Here's an open call I spotted over at Ralan. com from The Pedestal Magazine for poetry for their December 2015 issue:
As editors of The Pedestal Magazine, we intend to support both established and burgeoning writers. We are committed to promoting diversity and celebrating the voice of the individual.
The Pedestal Magazine does not accept previously published work, unless specifically requested; however, we will accept simultaneous submissions, if so noted. Please inform us immediately if your submission is accepted elsewhere. Also, we do not accept submissions by regular mail. Neither do we accept email submissions. We now accept all work through Submittable.com. Please do not submit more than once per reading cycle.
Current and Upcoming Guidelines:
Poetry:
The editors will be receiving submissions of poetry for the December 2015 issue of Pedestal. No restrictions on genre, length, theme, or style. Send up to five (5) poems in a single file. Open for submissions November 2 - 29.
Payment: $40 per poem.
Reviews:
The Pedestal Magazine publishes reviews of full-length poetry collections (we are no longer able to review chapbooks), short-story collections, novels, and various works of non-fiction. Most of our reviews are handled in-house by staff reviewers. If you are interested in submitting a title for possible review, or would like to review a specific title, please query at pedmagazine@carolina.rr.com.
As mentioned above, The Pedestal Magazine does not accept previously published material, unless specifically requested. It asks for first rights to any piece its editors select. At the time of publication, all rights revert back to the author/artist; however, The Pedestal Magazine retains the right to publish the piece(s) in any subsequent issue or anthology, whether in print or online, without additional payment. Should you decide to republish the piece elsewhere, we ask that you cite The Pedestal Magazine as a place of previous publication and provide The Pedestal Magazine's web address.
We do our best to respond to submissions in 4-8 weeks. Please do not query regarding status of a submission until at least eight weeks have passed. All questions pertaining to submissions should be addressed to the editor at pedmagazine@carolina.rr.com.
Thank you for your interest in The Pedestal Magazine."
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 06, 2015
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Bridges
Listen; there's a hell of a good universe next door: let's go. -- e.e. cummings
I doubt any writer has saved me more times than a former ambulance driver who considered words his paint and verse his canvas (when he wasn't actually painting a real one.) He was a soldier who hated war, and suffered from depression but despised fear; he was that kind of contrary -- and mysterious and gifted and more lyrical than any man I've encountered on this planet.
He wasn't perfect by any means. He looked a bit like a seedy ranch hand, and made some stupendously massive mistakes with his choices in love and politics. He could be pompous and unyielding, and probably rode his artistic high horse too often as well. He was brought up to be an aristocrat but lived like a bohemian and adored rascals and heretics. Even in death he had to be different; when he suffered a massive, instantly fatal cerebral hemmorhage, he was on his way to sharpen an ax.
great men burn bridges before they come to them -- e.e. cummings
So how can you be protected by a guy who died when you were in diapers? Edward Estlin Cummings left behind for me a bridge through time and space and life and death, built from the thousands of poems he wrote. And not just any poems. The man sculpted language and ignored rules and nose-thumbed spelling and grammar. He took the much-loved sonnet form and played Twister with it. He spoke from the page with ease and wonder and stunning candor. The first time I read this he had me for life.
Edward may have moved on to the next place, but he has never abandoned me. Just the other day, when I was again subjected to some unnecessary and hateful behavior, he was there for me in his work. I opened a book and retreated from this world into his, and on the other side of that bridge he reminded me once more of the many things he's taught me. When you embrace beauty like this, you make it impossible for anyone to infect you with their ugliness. And when I crossed back over the bridge into my reality, it was like the cruelty never happened.
To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting. -- e.e. cummings
And this is why we should create instead of destroy, heal instead of harm, and love instead of hate. To build our own bridges for those who need us now, and those who will need us after we're gone. To be there as a sanctuary and a source of reassurance for someone in need of protection, even after we've moved on. Honestly, this is the only immortality worth having.
I doubt any writer has saved me more times than a former ambulance driver who considered words his paint and verse his canvas (when he wasn't actually painting a real one.) He was a soldier who hated war, and suffered from depression but despised fear; he was that kind of contrary -- and mysterious and gifted and more lyrical than any man I've encountered on this planet.
great men burn bridges before they come to them -- e.e. cummings
So how can you be protected by a guy who died when you were in diapers? Edward Estlin Cummings left behind for me a bridge through time and space and life and death, built from the thousands of poems he wrote. And not just any poems. The man sculpted language and ignored rules and nose-thumbed spelling and grammar. He took the much-loved sonnet form and played Twister with it. He spoke from the page with ease and wonder and stunning candor. The first time I read this he had me for life.
Edward may have moved on to the next place, but he has never abandoned me. Just the other day, when I was again subjected to some unnecessary and hateful behavior, he was there for me in his work. I opened a book and retreated from this world into his, and on the other side of that bridge he reminded me once more of the many things he's taught me. When you embrace beauty like this, you make it impossible for anyone to infect you with their ugliness. And when I crossed back over the bridge into my reality, it was like the cruelty never happened.
To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting. -- e.e. cummings
And this is why we should create instead of destroy, heal instead of harm, and love instead of hate. To build our own bridges for those who need us now, and those who will need us after we're gone. To be there as a sanctuary and a source of reassurance for someone in need of protection, even after we've moved on. Honestly, this is the only immortality worth having.
Wednesday, October 03, 2012
Poetry Ops
Poets who write short form poems often have a tough time finding paying markets for their work. They are out there; here are a couple I found while looking for haiku markets:
The Pedestal Magazine has two reading periods open for poetry, currently until October 13th, and another from October 28th to December 13th. During these periods they only want to look at poetry submissions, and have no restrictions on theme, length or style. Payment: $40.00 per poem, no reprints, electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details.
"Scifaikuest publishes original scifaiku, haibun, senryu, tanka, and horrorku and other minimalist forms, and articles about these forms. We also publish original black-and-white illustrations, and original cover illustrations for the print edition and for the online door. Scifaiku is a lot like haiku. The 17 syllables or 5-7-5 syllable guideline is NOT a strict requirement, but what IS required, is that the total ku doesn't read like a sentence. The captured moment should strike the reader with a flash of realization or surprise--if you've read something, and suddenly "get it" and you subconsciously think "Ah-hah!" or “oh wow!” that's what scifaiku is supposed to do to you. As in haiku, punctuation and capitalization are not usually used in scifaiku, so no unnecessary punctuation or caps. In addition, scifaiku usually include a season, an action and a subject, whether actual or implied." Length: short form (see guidelines for specifics); Payment: ranges from $1.00 to $15.00 for featured poet. Reprints okay, electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details.
There's also the "for the luv" markets, which don't offer cash but regularly pay in contributor copies, like this one:
Daily Haiku accepts submissions only during the months of February and August, and if you're selected as a contributor you will be expected to provide 28 haiku over a six-month period, so be warned. Payment: Exposure plus one contributor's copy of their annual print journal featuring your work. No reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details.
