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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

The Poetry Thread: May the Verse be with you.

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction and Writing Resource' started by Darth_Villanelle, Jul 19, 2007.

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  1. Persephone_Kore

    Persephone_Kore Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2006
    I'm still around. (Posting out of sock at the moment, though.) I started working on the index a while ago, ran into a large batch with characterization choices I just couldn't stomach in large doses, and haven't quite worked myself up to resuming when I had time. I think I'll start somewhere different when I do, though.

    Brodiew, thanks for proposing a challenge!

    So... we started this thread partly because of some of the pre-Awards discussion this past summer. There was a proposal to merge the poetry and songfic categories into one for "lyrical pieces," which I found more than a little strange. Sure, they're both relatively small, but not inordinately so compared to several other categories -- and I'm still kind of baffled by the idea that they're particularly similar.

    It seems to me that there's a qualitative difference between writing a story around quotes from someone else's song lyrics, and writing a poem. It's kind of like the difference between writing a story around quotes from the second-person sections of Stover's RotS novelization and writing a fic in second person. It might be like the difference between writing canon characters vs. OCs, but I'm not sure the comparison is quite as direct.
     
  2. MsLanna

    MsLanna Jedi Master star 6

    Registered:
    Jul 8, 2005
    I would like some style challenges one day. SW poetry in the form of a classic sonnet.[face_hypnotized] or English common metre, or one of those impossible greek epic style thingies.

    I think if we post the answers to the cahllenges in this thread we should look out that it's not just poem, poem, poem, poem, but still some discussion.
    Maybe posting all answers in on thread on the proper board could be an alternative?
     
  3. Persephone_Kore

    Persephone_Kore Jedi Master star 4

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    Jan 19, 2006
    I definitely want to do some challenges for more specific styles -- though a villanelle might be a little much, I don't know. ;) I was thinking challenge responses would go in the authors' own threads as a rule, though, honestly -- but then, I admit I haven't spent much time in threads where it was customary to post challenge responses in a single thread.
     
  4. MsLanna

    MsLanna Jedi Master star 6

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    Jul 8, 2005
    I just thought that the possibility that they are all read might be bigger in one thread, it would get to be 'up' more with all of us posting and commenting. [face_mischief]

    If you want to try, I just opened one here. [face_blush]

    I can make any changes deemed necessary, just tell me.
     
  5. Idrelle_Miocovani

    Idrelle_Miocovani Jedi Grand Master star 6

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    Feb 5, 2005
    I'd love to try to write a Star Wars sonnet at some point... but I'm terrible at poetry. It takes me a very long time to write a poem in free verse, let alone something that has such a specific form, like a sonnet.

    I'm thinking of trying this first challenge some time this weekend. I hope the verse is with me. :p
     
  6. brodiew

    brodiew Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 11, 2005
    I say we stay general, at first, to allow folks to get their poetic minds working.
    More specific challenges would a cool thing a little later.
     
  7. MsLanna

    MsLanna Jedi Master star 6

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    Jul 8, 2005
    And I always believed the sonnet to be the most easy poetry from around. :eek: You get a metre, a rhyme scheme and a tpoic. The rest ist just juggling words.

    Free verse is the most difficult poetry ever, Idrelle. If you are not careful, you end up with prose that has just been written in a weird way. I love to write free verse, but most of it is just not good.[face_blush]
     
  8. brodiew

    brodiew Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 11, 2005
    Most of the poems I've posted here are more rhyme based, but I have a couple of free verse as well. My poems are few and far between. some of the first ones just came out, but the most recent I had to work at it. The result was good, but it was a little more difficult.

    The irony is that two of my best poems are about characters that I'm not that fond of. Imagine. ;-)

    Edit: My goof in Saga thread, Lanna. Sorry.
     
  9. Idrelle_Miocovani

    Idrelle_Miocovani Jedi Grand Master star 6

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    Feb 5, 2005
    And I always believed the sonnet to be the most easy poetry from around. shock You get a metre, a rhyme scheme and a tpoic. The rest ist just juggling words.

    That's what makes them hard. Metre, rhyme schemes -- the restrictions make me go crazy! 8-}

    Free verse is the most difficult poetry ever, Idrelle. If you are not careful, you end up with prose that has just been written in a weird way. I love to write free verse, but most of it is just not good.

