Poetry Fishbowl Open!: ysabetwordsmith

Poetry Fishbowl Open!

The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you for your enthusiasm.

Starting now, the bonus Poetry Fishbowl is open! This is the perk for recent fishbowls meeting the $250 goal. Today's theme is "Polychrome Heroics." 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.

There are still some verses left of "Lawless, Winged, and Unconfined" so you can reveal those by linking to this fishbowl.

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 "Polychrome Heroics." 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) 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) 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"

4) 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.

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.

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 "Polychrome Heroics." I'll be soliciting ideas for Damask, their family, other established characters, superheroes, supervillains, supernaries (ordinary people competing on a super level, like Batman does), blue plate specials (people using superpowers in a conventional job), crickets (people hiding their superpowers), forks (anti-super bigots), damsels or gentlemen in distress, unusual types of hero or villain, rivals, superhero teams, gizmos or super-gizmos, costumes, superpowers, monologues, death traps, diabolical plans, thematic vehicles, Urbanburg and its university, Littleton, other established locations in Terramagne, secret lairs, "escape-proof" prisons (aren't), trains or bridges and other hazardous combat locations, science labs, super battles, being "in the fuse box" (hiding superpowers), coming "out of the fuse box" (revealing superpowers), struggling to discover or control superpowers, declaring a nemesis, saving the day, squabbles between people with and without superpowers, the challenges of having superpowers, creative uses of superpowers, side scenes from previous events, 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 Lewis Turco's The New 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.) The rest of the poems will go into my archive for magazine submission.

ellenmillion

March 18 2014, 17:40:11 UTC 7 years ago

New comment

Capes and costumes

Too many heroes

Other reasons for an alter-ego

Poem

ysabetwordsmith

March 18 2014, 18:46:17 UTC 7 years ago

I liked the prompt about other reasons for an alter-ego. "Everyday Lies and Heroic Revelations" is about a transgender person developing superpowers, only to have the soup identity emerge as the real one because the everyday version is the fake.

63 lines, Buy It Now = $31.50

janetmiles

March 18 2014, 18:00:44 UTC 7 years ago Edited: March 18 2014, 18:01:00 UTC

A young child having a very strong power (frex, a toddler who can teleport or an invisible infant) and learning to control it.

A supervillain who has actually read and internalized The Evil Overlord List.

Heh. Harkening back to a previous fishbowl, "It seemed like a good idea at the time, or, maybe I shouldn't have interfered after all."

Superheroes and supervillains tend to be hard on cities (broken buildings, smashed cards, upheaved roads). Who pays for the cleanup?

March 18 2014, 21:27:28 UTC 7 years ago

I put your "hard on cities" prompt together with my mother's prompt about super-peacemaking abilities, and wrote a sequel to "Valor's Widow." This is the story of how Deirdre came to be a superhera in her own right, as people turned to her for help. "Peace Offerings" is written in free verse.

90 lines, Buy It Now = $45

7 years ago

March 18 2014, 18:08:17 UTC 7 years ago

Ooh! What about trying to induce superpowers via deliberate exposure to traumatic situations, either with or without the consent of the person being exposed?

March 21 2014, 01:32:43 UTC 7 years ago

This inspired the free-verse poem "Hercules Complex," an exploration of power-seeking behavior within the context of a world that has special abilities.

56 lines, Buy It Now = $20

(One noncon example of souping up a person appears in "Lifeyears.)

technoshaman

March 18 2014, 18:30:42 UTC 7 years ago

Re-read "Lifeyears"... Dr. Infanta is a highly, highly interesting character. So too is Damask, but I can't figure out how to throw them at one another...

Damask tries to make friends.

lb_lee

March 18 2014, 20:47:37 UTC 7 years ago

I like Damask, and suggest KARAOKE NIGHT as a way of making friends! :D

--Rogan

rix_scaedu

March 18 2014, 18:37:06 UTC 7 years ago

Being the only one without super powers.

Having powers and not knowing it.

Everyone thinks you have powers, but...

March 18 2014, 20:38:44 UTC 7 years ago

Based on your first prompt, "The Family Business" is today's freebie.