The Pedestal Magazine has two reading periods open for poetry, currently until October 13th, and another from October 28th to December 13th. During these periods they only want to look at poetry submissions, and have no restrictions on theme, length or style. Payment: $40.00 per poem, no reprints, electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details.
"Scifaikuest publishes original scifaiku, haibun, senryu, tanka, and horrorku and other minimalist forms, and articles about these forms. We also publish original black-and-white illustrations, and original cover illustrations for the print edition and for the online door. Scifaiku is a lot like haiku. The 17 syllables or 5-7-5 syllable guideline is NOT a strict requirement, but what IS required, is that the total ku doesn't read like a sentence. The captured moment should strike the reader with a flash of realization or surprise--if you've read something, and suddenly "get it" and you subconsciously think "Ah-hah!" or “oh wow!” that's what scifaiku is supposed to do to you. As in haiku, punctuation and capitalization are not usually used in scifaiku, so no unnecessary punctuation or caps. In addition, scifaiku usually include a season, an action and a subject, whether actual or implied." Length: short form (see guidelines for specifics); Payment: ranges from $1.00 to $15.00 for featured poet. Reprints okay, electronic submission only, see guidelines for more details.
There's also the "for the luv" markets, which don't offer cash but regularly pay in contributor copies, like this one:
Daily Haiku accepts submissions only during the months of February and August, and if you're selected as a contributor you will be expected to provide 28 haiku over a six-month period, so be warned. Payment: Exposure plus one contributor's copy of their annual print journal featuring your work. No reprints, electronic submissions only, see guidelines for more details.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Poetry Sparks
Whenever I need inspiration for a particular storytelling task the first place I usually run to is my collection of poetry books. Great poets have the gift of expressing concepts with the most uncommon words and phrases, and gleaning and recombining fragments from these verses often results in a unique title or story idea.
To try this yourself, pick up a few poetry books at the library, grab a notepad and pen, and start reading. When you find a phrase that has appeal to you as a title concept or story inspiration, jot it down (and remember to note the author and the title of the poem so you can go back to it, cite it, etc.)
Here's a list of title sparks I made while reading through The Poetry of Pablo Neruda:
Poetry is also a great place to find story sparks; poets tend to load up their verses with devious imagery and ideas. If you're in an inspirational lull you might find a word or phrase that spontaneously jump starts your muse.
Here's a list of some story ideas I got while reading through Ranier Marie Rilke ~ Prose and Poetry:
Sometimes when you mine poetry you'll get a mixed bag, especially if you read through an anthology with verses written by many different poets. Here's a mixed sparks list I put together while sifting through Poetry That Lives Forever:
Getting sparks from poetry is also a great way to break through a writing block; try looking for words and phrases that create instant imagery and resonate on some level with you. Once you have a list of ten, write out a short premise on what they brought to mind, and then choose one and write one page about it. If the idea doesn't hold your interest, go back to your list, choose another premise and repeat. Even if you don't end up with a complete story, it's great writing practice and might help you get past whatever is blocking you.
To try this yourself, pick up a few poetry books at the library, grab a notepad and pen, and start reading. When you find a phrase that has appeal to you as a title concept or story inspiration, jot it down (and remember to note the author and the title of the poem so you can go back to it, cite it, etc.)
Here's a list of title sparks I made while reading through The Poetry of Pablo Neruda:
- habit of dreams (Joachim's Absence)
- fallen night (We Together)
- between garrisons and maidens (Ars Poetica)
- the moon dwells (Sonata and Destruction)
- her dark star (The Night of the Soldier)
- I listen to my tiger (The Young Monarch)
- garden in the dark (Single Gentleman)
- dreaming of bandits (Sexual Water)
- the midst of rain (Autumn Returns)
- stones of silence (What Spain Was Like)
Poetry is also a great place to find story sparks; poets tend to load up their verses with devious imagery and ideas. If you're in an inspirational lull you might find a word or phrase that spontaneously jump starts your muse.
Here's a list of some story ideas I got while reading through Ranier Marie Rilke ~ Prose and Poetry:
- shadow's falling (The Book of Hours)
- signs of winter (The Fourth Elegy)
- angel gaze (The Seventh Elegy)
- Lords of the House of Lament (The Tenth Elegy)
- with early death (The Tenth Elegy)
- fall of light (The Sonnets to Orpheus, #22)
- racks no longer required (The Sonnets to Orpheus, #9)
- shade or shine (The Sonnets to Orpheus, #29)
- night without objects (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge)
- those who burned their letters (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge)
Sometimes when you mine poetry you'll get a mixed bag, especially if you read through an anthology with verses written by many different poets. Here's a mixed sparks list I put together while sifting through Poetry That Lives Forever:
- When his wings enfold (Of Love, Kahlil Gibran)
- A whiplash unbraiding (A Narrow Fellow, Emily Dickinson)
- Not yet in quiet lie (Daybreak, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
- speak silence (To the Evening Star, William Blake)
- with spiders I have friendship made (The Prisoner of Chillon, Lord Byron)
- too hot the eye of heaven (Sonnet XVIII, William Shakespeare)
- all the pleasures prove (The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Christopher Marlowe)
- at sundawn stirred (A Child's Laughter, Charles Algernon Swinburne)
- halls of pleasure . . . aisles of pain (Solitude, Ella Wheeler Wilcox)\
- the one less traveled (The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost)
Getting sparks from poetry is also a great way to break through a writing block; try looking for words and phrases that create instant imagery and resonate on some level with you. Once you have a list of ten, write out a short premise on what they brought to mind, and then choose one and write one page about it. If the idea doesn't hold your interest, go back to your list, choose another premise and repeat. Even if you don't end up with a complete story, it's great writing practice and might help you get past whatever is blocking you.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Roll With It
Most writers are familiar with haiku, a form of Japanese poetry composed in three lines of words that total seventeen syllables (five in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third.) Haiku are deceptively simple-looking; at first glance they seem like little more than small snapshot observations of nature or life. Then the underlying meaning starts to sink into your brain and spread out, often swelling into something of cosmic proportions.
I often write haiku, and while I've never aspired to create the cosmic variety I enjoy the challenge of the form. I regularly use the nature photographs I take as inspiration (all really great haiku have some allusion to nature in them.) Until my last run to the art store I've never seen anything about haiku except a few books, and then I passed a sale table and spotted this:
Haikubes are made by Forrest-Pruzan Creative, and distributed by Chronicle Books (the same publisher I've been stalking for their journals.) Basically this is a box of 63 word cubes which you roll like dice and then arrange into haiku:
Each word haikube contains five words, and whichever one lands face up is the one you can use for your poem (two of the cubes have words that offer a specific direction and theme to inspire and guide you, and the rest are your poem building blocks.) All of the word cubes also have a blank side. When the blank face came up during one of my rolls, I interpreted that as cosmic permission to use any of the five words on the cube; one could also use it to create a blank space in a line to fill in with a word of your choice.
