creativeStarting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is "making it from scratch." 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.
Among my more relevant series for the main theme:
An Army of One involves making a new culture, and salvaging items in a resource-poor area.
Arts and Crafts America is primarily about making stuff.
Clay of Life a blacksmith and his golem assistant.
The Moon Door is about building a new culture of werewolves from a women's chronic pain support group.
One God's Story of Mid-Life Crisis involves creating a new religion.
Polychrome Heroics has many creative characters. The newest threads about the Broken Angels and Rutledge particularly involve creating new things.
The Steamsmith includes a lot of inventions.
Or you can ask for something new.
The recent discussion about wizard armies raised many interesting ideas, if anyone wants to develop that.
Currently eligible bingo card(s) for donors wishing to sponsor a square:
Hurt/Comfort Bingo Card 6-18-19
Ladiesbingo Card 9-2-19
Click to read the linkback poem "An Iron Fist" (9 verses, Polychrome Heroics: Shiv).
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 "making it from scratch." 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. "An Iron Fist" has 9 verses and belongs to Polychrome Heroics: Shiv.
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 bonus piece 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 "making it from scratch." I'll be soliciting ideas for cooks, crafters, artists, architects, xenolinguists, parents, children, fish out of water, writers, inventors, mad scientists, magic users, deities, other people who start from scratch, cooking, crafting, building, inventing languages, begetting children, worldbuilding, inventing, gengineering, writing, exploring new discoveries, learning magic, creating connections, coming of age, learning what you can (and can't) do, accomplishing the impossible, recovering from setbacks, kitchens, workshops, construction zones, homes, libraries, laboratories, other places where people create things, food, quilts, sweaters, birdhouses, ceramics, paintings, sculptures, buildings, invented languages, alphabets and other writing systems, tomes and scrolls, stories, poems, inventions, frankencritters, spells and artifacts, worlds, personal growth, imprint vulnerability, rites of passage, 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 "An Iron Fist." The rest of the poems will go into my archive for future use.
Poem
December 3 2019, 19:36:48 UTC 1 year ago
Hold for original prompter.
Poem
December 3 2019, 20:56:32 UTC 1 year ago
37 lines, Buy It Now = $15
December 3 2019, 23:13:03 UTC 1 year ago
To make rabbit pie, first catch a rabbit.
Working out what 'from scratch' means in context and the circumstances.
Poem
December 4 2019, 04:04:25 UTC 1 year ago
Poem
December 4 2019, 00:43:11 UTC 1 year ago
300 lines, Buy It Now = $150
December 4 2019, 08:09:35 UTC 1 year ago
I keeping thinking of the fact that "Old Scratch" is one of the Devil's nicknames, so what could you make from Old Scratch? Thistles?
:^|
Poem
December 5 2019, 03:44:32 UTC 1 year ago
Poem
December 4 2019, 09:26:32 UTC 1 year ago
309 lines, Buy It Now = $155
Poem
December 4 2019, 10:19:09 UTC 1 year ago
29 lines, Buy It Now = $15
Poem
December 4 2019, 11:44:16 UTC 1 year ago
126 lines, Buy It Now = $63
Done for the night!
December 4 2019, 11:45:40 UTC 1 year ago Edited: December 4 2019, 11:46:18 UTC
December 4 2019, 11:58:06 UTC 1 year ago
I'm not sure how well poetry books sell, but you could either do print giveaways with the fishbowl or ebook file downloads.
Well ...
December 4 2019, 21:30:45 UTC 1 year ago
Sort of. I have two poetry books out in hardcopy. I have word files compiling poems in some series. What I do not have is the necessary skills to turn the stuff I produce into finished ebooks.
>> I'm not sure how well poetry books sell, but you could either do print giveaways with the fishbowl or ebook file downloads.<<
Poetry books tend to sell badly. If you sell 50 copies, it's considered a success. By that standard, mine did quite well. But you can see why most publishers want nothing to do with such. Back when I submitted magazines to poetry publishers, I kept getting rejections that said, "We love your work, but we don't have any money." Well, there's no point trying to get money from broke people, so I quit. Selling poems online one at a time is MUCH faster, easier, and more lucrative than the conventional market ever was.
So, my donors who spend more than $100/year on poetry get to choose from various collections in MS Word format, because that's what I can actually do. Above a certain level, hardcopies become available -- although most people seem to prefer electronic copies now.
Poem
December 5 2019, 20:33:48 UTC 1 year ago
"What Lies Within Us"
Hatter flibbers about friendship. Pips assures him that he's better at it than he realizes.
161 lines, Buy It Now = $81
"Friendship Recipes"
Genna sends Hatter some resources about friendship that make sense to him.
118 lines, Buy It Now = $59
Poem
December 7 2019, 12:07:01 UTC 1 year ago
"Happy Accidents"
Shiv takes a lesson in wet-on-wet painting, and gets a suggestion of where to look for more.
180 lines, Buy It Now = $90
"Happy Little Trees"
Shiv looks up some old painting videos online and falls in love with the style.
358 lines, Buy It Now = $179
Who knew Shiv would be a fan of happy little trees? But he is. This is some of the fluffiest stuff I've written about him. :D
Poem
December 9 2019, 23:57:06 UTC 1 year ago
"The Mixture of Spices, the Subtle Flavors"
Pain's Gray and Shiv visit an Indian restaurant.
370 lines, Buy It Now = $185
"Delicious Nemeses"
Having discovered Indian food, Gray wants to try making some himself, and Shiv helps.
351 lines, Buy It Now = $176
Poem
December 12 2019, 07:36:00 UTC 1 year ago
367 lines, Buy It Now = $184
Poem
December 12 2019, 12:22:08 UTC 1 year ago
198 lines, Buy It Now = $99