Spend an entire day (or if you’re brave, an entire week) writing in a style or genre outside of your usual. Try romance if you write literary fiction. Try writing only sonnets if you’re normally a free-verse poet. See what develops when you’re in unfamiliar territory.
Tag: spring
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Weekly Writing Prompt: Random Number Poem
Get a random number generator. Random.org is a good one, and they also have a great app for your mobile device.
First, decide what you want your first pass with the generator to determine:
- The number of total syllables in your poem OR…
- The number of total lines in your poem
If you went with option 1, set your range between 5 and 500. If you went with option 2, set your range between 1 and 50. (You can go higher if you like writing long poems.) Generate a number. You now have the required total required number of syllables or lines for your poem, depending which option you chose.
Continue using the random number generator as you write. If you went with option 1, use the random number generator for each new line. Use it to determine the number of syllables for the new line, adding lines until you reach the number of total syllables.
If you went with option 2, use the generator to determine the number of words per line, writing until you reach the maximum number of require lines.
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Remix, Repeat, Reply: Playing with the Villanelle
If you hang around me long enough, you’ll find out that I’m obsessed with villanelles. They’re my favorite poetic form. For this year’s creative challenge, I have two goals. First, I want to immerse myself in the villanelle. While I won’t write exclusively in form, I will spend the year reading, studying, and practicing. I love this form, so why not give it my full attention?
My other goal is to teach more workshops. I love teaching. I’ve taught workshops here and there, but this year, I want to make them a commitment the way I made giving readings a commitment. Given that preparing a workshop requires more effort than a reading (at least in my opinion), I’m not going to shoot for one a month. Instead, I’m going to go for 10 between now and March 31st, 2016.
Where is all this leading? To announce that I’ll be re-running the villanelle workshop I taught at the Flor de Nopal Literary Festival last year!
Workshop Description: Many poets are intimidated by the prospect of writing formal poetry. The villanelle, with the constraint of repeated lines, can seem especially daunting. This workshop will explore different ways of creating villanelles, including using found lines, to push the boundaries of constrains and make the form a fun exploration of sound and rhythm.
When: April 25th, 2015 from
3-54:00-6:00 p.m. (note the time change) at my home in East Austin (address provided after registration is finalized) OR April 26th from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. online (via Google Hangout)Cost: $25 for the Austin workshop; $15 for the online workshop
Want to sign up? Fill out the registration form here. Payment can be sent via Paypal to literaryaustin@gmail.com, or contact me at that address to make other arrangements.
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A Year in Readings
Being bawdy at Austin Writers Roulette in February 2015 At last year’s Poetry at Round Top festival, which was also the weekend of my 30th birthday, I gave myself a challenge: to do at least one reading a month before I turned 31. I was going to read in public at least once a month, either at an open mic or as a feature. It didn’t matter if it was one poem or several. I was just going to get up and get out there. That meant 12 performances of one kind or another in my 30th year.
At the Georgetown Poetry Festival As it turns out, doing one reading every single month was quite challenging, and some months I didn’t read at all… But I not only met my goal, I surpassed it! In November, for example, I was too busy training for my black belt test to schedule anything. And while there are poetry readings and open mics just about every week in Austin, some months, I couldn’t get anything that meshed with my work schedule. But there were other months full of abundance. December was particularly active; I read four times!
I ended up reading 16 times. 13 of those times were in Austin, one was in Georgetown, one was in Fort Worth, and one in Waco. This year my schedule was just too heavy for me to get to San Antonio or Houston again. I can’t believe I haven’t read in either of those cities in over a year!
Now that this challenge has been met, I plan to keep it up. Reading 12 times in a year was tough at times, but overall doable. Now I’m just trying to figure out what the literary challenge will be for Year 31!
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Weekly Writing Prompt: The Nagging Villanelle
Think of a phrase you hate to hear. Maybe it’s something your parents said over and over to you about doing your homework or cleaning your room or not going out dressed a certain way. Maybe it’s something a spouse or significant other says (or used to say). Maybe it’s something your toddler is constantly repeating and you just don’t know why.