Once you've perfected your poem and are ready to put your haikubes away you can arrange the set to display your haiku on the very top layer of the box, like so:
Poetry is a creative battery-charger for me; like journaling it's the writing I do most often for myself. Composing haiku helps me get more in tune with the world around me as well as my inner worlds, and seems to restore a balance between my perceptions and my emotions. As a storyteller I find it valuable, too. When I'm having a difficult time with a character, occasionally I'll write a haiku about them or from their POV, and that tends to shift my focus around the problem I'm having to what I need to know to solve it.
Haikubes aren't cheap -- the set lists online for $24.95 at the publisher's site. I got mine for 50% off, and now that I've tried them I'm going to make another trip to the art store to see if I can get a couple more sets for a future giveaway (I know, I should have grabbed them while I was there, but I wanted to test drive the set first.)
Meanwhile I do have another online giveaway to steer you to -- Tiger Pens Blog is giving away a Kaweco Classic Sport fountain pen in blue (the nibs on these pens are especially nice and have a beautiful flow.) They're also willing to ship internationally, so everyone has a chance. If you'd like a shot at winning, stop in and leave a comment on the giveaway post here.
I often write haiku, and while I've never aspired to create the cosmic variety I enjoy the challenge of the form. I regularly use the nature photographs I take as inspiration (all really great haiku have some allusion to nature in them.) Until my last run to the art store I've never seen anything about haiku except a few books, and then I passed a sale table and spotted this:
Haikubes are made by Forrest-Pruzan Creative, and distributed by Chronicle Books (the same publisher I've been stalking for their journals.) Basically this is a box of 63 word cubes which you roll like dice and then arrange into haiku:
Each word haikube contains five words, and whichever one lands face up is the one you can use for your poem (two of the cubes have words that offer a specific direction and theme to inspire and guide you, and the rest are your poem building blocks.) All of the word cubes also have a blank side. When the blank face came up during one of my rolls, I interpreted that as cosmic permission to use any of the five words on the cube; one could also use it to create a blank space in a line to fill in with a word of your choice.
Once you've perfected your poem and are ready to put your haikubes away you can arrange the set to display your haiku on the very top layer of the box, like so:
Poetry is a creative battery-charger for me; like journaling it's the writing I do most often for myself. Composing haiku helps me get more in tune with the world around me as well as my inner worlds, and seems to restore a balance between my perceptions and my emotions. As a storyteller I find it valuable, too. When I'm having a difficult time with a character, occasionally I'll write a haiku about them or from their POV, and that tends to shift my focus around the problem I'm having to what I need to know to solve it.
Haikubes aren't cheap -- the set lists online for $24.95 at the publisher's site. I got mine for 50% off, and now that I've tried them I'm going to make another trip to the art store to see if I can get a couple more sets for a future giveaway (I know, I should have grabbed them while I was there, but I wanted to test drive the set first.)
Meanwhile I do have another online giveaway to steer you to -- Tiger Pens Blog is giving away a Kaweco Classic Sport fountain pen in blue (the nibs on these pens are especially nice and have a beautiful flow.) They're also willing to ship internationally, so everyone has a chance. If you'd like a shot at winning, stop in and leave a comment on the giveaway post here.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Not Here
I am not here. Nope. Nor am I posting this. You are hallucinating.
Kidding. I snapped some neat photos at the lake last night, some of which inspired a poem. I posted them together over at the photoblog here. I figured all the people who get annoyed with how private I am with my poetry might enjoy seeing what often inspires it.
I am spending Valentine's Day with the ones I love, so see you on Tuesday.
Kidding. I snapped some neat photos at the lake last night, some of which inspired a poem. I posted them together over at the photoblog here. I figured all the people who get annoyed with how private I am with my poetry might enjoy seeing what often inspires it.
I am spending Valentine's Day with the ones I love, so see you on Tuesday.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Fire and Ice
In honor of National Poetry month, I thought I'd write a bit about one of my favorite poets, Robert Frost.
To be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with much of Frost's poetry. Sometimes nothing else will do, and I need Robert to remind me about the road less travelled and being acquainted with the night and other, quiet countries of the heart. Other times (usually about three a.m. on a bad night) I want to drop into the office shredder every book I have with his name on it.
Like Blake, Byron and Keats, Frost has always been both a godsend and a thorn in my side. As a teenager I wanted to love him, but he was a bit too sharp-eyed and all-seeing to allow me in. The few times I did get a foot or shoulder in the door, he smacked me down with some simple, throwaway line that should have just been lyrical and pastoral and wasn't. For me Frost is subtle but temporal; he slips into the brain like a polite guest hiding a jackhammer behind his back. Then, when you're not looking, he goes to work.
My introduction to Robert Frost was his poem Fire and Ice, which I read as a teenager and (even then) knew I was in trouble. He assured me of everything I suspected but didn't want to believe about human beings. He even tried to give me some fairly shrewd and even prophetic advice with Choose Something Like a Star, but as a youngster I was too wild and head-strong to climb that stairway to heaven. I turned my back on him and buried myself in the Romantics and the Experimenters, and every time one of his verses would come back to haunt me I'd chase it off with some Rilke or Browning or Rosetti.
Age and experience made a uncertain peace between me and Frost; I finally accepted that what I wanted to believe about people mostly belonged in fiction, not real life. He helped me get past my grandmother's death without tromping on my grief. He left me alone by those deep, dark and lovely woods on a snowy evening, but he wrapped me up before he rode on. The second time he asked of me a certain height, I still stayed on the ground, but I was better able to appreciate how much he himself must have wanted to attain that safe distance. I think now he fought for it his entire life.
Only a handful of his poems are still taught to children in school, but that's probably enough. I don't think they'd sleep too well after reading Ghost House or even Paul's Wife. I certainly didn't. As for Fire and Ice, I don't think I'll ever make peace with that particular poem. I want to believe, as my grandmother did, that faith in mankind is not misplaced, even when you're basically betting on them to be too petty and selfish to do the unthinkable.
Robert Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times, and he deserved every one of them. His poetry is very accessible, benign on the surface, and deeper than the abyss. Like explosives, handle with care.
Choose Something Like a Star
Fire and Ice
Ghost House
Paul's Wife
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Like Blake, Byron and Keats, Frost has always been both a godsend and a thorn in my side. As a teenager I wanted to love him, but he was a bit too sharp-eyed and all-seeing to allow me in. The few times I did get a foot or shoulder in the door, he smacked me down with some simple, throwaway line that should have just been lyrical and pastoral and wasn't. For me Frost is subtle but temporal; he slips into the brain like a polite guest hiding a jackhammer behind his back. Then, when you're not looking, he goes to work.
Only a handful of his poems are still taught to children in school, but that's probably enough. I don't think they'd sleep too well after reading Ghost House or even Paul's Wife. I certainly didn't. As for Fire and Ice, I don't think I'll ever make peace with that particular poem. I want to believe, as my grandmother did, that faith in mankind is not misplaced, even when you're basically betting on them to be too petty and selfish to do the unthinkable.
Robert Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times, and he deserved every one of them. His poetry is very accessible, benign on the surface, and deeper than the abyss. Like explosives, handle with care.
