And When They Gaid All Night...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 10 May 1996 10:23:56 EDT

[Fryday, when fish are filleted and beef delayed. Out of the pan and into the flames, it's time for writing!]

Let me see. How about a poetic extravagance?

[those who don't do poetry--just skip the parts that don't please you, and go right ahead and do your exercises anyway.]

First, let's toss in a definition:

portmanteau word: A word formed by combining two or more words. In Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll referred to his own inventions in the poem "Jabberwocky" as "portmanteau words": "You see," says Humpty Dumpty, explaining to Alice that slithy means lithe and slimy, "it's like a portmanteau--there are two meanings packed up into one word." James Joyce made extensive use of portmanteau words in Finnegans Wake, as, for example, "bisexcycle."

(p. 213 in Literary Terms: A Dictionary by Beckson and Ganz)

[I'm not sure what that has to do with anything, but it seems innocently intriguing, at least until the penny drops in.]

Second:

ottava rima: In English, a stanza consisting of eight lines in iambic pentameter rhymed abababcc. Used by such noted writers as Boccaccia, Pulci, and Tasso, it was a favored stanza for narrative and epic verse. Adapting the form for his mock epic, Byron uses ottava rima in Don Juan, which opens:

I want a hero: an uncommon want
When every year and month sends forth a new one,
Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant,
The age discovers he is not the true one:
Of such as these I should not care to vaunt,
I'll therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan--
We all have seen him, in the pantomime,
Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time.

(p. 187 in Literary Terms: A Dictionary by Beckson and Ganz)

[pssst? What's an iambic pentameter, again? A brand name for pens that are five meters long?

Close, but no poetry. Pentameter means five feet, iambic means each foot is unstressed syllable followed by stressed. So we got ah thump, ah thump, ah thump, ah thump, ah thump in each line. Leastwise, that's what the book say.

Oh. I thought maybe we needed nickel loafers.]

And, last but not yeast, pick a number from one to six.

1. Mountains of gold would not seduce some men, yet flattery would break them down. Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit (1887)
2. With stupidity and sound digestion man may front much. Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus (1833-34) 2.7
3. The heaviest baggage for a traveler is an empty purse. English Proverb.
4. The faces in New York remind me of people who played a game and lost. Murray Ray Kempton, quoting Lane Adams' daughter, "Is This All?" America Comes of Middle Age (1963)
5. Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. William Dement, Newsweek, Nov. 30, 1959.
6. Society is now one polished horde, Formed of two mighty tribes, the Bores and Bored. Byron, Don Juan (1819-24), 13.95

(Quotes from The International Thesaurus of Quotations by Tripp)

[knead that! Work it, roll it around, and let the little grey cells brewed over it a while.]

That's likely enough stimulation, if not too much, for the fevered fingers of our poets (who knowits?). A thema, a schema, and a portmanteau, mon dieux!

So give it a try--after all, it is Friday, and you've got fish to fry, right?

[a single sentence starter? Unrelated to the iambic pentameter, since my thumping in the night seems to have an arrhythmic urgency to it?

The music was a wash of purple in the dusk, the gunshot a flash of white.

Suitable for framing or whatever tales wag your puppy's butt. You are welcome to bend, staple, mutilate, and even fold this sentence, but don't stop until the words come.]

a thump in the night
and a hearty keyboard clicking
it's...

a writer at work!

T.J.'s Panties?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 3 May 1996 10:49:46 EDT

[and a one, and a two, and a three to six? Get your dice hot, `cause here we go, ready or not...:-]

A. Take a number! One to six!

Got it? Okay, see what you picked:

1. a flower (roses, maybe?)
2. a wine goblet
3. a beautiful Japanese doll
4. a coffee table book
5. a fine silk scarf
6. a porcelain jewelry case

B. Now another number? One to six, of course.

1. dirty underwear (T.J.'s panties?)
2. a dead rat
3. a very ripe fish head
4. a pig's foot
5. used tissues (someone has a cold...)
6. a well-used toothbrush

C. Last, but not least, another number? One to six:

1. a gift wrapped box
2. a paper grocery bag
3. a violin case
4. a pillow case
5. a CD carrying case
6. a black leather purse

Got your three items? Put the first two objects in the last one. So now your pillow case has a wine goblet and a pig's foot in it, and we're ready to begin.

Pick a character or two, put them in a scene with the little wonder set of three objects you've just put together, and ponder. In the course of this scene, one character will find and open the container, getting out the good and the not so fine contents.

Your assignment, should you choose to try it, is to make us feel the emotional responses of the characters. I kind of like having the people respond in a way which surprises the reader, then explaining, but it's up to you. You might not feel right having your romantic lead laugh heartily at the single rose, then plunge into tears when the panties off T.J.'s bum come to life in our hands...

So, that's it. Start with a little sleight of mind playing with the three objects and a character, and see where your fingers lead you.

[What? You began AND ended in T.J.'s drawers? Well, I hope you washed well afterword, you never know where that furniture has been...]

Incidentally, you may put other objects in the container as desired. After all, it's your story!

Single Sentence Start?

"I never thought she would give it to you," he said.

[tickle, tickle, giggle, I hear a neuron snapping, I hear a synapse popping, is that the sound of a brain frying? Out of the pan and into the frying fingers, here come words, punctuation, and flickering flame of a story!]