Make this phrase one of the refrains of a villanelle. (It can be either the first or the second.) Try to find some catharsis from this poem. Or maybe you can shed some humor on the situation. Either way, enjoy!
For more information about writing a villanelle, check out the description from the Academy of American Poets.
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Weekly Writing Prompt: Alive!
Image credit: Allie Brosch, Hyperbole and a Half On this date five years ago, I was riding my Linhai scooter down a major Austin street, and was hit head-on by someone making an illegal left turn. I had a major concussion, needed stitches in my lip, and had to have my front two teeth replaced. Had I not been wearing a helmet, I would be dead. I always commemorate March 15th as a turning point in my life, and take this day to be grateful that I am still here writing poetry.
Today, write about a near-death experience. Even if you haven’t had one, make one up. Stretch the truth, warp the details. Maybe a paper cut developed gangrene. The subject doesn’t have to be you, either. It could be a loved one or a fictional character.
After you write your experience, go further, writing about the sense of gratitude that you or your character has. Even if you’ve had to struggle since then, what are you happy about? What insight has this experience yielded for you or your subject.
Bonus challenge: write this as a Petrarchan sonnet, with the octave being the near-death experience and the sestet the place where you cultivate gratitude.
(PS – There’s one day left to register for Poetry March Madness! In celebration of being alive, anyone who signs up today will get in for 50% off. It’s just $10 if you register today!)
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Weekly Writing Prompt: Visual Round
I took a photo of this at the Hope Outdoor Garden in Austin, Texas, December 2014.
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Weekly Writing Prompt: Have Some Lines
I have a file on my computer where I put lines I loved from poems that otherwise didn’t work and got discarded. I like to peruse this list of lines sometimes, to see if they generate fresh ideas. This week, I thought I’d take a stanza from a poem I got rid of, and offer it up to you. Steal it, modify it, do whatever you want. It’s yours!
I’m not sure if there arereally this many stars outhere, or if it’s justthe double vision from the beer. -
Big Poetry Giveaway 2012!
It’s time for National Poetry Month, and to celebrate, I’m participating in the 3rd Annual Big Poetry Giveaway!
For any new visitors the giveaway has brought to this blog, welcome! Allow me to introduce myself (readers who know me might want to skip down a few lines): I’m an Ohio native now making my home in Austin, Texas. I adore my adopted state (well, not the politics of it…), and constantly drawn on the landscape as fodder for my poetry. Although I have been writing since I was twelve, I only became truly serious about poetry in 2009. Since then, my poems have appeared in a variety of places (click here for the full list), and I now have a chapbook manuscript out for submission. In addition to poetry and a day job, I love to dance, and compete in west coast swing. Finally, I have an obsession with avocados.
I’ve been reading Kelli Russell Agodon’s blog for years, which is how I came to learn about the Big Poetry Giveaway. The other writers who inspire me are Drew Myron (a recent addition to my blogroll, but nonetheless important to me), Christine Hennessey (she’s been on my blog radar the longest — since 2006, I think), Shanna Germain, Chuck Wendig, and Bon Steele.
Although I don’t have a book of my own to give away this year (here’s hoping for 2013!), I’m offering up two excellent collections.
First up is Susan Wheeler‘s Ledger. Structured around the concept of finance, Wheeler’s text is no dull accounting textbook. It draws on history and art in its discussions of money and consumerism, spanning hilarity and sorrow. And it’s also the kind of collection that doesn’t feel constrained by theme. It’s not rigidly tied to it; none of the poems here feels forced.It has a concept, but is free to move around as necessary.
I’m also giving away Allison Benis White‘s Self-Portrait with Crayon. This book uses Degas paintings as a frame for the theme of loss that runs through these pieces. It’s a collection of prose poems rather than verse, and I have a particular fondness for this form, which is another reason I chose it.
The drawing is open to anyone, anywhere, and will run through the entire month of April. If you’d like to enter, please leave a comment here with your name and email address before 11:59 p.m. on April 30th. I’ll randomly select two winners on May 1st. Good luck!