Choose Something Like a Star
Fire and Ice
Ghost House
Paul's Wife
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Why Then, Here's Ten
In honor of April, which among other things is National Poetry Month, here are:
Ten Things About Poetry
Bartleby.com has one of the largest collections of poetry on the internet, all searchable and all 100% free.
You can generally make some interesting accidental poetry by inputting text into the Bonsai Story Generator or Robopoem, or playing with the Automatic Poetry Generator, the Genuine Haiku Generator, Icon Poet, or The Poetry Generator.
For those of you who have poetry you'd like to sell, Duotrope.com has a search engine for poetry and fiction markets.
From WikiHow, How to Write a Poem.
Got fridge? You can have a poem on it in no time with one of the great word-magnetic sets from Magnetic Poetry (also makes a great gift for poets of any age, especially youngsters.)
Scholastic has an online Poetry Idea Engine that teaches kids about four different forms of poetry (haiku, limerick cinquain, free verse) while they have fun playing.
National Poetry month info abounds over at Poets.org*.
My favorite poem: somewhere i have never travelled by e.e. cummings
Ten Things for Poets.
Use poetry to make word clouds (and often get some compelling story title ideas) via my Wordling Poetry method.
(*link nicked from Kris Reisz)
Ten Things About Poetry
Bartleby.com has one of the largest collections of poetry on the internet, all searchable and all 100% free.
You can generally make some interesting accidental poetry by inputting text into the Bonsai Story Generator or Robopoem, or playing with the Automatic Poetry Generator, the Genuine Haiku Generator, Icon Poet, or The Poetry Generator.
For those of you who have poetry you'd like to sell, Duotrope.com has a search engine for poetry and fiction markets.
From WikiHow, How to Write a Poem.
Got fridge? You can have a poem on it in no time with one of the great word-magnetic sets from Magnetic Poetry (also makes a great gift for poets of any age, especially youngsters.)
Scholastic has an online Poetry Idea Engine that teaches kids about four different forms of poetry (haiku, limerick cinquain, free verse) while they have fun playing.
National Poetry month info abounds over at Poets.org*.
My favorite poem: somewhere i have never travelled by e.e. cummings
Ten Things for Poets.
Use poetry to make word clouds (and often get some compelling story title ideas) via my Wordling Poetry method.
(*link nicked from Kris Reisz)
Friday, January 22, 2010
Wordling Poetry
I've discovered a cool new trick to do with Wordle, my favorite online word cloud generator, that can help with titles, coined words and other phrases you might need for a story.
On Wordle's Create Page, paste in the text box a poem that you like and/or that somehow relates to your story and click go. In the cloud screen, set up the layout to be horizontal with rounder edges, and choose a non-fancy font option like the one I have below (Scheherazade.)
Here's what e.e. cummings's poem Somewhere I have never traveled looks like once I Wordle it (click on any word cloud to see larger version):
From the resulting word cloud, I can see the words of the poem aligned differently, and begin to pick out some eye-catching phrases, such as always roses (great title for a sweet romance, especially if roses are a key symbol in the story), small beyond (maybe there's something to the left of the great beyond), and voiceclose (how close is he? Voiceclose.)
If I don't see any phrases that I like in the resulting wordle, I can reshuffle all the words by clicking on layout and choosing the re-layout with the current settings option.
Here's another Wordled Poem, this time Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX:
From this one pops phrases like outcast love (nothing like a leper for a boyfriend, eh?) trouble hymns (the sort you sing when the world isn't being especially kind), and hopegate (there's a new synonym for heart.)
One more, this time using Lines on the Mermaid Tavern by John Keats:
Lots of cool word phrases in this one: deadsign (you mystery writers should be able to take that one to the bank), fineglory (perfect description for baby blond hair), mermaid gone (that sounds like a fantasy speed of some kind -- she was out of there so fast she was mermaid gone), underneath souls (what is underneath the soul, anyway?), smack Paradise (instant image of an addict flophouse), winebold (he wasn't beercrazy, he was winebold.)
I didn't use poems that were especially lengthy or overly wordy to generate these clouds; the Shakespearean sonnet is only 14 lines. If you're not a fan of poetry, of course you can also use prose, letters, word lists or anything else you prefer (any imagery-rich text will probably give you a neat wordle to work with.)
On Wordle's Create Page, paste in the text box a poem that you like and/or that somehow relates to your story and click go. In the cloud screen, set up the layout to be horizontal with rounder edges, and choose a non-fancy font option like the one I have below (Scheherazade.)
Here's what e.e. cummings's poem Somewhere I have never traveled looks like once I Wordle it (click on any word cloud to see larger version):
From the resulting word cloud, I can see the words of the poem aligned differently, and begin to pick out some eye-catching phrases, such as always roses (great title for a sweet romance, especially if roses are a key symbol in the story), small beyond (maybe there's something to the left of the great beyond), and voiceclose (how close is he? Voiceclose.)
If I don't see any phrases that I like in the resulting wordle, I can reshuffle all the words by clicking on layout and choosing the re-layout with the current settings option.
Here's another Wordled Poem, this time Shakespeare's Sonnet XXIX:
From this one pops phrases like outcast love (nothing like a leper for a boyfriend, eh?) trouble hymns (the sort you sing when the world isn't being especially kind), and hopegate (there's a new synonym for heart.)
One more, this time using Lines on the Mermaid Tavern by John Keats:
Lots of cool word phrases in this one: deadsign (you mystery writers should be able to take that one to the bank), fineglory (perfect description for baby blond hair), mermaid gone (that sounds like a fantasy speed of some kind -- she was out of there so fast she was mermaid gone), underneath souls (what is underneath the soul, anyway?), smack Paradise (instant image of an addict flophouse), winebold (he wasn't beercrazy, he was winebold.)
I didn't use poems that were especially lengthy or overly wordy to generate these clouds; the Shakespearean sonnet is only 14 lines. If you're not a fan of poetry, of course you can also use prose, letters, word lists or anything else you prefer (any imagery-rich text will probably give you a neat wordle to work with.)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Magnetic Fields
My favorite kit is contained in The Magnetic Poetry Book of Poetry, which comes with a pouch of magnetic words to stick to the metal-lined inside cover of the book, making the fridge unnecessary (over there on the left is a pic of my latest poem-in-progress.)
Aside from the fun factor, using magnetic poetry can be very helpful to and inspirational for people who for whatever reason can't write. Those attractive little words and fragments can break through enormous writing blocks, refresh a tired soul, and bring back a sense of fun to word- and world-building. I often buy kits for teenagers who have problems warming up to poetry, then sit back and watch them play. Those of us who are physically disabled also appreciate the kits; it brings back the fun of spontaneous creation (and gives my voice a rest.) Sometimes I take my book to PT and pass it around the waiting room, and the other patients all seem to instantly fall in love with it. It's the ultimate in ice-breakers.
