creativeStarting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "unlikely heroes and implausible villains." 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.
Click to read the linkback poem "Julbord" (Hart's Farm, 13 verses available).
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 "unlikely heroes and implausible villains." 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. "Julbord" belongs to the series Hart's Farm and has 13 verses available.
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, you get a half-price sale for one week in one series. Everyone will get to vote on which series to feature in the sale, out of those with extra poems available.
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 "unlikely heroes and implausible villains." I'll be soliciting ideas for heroes, villains, sidekicks, other allies, archenemies, rivals, innocent bystanders, leaders, people who think they're heroes but are really villains (or vice versa), deciding to become a hero or villain, battles, traps and ambushes, arguments, sudden but inevitable betrayals, making history, reconciliations, turning disadvantage to advantage, monologues, witty repartee, great escapes, twist ALL the tropes!, dangerous and exciting places to fight, uncommon battlegrounds, the line must be drawn here, hideouts and other bases of operation, targeted monuments, signature weapons, costumes, iconic armor, ordinary objects weaponized, completely ridiculous objects weaponized, macguffins, 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 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. (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 "Julbord.") The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.
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July 2 2013, 17:02:30 UTC 8 years ago
The grandmother who saves a village.
IRL, the gentleman in Cleveland who helped rescue the three girls from their kidnapper.
~~
The well-meaning "hero" who makes a mess of everything.
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July 2 2013, 17:28:22 UTC 8 years ago
July 2 2013, 17:05:46 UTC 8 years ago
Poem
July 2 2013, 22:18:32 UTC 8 years ago
70 lines, Buy It Now = $35
July 2 2013, 17:17:25 UTC 8 years ago
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July 2 2013, 20:59:58 UTC 8 years ago
July 2 2013, 17:32:17 UTC 8 years ago
A moustache-twirling, top hatted cad in a cape (melodrama lives!)
The person who saves the day just by being there and never knows what they've done.
July 2 2013, 17:36:45 UTC 8 years ago Edited: July 2 2013, 17:39:27 UTC
(He forges his own taxes)
Poem
8 years ago
July 2 2013, 18:06:51 UTC 8 years ago
* This really sounds like the theme for Shaeth -- I'd enjoy seeing him do something accidentally heroic. :)
* Or Nib and Brod! Haven't heard from them in a while.
Poem
July 2 2013, 23:06:31 UTC 8 years ago
90 lines, Buy It Now = $45
Unlikely heroes and Implausible Villains
July 2 2013, 18:10:02 UTC 8 years ago
As for Implausible villains...
I think again you have to look to those that are the epitome of 'purity' and 'innocence' ... nuns, angels, babies and children under a certain age, eunuchs (tho they are adults and could scheme nastily). Also those that you might think shouldn't be given a chance... the 'Big Issue' seller (over in the UK they let people in hostels and so on sell magazines called the Big Issue, and they take some of the profits), the homeless guy, the wino, the blind beggar, the busker.... anyone that society would shun or prefer to forget they are there. (These 'dregs of society' might serve as well for unlikely heroes too).
And who says they have to be human... after all, my favourite poem of all time (sorry Elizabeth T S Eliot had a bit of a head start on you!) was MacCavity.... who is of course a cat! They *look* sweet and innocent, but you can almost *tell* they are plotting!!
Re: Unlikely heroes and Implausible Villains
July 3 2013, 01:50:30 UTC 8 years ago
26 lines, Buy It Now = $15
July 2 2013, 18:30:52 UTC 8 years ago
A wheelchair superhero - it's been done, but there are always possible interesting twists.
That clever SOB who plays all sides until a winner is obvious. (You decide if its a hero or villain!)
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July 2 2013, 20:57:32 UTC 8 years ago
130 lines, Buy It Now = $65
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July 2 2013, 18:34:07 UTC 8 years ago
114 lines, Buy It Now = $57
July 2 2013, 18:36:47 UTC 8 years ago
Chiune Sugihara http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara
Louis Slotin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Slotin
Dr. Matthew Lukwiya http://www.lacorhospital.org/HistoryBackground/MatthewLukwiya/tabid/500/Default.aspx
July 2 2013, 19:11:46 UTC 8 years ago
Unlikely hero - someone who doesn't realize s/he's a superher@ until something triggers a response.
Unlikely villain - someone basically decent who's been cursed in such a way that everything s/he tries to do ends up hurting people.
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July 3 2013, 08:49:49 UTC 8 years ago
24 lines, Buy It Now = $10
July 2 2013, 19:48:17 UTC 8 years ago
Damask! Bonus points if it's later down the line, and they're managing together decently. Uber-bonus points if it's an act of heroism that's not dramatic or violent--gently talking someone down from a bridge, or foiling blackmail through clever thinking, that sort of stuff.
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July 3 2013, 05:16:47 UTC 8 years ago
130 lines, Buy It Now = $65
July 2 2013, 20:06:47 UTC 8 years ago
This guy!
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July 2 2013, 21:27:41 UTC 8 years ago
36 lines, Buy It Now = $15
July 2 2013, 20:25:36 UTC 8 years ago Edited: July 2 2013, 20:30:08 UTC
I note that action X might not be correct, merely that the person can't be expected to do not-X, because it is, to every test conceivable by that person, the correct course of action. How could you expect a person to take a different action? Only by denying the premise that the person truly has brought all their decision-making powers to bear.
And the canonical example is, if a person (presumably after serious mind-alteration and a Buffy The Vampire Slayer marathon) decided I was a dangerous demon who must be destroyed to save the earth, I could not find moral fault with them for trying to kill me - though I'd certainly take action to prevent them, and would certainly hope others would, as well.
Which brings up the idea of the hideous demon barely trapped inside an innocent human body, with someone able to perceive the demon, and the risks. (Just don't make it Roddy Piper with a pair of sunglasses.) (Or if you do, at least give the man some gum.)
July 2 2013, 22:40:22 UTC 8 years ago
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July 2 2013, 22:43:16 UTC 8 years ago
And then the unlikely hero.. hm. How about an alien conqueror? They aren't on a mission of conquest -- they've already won. How the heck are they heroes to us without brainwashing?
July 2 2013, 23:27:16 UTC 8 years ago
What if whatever giant monster is rampaging thorough New York this week isn't taken down by the chisel-jawed hero. [I dunno, he got held up in traffic maybe?] And the ordinary New Yorkers have to take it down instead... [yeah, I know who my money would be on, and I betcha someone would be running a pool on that fight.]
What if the Big Bad has gone though all the other heroes and heras, and they're down to the last one, the least likely hero[ine] to step up, imagine their thoughts....
What if Victor Von Frankenstein hadn't been an abusive parent? [which in effect, is what he was.] Come to think of it, what if it had been Victoria Von Frankenstein instead?
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July 3 2013, 08:10:44 UTC 8 years ago
125 lines, Buy It Now = $62.50
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