing prompts and poems on a given topic? I wonder if and how it could be done within the umbrella of cyberfounded creativity.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2009-09-10 01:50 am (UTC)Sorry I didn't get to that one. A couple people gave me a bunch of great prompts, but I wrote so many epics this time, I only had time for one poem per person.
>>Have you ever considered doing a sort of 'communal poetry day' with people sharing prompts and poems on a given topic? I wonder if and how it could be done within the umbrella of cyberfounded creativity.<<
If other folks want to use the prompts in my fishbowl, that's fine by me. A couple of other events have been sponsored by this one.
What kind of framework were you imagining?
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2009-09-10 07:05 am (UTC)Sorry! I didn't mean it to sound that way! I just wanted you to know that *your* event sparkled *my* creativity too.
>>What kind of framework were you imagining?>>
Well in my haijin network every now and then someone would hold a 'so-and-so' haiku party: the host would give a topic in a LJ post, participants would post their haiku as comments and then all those would be gathered together.
Maybe (I'm thinking out loud) interested poets could take turns hosting the 'communal fishbowl', the host sets the theme (or it is agreed upon beforehand) then people offer prompts for a set time (le's say a day). Poets taking part declare which prompt(s) they used in the comments, maybe offering a blurb the title and a few lines as appetizer and setting the sponsorship target...and so on, just like you do on your own.
I'd suggest for the 'festival' to go on for a couple of days (one for posting prompts and that and the following one for poems) so that people living in different time-zones or holding a full-time job could have more chances of taking part.
It could be a 'once every few months' event, and, as I see it, it could have a couple of advantages: network and community building and publicity, since each of the involved poets would be interested in spreading the news as much as possible.
Am I totally off?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 06:32 pm (UTC)Or, many traditional European folk tales involve three sons -- the first two screw up somehow, but the third succeeds (usually through the virtues of courtesy and kindness). How about something where the eldest brother succeeds and the younger ones go on to do something else? Or where it's sisters, perhaps.
Or, I've always liked the idea of Seven-League Boots.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 06:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 07:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 08:03 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2009-09-08 08:57 pm (UTC)22 lines, Buy It Now = $15
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 06:44 pm (UTC)Or if that doesn't appeal to you, how about a golem tale?
Poem
Date: 2009-09-08 09:34 pm (UTC)50 lines, Buy It Now = $20
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-09 01:54 am (UTC)At any rate, I would like to sponsor this poem, please. I'll send payment in the usual manner. Thanks!
Thank you!
Date: 2009-09-09 02:59 am (UTC)Thanks for sponsoring this poem! I will get it posted when I have time.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 07:41 pm (UTC)http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/roma/gft/index.htm
You can pick something from there. :)
Poem
Date: 2009-09-08 10:26 pm (UTC)72 lines, Buy It Now = $36
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 07:50 pm (UTC)The fish that swallowed a piece of jewelry thrown/dropped in the lake/ocean/river that is caught and served up to the jewelry's owner for dinner.
The Brave Little Tailor. (Wild success in life based on a misunderstanding)
The Grim/Old Shuck/Black Dog, whatever you like to call him.
Dryads
Poem
Date: 2009-09-08 11:19 pm (UTC)36 lines, Buy It Now = $15
And with this, I'm off to supper; I'll be back in an hour or so.
Re: Poem
Date: 2009-09-08 11:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 07:53 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2009-09-09 03:03 am (UTC)20 lines, Buy It Now = $10
Re: Poem
Date: 2009-09-10 01:53 am (UTC)So. Um. Will I be able to sponsor it this weekend, still?
Yes...
Date: 2009-09-10 05:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 08:43 pm (UTC)Poem
Date: 2009-09-08 09:42 pm (UTC)Re: Poem
Date: 2009-09-09 01:33 am (UTC)Re: Poem
Date: 2009-09-09 02:12 am (UTC)The fishbowl is still open, by the way. Drop me a prompt?
Re: Poem
Date: 2009-09-09 02:52 am (UTC)http://www.oldrussia.net/baba.html
cause I likes anything SLAVIC!
SLAWA!
Re: Poem
Date: 2009-09-09 07:06 am (UTC)Between this poem and my Vampires of the World series, you can well imagine that smarty-pants foreigners rarely fare well against indigenous predators.
37 lines, Buy It Now = $15
Re: Poem
Date: 2009-09-10 02:03 am (UTC)Re: Poem
Date: 2009-09-10 05:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 10:40 pm (UTC)Mattresses
Hair
Bears
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-09 01:43 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2009-09-09 02:15 am (UTC)124 lines, Buy It Now = $62
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-08 11:56 pm (UTC)http://catb.org/esr/jargon/html/magic-story.html
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-09 02:53 am (UTC)Poem
Date: 2009-09-09 05:19 am (UTC)31 lines, Buy It Now = $15
Also, my web connection has turned spitty as a camel and twice as stubborn. I'm trying to finish out the prompts tonight but may not make it. If I disappear without formally closing this event, that would be why.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-09 01:33 am (UTC)I may not be typical in that, but I do find myself curious. . . how does Janet feel about the deals she made, a year or three down the line? Or if Janet doesn't intrigue you, any heroine who chases something -- how does it sit with them, after?
Poem
Date: 2009-09-09 06:19 am (UTC)Done for the Night!
Date: 2009-09-09 07:25 am (UTC)