I didn't know it until I went link-hunting tonight, but Magnetic Poetry has a massive web site with themed sets, kits, and new products for the creative players of all ages. You can try out some of the kits by playing with them online here if you'd like a preview. I did a little early Christmas shopping there tonight, and I think any of the kits make great and reasonably-priced gifts for kids, poets, writers, or anyone who owns a fridge.
Language is a Virus.com has several online author-themed versions of magnetic poetry you can play with here; my favorite (naturally) is the e.e. cummings version.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Poetic Power
Last week I spotted a new release, Writing the Life Poetic, by Sage Cohen, and the title immediately snared me. So did the cover copy, the table of contents, and the first three pages I read. I figured it would be inspirational to me personally, as my poetry of late has been squashed under the pleasures, pressures and madness of writing fiction, but not something I'd talk about here on the blog. I'm rarely willing to inflict my poet-self on my writer friends.
Fortunately Sage Cohen doesn't feel that way, and opened herself up as she extended through the book a no-strings-attached invitation to read and write poetry. The result were short chapters on all the things poets wrestle with: what to write, word and structure choices, metaphor, voice, writing rituals, art, experimentation, and anything else you can think of. She offered some amazing poems of her own and by other poets to exemplify her topic, and also included practical suggestions and interesting exercises for the reader under a Try This! banner at the end of a section.
It's not all exercises and mechanics, though. In the chapter Convenience Kills (pg. 134), Ms. Cohen discusses how our high-speed turbo-powered culture is killing creativity, which affects all of us, as evident in what Charlene wrote in her blog post that I quoted for the May Thought for the Month over there on the sidebar. In Trusting Your Instincts (pg. 208), she discusses all this writing advice that comes at us from all directions, and how we can decide whether or not to follow it. One chapter, From Dysfunction to Duende (pg. 61) explained something I've fretted over as a poet and a writer for the last thirty-four years, but could never even put a name to, much less find an explanation for. That alone blew me away.
While reading this book, I didn't get bogged down in a lot of pretty theory and lofty notion that so often is associated with composing verse. One goal Sage Cohen mentions in the book is the hope of taking poetry down off the academic pedestal and putting it back in the hands of the people. I thought this was accomplished, and rather brilliantly. It's also very non-partisan in how it addresses the creative life. I didn't have to lock up my fiction self in a cage while absorbing the information and ideas. There was as much in it for me the novelist as there was for the poet.
I've always felt writing poetry makes me a better fiction writer, but this is the first time I've found a how-to book that speaks to both sides of my writing life. And if I never wrote another poem for the rest of my life, I'd still consult with this book. In many ways it's not so much about what you write, but the life in which you write.
As always, you don't have to take my word for it. In comments to this post, name one of your favorite poems or poets (or if you're poetry-deprived, just toss your name in the hat) by midnight EST on Friday, May 15, 2009. I'll draw three names at random from everyone who participates and send the winners an unsigned copy of Writing the Life Poetic by Sage Cohen. This giveaway is open to everyone on the planet, even if you've won something here at PBW in the past.
Monday, April 06, 2009
William's Ten
Ten Things I Learned From Shakespeare About Being a Writer
He jests at scars that never felt a wound. (Romeo and Juliet.)
I scorn to change my state with kings. (Sonnet XXIX)
If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not. (Macbeth)
Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight. (Othello)
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en. (The Taming of the Shrew)
Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is. (Romeo and Juliet)
To hold, as ’t were, the mirror up to nature. (Hamlet)
We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. (Julius Caesar)
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, haply I think on thee. (Sonnet XXIX)
He jests at scars that never felt a wound. (Romeo and Juliet.)
I scorn to change my state with kings. (Sonnet XXIX)
If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not. (Macbeth)
Kill me tomorrow, let me live tonight. (Othello)
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en. (The Taming of the Shrew)
Not mad, but bound more than a mad-man is. (Romeo and Juliet)
To hold, as ’t were, the mirror up to nature. (Hamlet)
We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. (Julius Caesar)
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, haply I think on thee. (Sonnet XXIX)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Chloroform + Arsenic + Hydroxide = Love
My daughter, Ms. Fourteen Going On Forty, is turning out to be the other writer in the family. Lord knows I've tried everything to put a stop to it -- hiding pens and paper, snatching books out of her hands, forcing her to watch television -- but she won't quit, not even when I tell her the really scary publishing stories. Damn my DNA.
Unless she's trying to persuade me to let her have something, Kat keeps her writing private most of the time. Which I understand and respect; I had no privacy when I was her age, and had to keep my writing pads at school or write things in Spanish to keep my sisters and mother from snooping around in them (last year Kat started writing her journals in her own code -- rune symbols -- to keep her brother from reading them, which frankly made me a little teary-eyed.)
When my daughter does decide to share something with me, it's usually one of her humor pieces, like this poem she wrote while waiting for me to pick her up from school:
Phish Fly Backwardsee
by Kat
Oh, the stars on the earth,
The grass in the sky.
The wishing hole dies,
When the painting flies.
Trees with no branches,
Fish with no scales,
Nickel made of copper,
To the hobo the king hails.
Clockwork it is,
When water flows uphill,
When it rains lava droplets,
When the pickles aren't dill. (Oh no!)
The paper is made of bricks,
The clothes are made of wood,
Pulpy orange juice.
Ohmigawsh the giraffe is nude!
Birds swim in volcanoes,
Trees grow out of clouds.
Buildings built on the sun,
Mice are very loud(s)!!
All the world is nwodedispu
Even you and me
Chloroform + Arsenic + Hydroxide = Love
All I have left to say is...Phish fly backwards... ee!
She read this to me on the way home, and that second to last line made me laugh so hard I almost crashed the car. Anesthetic plus poison plus water equals love? I think the kid just figured out the chemical formula for all the mysteries of the heart.
If your child or a young family member does show interest in writing, it can be tempting to jump right on that and offer advice, critique their work and otherwise try to get involved. It can be helpful if your young one asks for it; my older brother gave me some writing advice when I was Kat's age (he had written a novel satire on Dante's Inferno.) But: I asked for the advice and voluntarily showed him my work. In return he was gentle with me and didn't pick it apart or rip it to pieces but offered constructive advice that didn't feed my doubts but built on what I was doing and was capable of doing.
Providing children with the means to write, such as giving them blank books, plenty of supplies, or access to a computer with a decent word processing program and printer is probably the most helpful thing you can do. The second is giving them the time and space they need for their writing. Letting them know you're there if they need some advice is great, shoving unsolicited advice at them is not.
It's also important to respect young writers as much as you'd respect a writer your age. Before I post anything Kat has written on the blog, I ask her permission. When she says no, I don't post it. It's also not a good idea to pass your child's writing around the family as an object of admiration without first getting their permission. If you can't understand why, imagine your spouse or partner doing that to you without asking, and you'll instantly understand how young writers feel.
You can invite your young writer into your writing space to show them how you do things, and if age-appropriate, you can also give your work to your young writer and ask them to critique it. Teaching them by example and by offering involvement in your process can give them new ideas on what to do with their own work.