    I guess I'm the opposite of the majority of people, if my marks are anything to go by. I love writing free verse, and all of my poems I've written in free verse in this year's writer's craft course recieved marks in the mid 90s while my fixed form stuff was in the low 80s. [face_blush] I'm just bad at sticking to the rules. :p And I'm really bad at rhyming.
     
  10. Persephone_Kore

    Persephone_Kore Jedi Master star 4

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    Jan 19, 2006
    I always had the feeling that posting all the responses to a given challenge in a single thread was kind of like saying that they didn't really "count" somehow as individual stories. I suppose there are advantages, though; if nothing else, it's easier to keep the thread unlocked, since any given one-post story can end up sinking fairly fast. I know some people lump all their vignettes into the same thread, partly to reduce the number of threads to corral.

    Of course, we also might want to have the official challenge-response thread posted by the sock, I don't know.
     
  11. Myriad_Daydreams

    Myriad_Daydreams Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 22, 2007
    I like the idea of the challenges being more style-specific. Just telling us to "go write a poem" is a bit too vague for my taste. However, many people enjoy that so don't mind me too much. ;)

    In case any of you are interested, I found this great website with a bunch of different poem forms here. Check it out!


    EDIT: I like being able to post in seperate threads, because (like you said) it makes each work seem more individual, plus not everyone will find fics hidden deep inside the fanfiction resource boards.
     
  12. Persephone_Kore

    Persephone_Kore Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2006
    Honestly, for official challenges I had in mind to be more specific on style (for a lot of them) and less so on content. But doing the reverse occasionally doesn't hurt either -- it's nice to let people choose their own preferred form now and then. But raising awareness of different forms is definitely a goal. :)
     
  13. Quigonjecca

    Quigonjecca Jedi Youngling star 3

    Registered:
    Jul 2, 2007
    Hey everyone!

    I just found this thread (and because I love poetry) have entered the challenge as well. I'm so excited to see this here! I love songfics and Star Wars poetry-- and challenges are always a bonus.

    Okay, I just wanted to say the proverbial 'hey!'

    -Jecca
     
  14. Darth_Villanelle

    Darth_Villanelle Jedi Youngling

    Registered:
    Jul 9, 2007
    Welcome to all of you, and thank you for your interest in the thread. Please pause to admire the Sithly banner at the top of the page, which I had absolutely nothing to do with.

    I don't think it does any real harm for an unofficial challenge that is specifically set in a single era, but going by the rules in the Challenge Index thread, it appears we have three choices:
    1. Post challenge responses in this thread.
    2. Post challenge responses in a separate thread in Resource.
    3. Post challenge responses in their own individual threads and keep track of them here.

    I think I've seen people put three challenge-response threads, one in each era, as well.

    I can see pros and cons to each. I might try PMing the mods to see whether I've understood this correctly and whether a single challenge-response thread would still permit people to post their work separately as well -- I'd really hate to eliminate that option.

    -----

    In other news, songfics can be very enjoyable, and both of the current sock-people have written them with great pleasure -- but they really aren't what this thread is for. In fact, this thread exists partly to combat the misconception that songfic is poetry. Most songfic consists of a prose story written around quoted song lyrics.

    Now, if you write your own song lyrics, that's a different matter. And it's certainly possible to write poetry around someone else's song lyrics, in which case you do have a story that's both poetry and songfic.

    But anyway, this thread is more about writing poetry than quoting it. I do think, however, that we could probably have an interesting discussion on how to use poetry -- your own or other people's -- to enhance a primarily prose story. I just don't want anybody disappointed because they were expecting songfic challenges. ;)
     
  15. MsLanna

    MsLanna Jedi Master star 6

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    Jul 8, 2005
    Well, if there's just one thread n a board for the entries, it should of course be run by the challenge sock. But sinc I thought this to be a test only, I think it doesn't matter much for this time.
    Looking at it, it might not be the best solution, either. Seems to be too tempting to just post and not comment.[face_thinking] In that case putting the replies in here might make more sense.
     
  16. brodiew

    brodiew Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Oct 11, 2005
    I still maintain that all entries should be posted in this thread. but, I'm easy. I just thought, like some character threads and OC Anonymous, entries could be all together in one thread. It would also help in tracking specific challenge entries as well.
     
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