Re: Poem

siliconshaman

March 18 2014, 21:44:31 UTC 7 years ago

A [potential] hero who is trying to lead an ordinary life, and not quite succeeding.

Do superheroes have groupies, fandoms even? If so, one wonders what their view of that is.

How does a [previously] ordinary person cope with gaining god-like powers? [even assuming they also gain the ability to use them accurately].

What about superpeople playing with their powers? After all, play is an important part of learning... what would one do to have fun with meta-abilities.

March 19 2014, 17:58:33 UTC 7 years ago

There are superhero groupies in "Amateur Night," thumbnailed elsewhere on this page.

kestrels_nest

March 18 2014, 22:22:49 UTC 7 years ago

A super-hero with a quiet, subtle power - the person who can calm a newly-emergent super-human's panic attack and just happens to be there when it happens; the one who just decided to take a walk and happens to be there to talk down the person who just climbed over the railing on the Golden Gate Bridge. Maybe some of the other super-heroes recognize them, maybe not, because they're there when they're needed and then quietly go on about their own life.

The super-hero who doesn't recognize that what they do involves a super-power.

The super-human (hero or villain) who passes unnoticed because they look like the quintessential grandparent.

March 19 2014, 01:32:46 UTC 7 years ago

For a quiet power, see Señora Cocoa in the free-verse poem "Simple as a Glass of Chocolate." Not every superpower is about combat or crime-fighting. Hers is about making people feel better.

85 lines, Buy It Now = $42.50

March 18 2014, 23:06:55 UTC 7 years ago

From a Dreamwidth prompt about the drottkvaett form I got "Heroes Still Living," written in praise of both superheroes and supervillains. The form isn't quite perfect, but it's pretty close. I had fun describing the modern concept of superheroes in the classic tradition of heroic poetry which provided part of their inspiration.

24 lines, Buy It Now = $10

siege

March 19 2014, 00:07:08 UTC 7 years ago

Some super powers may require fuel.

March 20 2014, 03:46:01 UTC 7 years ago

Your prompt combined with several offline ones to generate "Going Ape," a free-verse poem about a man who gets bitten by a radioactive bonobo and gains peacemaking powers fueled by sex.

196 lines, Buy It Now = $98

wyld_dandelyon

March 19 2014, 05:47:05 UTC 7 years ago

Superheroes and supervillains in a comedy of errors on Halloween

Superpowers and Murphy's Law

Superpowers at the Midnight Hour

March 19 2014, 10:18:36 UTC 7 years ago

From your Halloween prompt came the free-verse poem "Amateur Night." Damask has a whole different experience of this holiday coming to it as a superhero, when ordinary people often dress up as soups just for the hell of it. But there are also a few real ones out tonight ...

216 lines, Buy It Now = $108

March 19 2014, 07:41:35 UTC 7 years ago

A Dreamwidth prompt inspired the free-verse poem "Heroic Physics 101." Granny Whammy explains some differences between intrinsic and extrinsic superpowers -- for example, why someone with super-strength can lift large complex objects safely but a super-gizmo of equivalent strength cannot.

130 lines, Buy It Now = $65

Done for the night!

March 19 2014, 10:28:34 UTC 7 years ago

I've written a good batch of poems, but it's time for bed. I'll try to pick up the remaining prompters later.

March 19 2014, 23:22:44 UTC 7 years ago

A Dreamwidth prompt about unusual super-senses inspired the free-verse poem "A Sense of Power," exploring six different soups and the perceptions that come with their gifts. I went with a slightly different version of the insect-vision but that was too cool to leave out.

156 lines, Buy It Now = $78

March 21 2014, 19:40:35 UTC 7 years ago

Based on a Dreamwidth prompt, the Sculptress discovers a new aspect to her talent when she works with a client who sees himself as a superhero. It doesn't turn out quite the way he wants, though.

57 lines, Buy It Now = $20

March 21 2014, 21:22:10 UTC 7 years ago

The Sculptress discovers a new aspect to her talent when she works with a client who sees himself as a superhero. It doesn't turn out quite the way he wants, though.

57 lines, Buy It Now = $20

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