Finally, if you don't have a young writer in the family, consider giving talks about creative writing at local public schools. Most children never have the opportunity to meet a real working writer in a classroom setting, and most schools have little to no curriculum that serves the needs of young writer. Any encouragement and insight you can offer may help some of those kids along the writing path, and that's the sort of investment in the future of Publishing that we all need to make on a regular basis.
Unless she's trying to persuade me to let her have something, Kat keeps her writing private most of the time. Which I understand and respect; I had no privacy when I was her age, and had to keep my writing pads at school or write things in Spanish to keep my sisters and mother from snooping around in them (last year Kat started writing her journals in her own code -- rune symbols -- to keep her brother from reading them, which frankly made me a little teary-eyed.)
When my daughter does decide to share something with me, it's usually one of her humor pieces, like this poem she wrote while waiting for me to pick her up from school:
Phish Fly Backwardsee
by Kat
Oh, the stars on the earth,
The grass in the sky.
The wishing hole dies,
When the painting flies.
Trees with no branches,
Fish with no scales,
Nickel made of copper,
To the hobo the king hails.
Clockwork it is,
When water flows uphill,
When it rains lava droplets,
When the pickles aren't dill. (Oh no!)
The paper is made of bricks,
The clothes are made of wood,
Pulpy orange juice.
Ohmigawsh the giraffe is nude!
Birds swim in volcanoes,
Trees grow out of clouds.
Buildings built on the sun,
Mice are very loud(s)!!
All the world is nwodedispu
Even you and me
Chloroform + Arsenic + Hydroxide = Love
All I have left to say is...Phish fly backwards... ee!
She read this to me on the way home, and that second to last line made me laugh so hard I almost crashed the car. Anesthetic plus poison plus water equals love? I think the kid just figured out the chemical formula for all the mysteries of the heart.
If your child or a young family member does show interest in writing, it can be tempting to jump right on that and offer advice, critique their work and otherwise try to get involved. It can be helpful if your young one asks for it; my older brother gave me some writing advice when I was Kat's age (he had written a novel satire on Dante's Inferno.) But: I asked for the advice and voluntarily showed him my work. In return he was gentle with me and didn't pick it apart or rip it to pieces but offered constructive advice that didn't feed my doubts but built on what I was doing and was capable of doing.
Providing children with the means to write, such as giving them blank books, plenty of supplies, or access to a computer with a decent word processing program and printer is probably the most helpful thing you can do. The second is giving them the time and space they need for their writing. Letting them know you're there if they need some advice is great, shoving unsolicited advice at them is not.
It's also important to respect young writers as much as you'd respect a writer your age. Before I post anything Kat has written on the blog, I ask her permission. When she says no, I don't post it. It's also not a good idea to pass your child's writing around the family as an object of admiration without first getting their permission. If you can't understand why, imagine your spouse or partner doing that to you without asking, and you'll instantly understand how young writers feel.
You can invite your young writer into your writing space to show them how you do things, and if age-appropriate, you can also give your work to your young writer and ask them to critique it. Teaching them by example and by offering involvement in your process can give them new ideas on what to do with their own work.
Finally, if you don't have a young writer in the family, consider giving talks about creative writing at local public schools. Most children never have the opportunity to meet a real working writer in a classroom setting, and most schools have little to no curriculum that serves the needs of young writer. Any encouragement and insight you can offer may help some of those kids along the writing path, and that's the sort of investment in the future of Publishing that we all need to make on a regular basis.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
From the Trades
Grassroots Publishing Co. Inc. is seeking 3-5K short stories that are "contemporary, historic, inspirational, paranormal, or any other theme as long as love and romance are the main thrust of the story", pays $300.00 flat rate for "first global publishing rights and electronic and internet rights in all languages as well as future anthology rights", electronic and snail mail subs okay, see guidelines for more details here (spotted in the November print issue of The Writer.)
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco Anna Davidson Rosenberg Awards for Poems on the Jewish Experience offers $3,000 in prize money annually to a first-place, second-place and honorable mention. Submit four copies of up to 3 poems, no more than 10 pages in length by December 1st. No entry fee. See specific guidelines and read last year's winning poems here. (found in the Nove/Dec print issue of Poets & Writers)
I also enjoyed reading the Q&A with Algonquin editor Chuck Adams in the Nov/Dec print edition of Poets & Writers; it shows how a great interview piece can liven up an otherwise yawner of an issue. There's an online expanded version of it you can read here, but be warned, he's pretty merciless on just about every topic.
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco Anna Davidson Rosenberg Awards for Poems on the Jewish Experience offers $3,000 in prize money annually to a first-place, second-place and honorable mention. Submit four copies of up to 3 poems, no more than 10 pages in length by December 1st. No entry fee. See specific guidelines and read last year's winning poems here. (found in the Nove/Dec print issue of Poets & Writers)
I also enjoyed reading the Q&A with Algonquin editor Chuck Adams in the Nov/Dec print edition of Poets & Writers; it shows how a great interview piece can liven up an otherwise yawner of an issue. There's an online expanded version of it you can read here, but be warned, he's pretty merciless on just about every topic.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
The Lust is Over
Because I know you all need another addictive time waster, one I found in a roundabout way via The Generator Blog: Language is a Virus.com's Automatic Poetry Generator, which produced this masterpiece for me to ponder:
We are happy against the ground
All sinning within the mist
You breathe wanting delusions under the sky
God! The lust is over
Strangely damp above the sky
I taste arid tomb stones among the land
Word! The life is hard
We are happy against the ground
You bend red bones on the virgin
Awaken! The vision keeps going
unafraid fighting back
never meeting
the next life waiting
At how many harbours
my father
look for landmarks
and find road-signs.
If you scroll down to the bottom, you'll find links to other interesting writing gizmos on the site, like the Magnetic Poetry Kits you can play with online (the ee cummings one is neat) and the Text Collage Generator (which seemed to be collaging only four emotions -- happy, depressed, angry and calm -- while I fiddled with it.)
All I want to know is, if the lust is over, then why are we happy against the ground? Is it covered in M&Ms?
We are happy against the ground
All sinning within the mist
You breathe wanting delusions under the sky
God! The lust is over
Strangely damp above the sky
I taste arid tomb stones among the land
Word! The life is hard
We are happy against the ground
You bend red bones on the virgin
Awaken! The vision keeps going
unafraid fighting back
never meeting
the next life waiting
At how many harbours
my father
look for landmarks
and find road-signs.
If you scroll down to the bottom, you'll find links to other interesting writing gizmos on the site, like the Magnetic Poetry Kits you can play with online (the ee cummings one is neat) and the Text Collage Generator (which seemed to be collaging only four emotions -- happy, depressed, angry and calm -- while I fiddled with it.)
All I want to know is, if the lust is over, then why are we happy against the ground? Is it covered in M&Ms?
Monday, April 30, 2007
With Pen, Write Ten
Ten Things for the Poets
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
1. The Bonsai Story Generator, one of my favorite online tools to twist prose into (something like) verse, has moved; here's the new link. Also good for generating phrases out of your prose that you can use as titles.
2. The University of Toronto has an excellent online Glossary of Poetic Terms.
3. Forget the blank verse and try Bryan H. McGill's McGill English Dictionary of Rhyme freeware.
4. Inspiration from a master: Poet Pablo Neruda's brilliant and beautiful 1971 Nobel Lecture, Towards the Splendid City (also available in audio and in Spanish text.)
5. Poetry.com has an online rhyming dictionary and thesaurus you can use to find rhymes, synonyms, homophones, similar sounding words and more. Sadly, they still have not come up with an online "how to keep your villanelle from sucking" option, but I live in hope.
6. Looking to sell some poetry? Try perusing the paying listings over at WritersWrite.com's Poetry Market Page. Income-seekers, also see #7.
7. One very valuable online resource for poets is Poets & Writers Magazine's Grants & Awards deadline page. The mag keeps a running listing of the competitions for grants and contest awards whose deadlines are ending soon. They also only list competitions that will benefit a writer's career and only those (with a few exceptions for prizes of stature) that offer $1,000 or more, so no scams or pay-for antho publishers make it onto here.
8. Writing poetry helps improve your prose -- Lisa Janice Cohen will tell you how in her article, Punch Up Your Prose with Poetry (LJ, your article was the first thing that came up when I did a search on this topic; very cool to see you there.)
9. BrainMeta.com's rhyming poem generator produces some very (cough) literary-sounding verse. Stuff like "moaning structure insistently defecates" and "wailing mystic lethargically cannibalises aggregate" -- plus it all rhymes. Amaze your mom and impress your friends! (I got dibs on that moaning structure line, though.)
10. If your muse needs a kick in the pants, the Poetry Resource page has a nice collection of poetry writing exercises here.
Finally, one for the e-book readers out there -- while putting together this list, I came across a freeware designed to catalog e-book collections -- My EBook Library (for Windows XP.) I'll try this one myself when I get caught up and see if it can do something with my rather messy e-library.
Freeware caution: always scan free downloads of anything for bugs and other threats before dumping the programs into your hard drive.
1. The Bonsai Story Generator, one of my favorite online tools to twist prose into (something like) verse, has moved; here's the new link. Also good for generating phrases out of your prose that you can use as titles.
2. The University of Toronto has an excellent online Glossary of Poetic Terms.
3. Forget the blank verse and try Bryan H. McGill's McGill English Dictionary of Rhyme freeware.
4. Inspiration from a master: Poet Pablo Neruda's brilliant and beautiful 1971 Nobel Lecture, Towards the Splendid City (also available in audio and in Spanish text.)
5. Poetry.com has an online rhyming dictionary and thesaurus you can use to find rhymes, synonyms, homophones, similar sounding words and more. Sadly, they still have not come up with an online "how to keep your villanelle from sucking" option, but I live in hope.
6. Looking to sell some poetry? Try perusing the paying listings over at WritersWrite.com's Poetry Market Page. Income-seekers, also see #7.
7. One very valuable online resource for poets is Poets & Writers Magazine's Grants & Awards deadline page. The mag keeps a running listing of the competitions for grants and contest awards whose deadlines are ending soon. They also only list competitions that will benefit a writer's career and only those (with a few exceptions for prizes of stature) that offer $1,000 or more, so no scams or pay-for antho publishers make it onto here.
8. Writing poetry helps improve your prose -- Lisa Janice Cohen will tell you how in her article, Punch Up Your Prose with Poetry (LJ, your article was the first thing that came up when I did a search on this topic; very cool to see you there.)
9. BrainMeta.com's rhyming poem generator produces some very (cough) literary-sounding verse. Stuff like "moaning structure insistently defecates" and "wailing mystic lethargically cannibalises aggregate" -- plus it all rhymes. Amaze your mom and impress your friends! (I got dibs on that moaning structure line, though.)
10. If your muse needs a kick in the pants, the Poetry Resource page has a nice collection of poetry writing exercises here.
Finally, one for the e-book readers out there -- while putting together this list, I came across a freeware designed to catalog e-book collections -- My EBook Library (for Windows XP.) I'll try this one myself when I get caught up and see if it can do something with my rather messy e-library.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine's Day
One day in the desert a bedouin
looked up and saw a mirage shimmering
ahead. Not water, but the splendor
of a dazzling girl.
In the thirsty, burning desert
among dry thorns, under a shadowless sun
he tried to reach her but instead
of that marvelous love he found death.
In his immaterial, immortal sleep
he still saw the splendor of that girl shimmering ahead, an eternal mirage.
And in his endless dream he began to walk looking for her.
--The Mirage, Avetik Isahakian (1904)
looked up and saw a mirage shimmering
ahead. Not water, but the splendor
of a dazzling girl.
In the thirsty, burning desert
among dry thorns, under a shadowless sun
he tried to reach her but instead
of that marvelous love he found death.
In his immaterial, immortal sleep
he still saw the splendor of that girl shimmering ahead, an eternal mirage.
And in his endless dream he began to walk looking for her.
--The Mirage, Avetik Isahakian (1904)
Friday, February 02, 2007
Friday 20
In an introduction to a collection of poems I've been reading by Robert Browning, Horace Gregory complained of the poet's "heartiness", in that it "conceals the cold heart, the inarticulate loneliness -- the wish to be Oh, so friendly -- so homespun, so eager to call everyone by the first name -- and beneath it, a deadly chill." He also compared Browning's strength of personality to a will that would not give in, a wholesale insensibility to poetic art, and (shudder) the act of shaking hands with an American.
Robert, you bad man.
Horace Gregory continues to slam Browning through his intro for another ten pages before he finally shuts up and Browning's work begins. Gregory's venting is pretty mild stuff (circa 1956) compared to what's written about authors these days, but it's obvious that Gregory considered himself way above Browning.
I can't say I agree. Robert Browning was an interesting 19th century poet who wrote some kickass verse. One of them, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, inspired Stephen King's Dark Tower books. Browning is remembered more for being married to Elizabeth Barrett, as well as being the subject of many of her love poems. Of particular note, #43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese, which starts off with one of the most famous lines of poetry in history: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I know there's more, that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
20th century intro-writer Horace Gregory, on the other hand, I'd have to look up. Never heard of the dude.
Someday we will all be gone. I know that when I buy the farm, I'm leaving behind a body of work that can speak for me. Whether it will or not is up to the readers of the future. Chances are very slim that mine will; only a few books have that marvelous ability to carry their authors's voices for decades or centuries. The cool thing is that writing always levels the field; everyone has the same shot at becoming a Browning.
That's all the writer philosophy I'll inflict on you for this week. Any questions out there for me?
Storm update: A band of storms and tornadoes that came through our area during the middle of the night knocked out our power here, but we're fine, and so are our families. Please keep the victims of the storms in your thoughts and prayers; one of the major retirement areas was hit pretty hard. I'll check in and answer questions today when possible.
Robert, you bad man.
Horace Gregory continues to slam Browning through his intro for another ten pages before he finally shuts up and Browning's work begins. Gregory's venting is pretty mild stuff (circa 1956) compared to what's written about authors these days, but it's obvious that Gregory considered himself way above Browning.
I can't say I agree. Robert Browning was an interesting 19th century poet who wrote some kickass verse. One of them, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, inspired Stephen King's Dark Tower books. Browning is remembered more for being married to Elizabeth Barrett, as well as being the subject of many of her love poems. Of particular note, #43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese, which starts off with one of the most famous lines of poetry in history: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I know there's more, that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
20th century intro-writer Horace Gregory, on the other hand, I'd have to look up. Never heard of the dude.
Someday we will all be gone. I know that when I buy the farm, I'm leaving behind a body of work that can speak for me. Whether it will or not is up to the readers of the future. Chances are very slim that mine will; only a few books have that marvelous ability to carry their authors's voices for decades or centuries. The cool thing is that writing always levels the field; everyone has the same shot at becoming a Browning.
That's all the writer philosophy I'll inflict on you for this week. Any questions out there for me?
Storm update: A band of storms and tornadoes that came through our area during the middle of the night knocked out our power here, but we're fine, and so are our families. Please keep the victims of the storms in your thoughts and prayers; one of the major retirement areas was hit pretty hard. I'll check in and answer questions today when possible.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Working Titles
Personal Quirk #99,957: I can't begin a story unless I have some sort of title. No title, no writing. I don't know why. Probably the same English-teacher-induced trauma that rendered me physically incapable of placing a tabbed divider in a notebook until after I fill in the section header on that little slip of paper and shove it in the empty plastic tab.
By the way, kids, if you turn in your English class notebook with Dead Bores on the tab for the literature section, your teacher's not going to think it's funny. Trust me on this.
Decent titles take a while to cook up, so I generally use place-holder or working titles until I read a couple tons of poetry, hit the Library of Congress Online Catalog a few million times to see if any of my title ideas have been done before, and settle on the one I want. It doesn't have to be the title, just a title.
Titles ultimately have to be marketable, so a writer can't get attached to any title until it's in print. I've had pretty good luck with mine, and still about half never make it past the publisher's chopping block. This is why StarDoc book #3 is titled Endurance instead of Skin Games. The original title was my personal metaphor for novel's slavery elements, especially the endless branding Cherijo endured; the editor felt it sounded pornographic (Which illustrates how differently people can interpret the same title.)
Other titles of mine that never made it to the cover:
1. ClanSon sounded too Zane Greyish to my editor, who renamed the book Plague of Memory. I was very happy with this, as her title was better, more interesting, and more clear in meaning than mine.
2. After two years of believing that my publisher was okay with the title Darkness Has No Need (no one raised any objections to it) I was abruptly informed that it was too long a title. I'd already invested a great deal of my series budget in promoting the book by that title, so I fought hard to keep it, but lost that battle. None of the replacement titles suggested by the publisher worked with what I was doing with the series titles, but I compromised again and went with the least jarring, and the book became Dark Need. It cost me, though. Most of the promo for that book was instantly rendered useless, and I had to pay additional fees to retitle what could be saved. But I should have gotten a solid title committment from the publisher in the first place, which I didn't. It was a good (if frustrating) lesson for me. In publishing, never assume silence = consent.
3. My very unromantic title No Stone Unturned apparently committed the additional sin of not being pretty enough for a first romance, which is why that editor changed it to Paradise Island. I then had to change the name of the island setting in the book, because it wasn't called Paradise.
Final titles are a pain in the posterior, but I'm not picky about how I get a working title. I've used online title generators, chemical formulas (H2SO4), fragments of poetry (Do Not Go Gentle) and common brand names (Chips Ahoy!) If I can't think of anything off the top of my head, I'll use my favorite stock working title A Dark and Stormy Night (this also reminds me not to open the book with a damn weather report.)
You can use working titles as nudges, too. One of my current WIPs is working-titled 1918, not because it's set in that year, but to remind me of the year that initiated what will become my protagonist's primary conflict ninety years later in 2008. I also use working titles with version numbers so I can see in a glance how many times I've revised it, i.e. Butterfinger v.4.0
Do any of you writers out there use working titles, or have any special mojo that helps you create a solid title? Readers, does a book's title play any part in whether or not you purchase it? Let us know in comments.
By the way, kids, if you turn in your English class notebook with Dead Bores on the tab for the literature section, your teacher's not going to think it's funny. Trust me on this.
Decent titles take a while to cook up, so I generally use place-holder or working titles until I read a couple tons of poetry, hit the Library of Congress Online Catalog a few million times to see if any of my title ideas have been done before, and settle on the one I want. It doesn't have to be the title, just a title.
Titles ultimately have to be marketable, so a writer can't get attached to any title until it's in print. I've had pretty good luck with mine, and still about half never make it past the publisher's chopping block. This is why StarDoc book #3 is titled Endurance instead of Skin Games. The original title was my personal metaphor for novel's slavery elements, especially the endless branding Cherijo endured; the editor felt it sounded pornographic (Which illustrates how differently people can interpret the same title.)
Other titles of mine that never made it to the cover:
1. ClanSon sounded too Zane Greyish to my editor, who renamed the book Plague of Memory. I was very happy with this, as her title was better, more interesting, and more clear in meaning than mine.
2. After two years of believing that my publisher was okay with the title Darkness Has No Need (no one raised any objections to it) I was abruptly informed that it was too long a title. I'd already invested a great deal of my series budget in promoting the book by that title, so I fought hard to keep it, but lost that battle. None of the replacement titles suggested by the publisher worked with what I was doing with the series titles, but I compromised again and went with the least jarring, and the book became Dark Need. It cost me, though. Most of the promo for that book was instantly rendered useless, and I had to pay additional fees to retitle what could be saved. But I should have gotten a solid title committment from the publisher in the first place, which I didn't. It was a good (if frustrating) lesson for me. In publishing, never assume silence = consent.
3. My very unromantic title No Stone Unturned apparently committed the additional sin of not being pretty enough for a first romance, which is why that editor changed it to Paradise Island. I then had to change the name of the island setting in the book, because it wasn't called Paradise.
Final titles are a pain in the posterior, but I'm not picky about how I get a working title. I've used online title generators, chemical formulas (H2SO4), fragments of poetry (Do Not Go Gentle) and common brand names (Chips Ahoy!) If I can't think of anything off the top of my head, I'll use my favorite stock working title A Dark and Stormy Night (this also reminds me not to open the book with a damn weather report.)
You can use working titles as nudges, too. One of my current WIPs is working-titled 1918, not because it's set in that year, but to remind me of the year that initiated what will become my protagonist's primary conflict ninety years later in 2008. I also use working titles with version numbers so I can see in a glance how many times I've revised it, i.e. Butterfinger v.4.0
Do any of you writers out there use working titles, or have any special mojo that helps you create a solid title? Readers, does a book's title play any part in whether or not you purchase it? Let us know in comments.
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