#fuck 3.4 i want more lore now

[strwberri-milk]

so uh how we feeling about those 3.5 leaks

[victoria1676]

( Sorta spoiler for Sumeru quest if you haven't fully completed it but this is from how I saw it cause I was rushing to get it done and pull for Nahida which i luckily got her lol)

Ya I take back my previous statement on how sumeru would show us mercy, their gonna want our head cause those sages we're willing to do ANYTHING to replace Nahida and going as far as to lock her up and make their own god (scaramouche) and as far as I could understand the quest because for a nation full of knowledge Im dumb and I was more focused on getting primos lol so i won't last a day there.

But ya good thing we have Nahida on our side who did a huge lore drop, still praying the reader makes it out alive in sumeru and maybe even now has a fungi pet due to event going on rn lol it would be very wholesome since their tramatized and now have slight trust issues but it would a great peace for me to draw lol since the reader and loyal gang + the ghosts deserve to be happy so rest in peace liyue gang+ Bennet and razor+ guba.

Also the little details we got on the hydro archon were some what helpful on how she would act twords the travler and the reader, because from what I saw she seemed like the type to jump to conclusions and would do ANYTHING to prove her point when it comes to judging others 'crimes' thought for a god of justice but can't make to many assumption since again they were very little things said about her but it would make sense for me if that's how she acted since in your story she was willing to side with Mallory lol so, so much for judging those in the name of justice.

But also welcome back and hope you win your 50/50s

(Nahdia and the Tsaritsa are real ones 💪+ everyone else who didn't traumatize the reader)

+Lumine is an abyss queen girlboss✊ can't wait to hear more about her if possible in Fontaine

-Anon Crow 👁️👄👁️👍

Unfortunetly I did not get Nahida but Jean and i was verrrryyy salty when that happened😀 💢

No i did not cry and litterally wish that someone could get me her but oh well i'll get her in her rerun TwT

All my hard work on 100 exploration for Sumeru and the desert just to get nahida only for Jean to take my soul and lose 50/50 was not happy with that.

Anways back to your ask yes I also finished Sumeru archon quest dont worry XD

Honestly Nahida is so far the only Archon i began to be biased on no offensed the other archons but she is one of the best so far i really love especially she legit lore dumped about our sibling.

Hydro archon will have to be the bad guy in my story with the Pryo one in my imposter au TwT

But yes fuck the sages ^^

Nahida may have not given them a bigger punishment but for my story DSMP reader and Little sparrow reader will not hesitate to make their lives worse XD

If i dont get Nahida before her banner ends then imma skip phase two sorry Layla TwT considering theres a rumor of Al haitham coming in 3.4 imma just save all primos for him which means im skipp Raiden and Ayato ugh 😭

[19-bellwether]

Pre-Finale V8 Survey Results

Thank you to everyone who submitted a response! I ended up with 598 total! Here are the results question by question. Shout out to the twenty-eight people who think Yang is dead.

Is Yang dead?

95.3% No, she's in turbohell for gay crimes.

4.7% Yeah, the show's renamed to Red Wersus Blue.

Where does the void spit you out?

41.8% Wonderland. Oscar's fairytale had to be foreshadowing, right?

20.1% A world made of memories. Ruby's not running from her trauma this time.

8.7% The Underworld where they encounter the spirits of the dead.

6.8% They're sent back in time. STRQ lore, here we come.

5.6% An alternate version of Remnant. Your AU fanfic might become canon.

5.3% The Old World full of gods, magic, and humanity 1.0.

11.7% Other

Some notable submissions to this question: The real world. RWBY Chibi. A Lovecraftian Nightmare. The home of the gods or relic spirits. Wonderland meets Dante's Inferno. All of the above at once. Nowhere, you just fall. Nowhere, because superhell spits Yang back out since she's straight.

Can Spicecream defeat Newspaper?

41.1% They defeat Team RWB... except Neo then betrays Cinder.

20.1% Neo bites it but Cinder survives to claim victory. She forgets to thank Neo for her sacrifice.

19.8% Cinder's losing streak continues and she falls into a bottomless pit for the second time.

10.5% Total victory. Cinder gets the relics and Neo gets her revenge.

8.6% They both die or fall lmao

How does team green conquer the sandstorm?

68% Surprise backup! It's time to see Team SSSN's and CFVY's new models.

19.1% ...or maybe a surprise appearance from the summer maiden?

9.6% Jaune, Nora, Winter, and/or Penny arrive to turn the tide.

3.4% Lots of effort and more than a few casualties.

Does Winter lose two shitty fathers today?

67.7% She cuts down Ironwood. Good for her. She deserves it.

15.9% Inexplicably, they both make it out of Volume 8 alive.

13% Winter sacrifices herself to kill him and we're robbed of a family Schneeunion.

3.4% Ironwood kills her and sheds a single regretful tear before moving onto his next genocide plan.

Does Atlas fall? How about that bomb?

45.9% Gravity always wins in the end. Hopefully Mantle finished evacuating.

43.5% It falls and gets caught in the bomb's explosion. Kingdom of Atlas more like Kingdom of Ashes.

2.5% The staff is used to keep Atlas afloat once more. So much for the evacuation plan.

8.1% Same as above except the bomb doesn't go off. Atlas and Mantle are left mostly empty.

Anyone dying in the finale? (Falling into the void doesn't count)

Nearly everyone answered Ironwood. There were many variations on his name including Irondaddy and Irondick. The next most popular choices were Watts, Winter, Harriet, and Neo.

Is Cinder on the path to redemption?

39.5% She'll leave Salem and fly solo, but idk if she'll ever be a good person.

33.1% Fuck no lol

18.2% No opinion. I'm not touching this discourse with a ten foot pole.

9.1% Redemption or bust. I'm all in on Cindemption and ready to gloat when it happens.

What's up with Penny's new body?

54.3% She's pure aura. Hopefully Cinder doesn't break it.

39.3% She's an ordinary human with squishy guts now.

6.4% I don't care, I just want robot Penny back.

Is Bumbleby canon?

47.9% Yes.

52.1% Yes, but I really wish they'd kiss or confess already.

R8 Volume 8 Average of 8.4/10:

*The next two questions were checkboxes, meaning people could select more than one answer.

Most enjoyed parts of Volume 8?

72.2% Character Development

61.4% Story and Overarching Narrative

41.2% Fights and Action Scenes

Other

Common answers: Animation improvements. Memes. Thirst for Salem. Everything involving The Happy Huntresses. Plot twists. Thirst for Ambrosius. Redemption arcs. Topical themes. Thirst for The Hound.

Least enjoyed parts of Volume 8?

38.2% Rushed character arcs due to cast bloat

26.2% Inconsistent pacing/tone

21.5% Characters make dumb or illogical decisions

18.1% My OTP still isn't canon

4.6% I'm a bootlicker and hate how they've treated Ironwood

Other

Common answers: Ironwood is a douchebag. Some characters not getting enough to do, especially Weiss. Lack of fight scenes. No Pyrrha. Not enough Team RWBY content. One person doesn't like Nuts and Dolts.

Ideal post-credit scene(s)?

Common answers: Yang waking up in Wonderland. Salem reforming. Taiyang and Raven. Side characters arriving in Atlas from Ruby's broadcast. Summer Rose lore. "Hello again!" And one person wants a full graphic Bumbleby sex scene.

Any final predictions or comments?

This was my favorite response so I'm sharing it: "i would die of laughter if atlas fell and just as Salem regenerated she got exploded by the bomb"

Thanks again for participating! Any results catch your eye?

[fencesandfrogs]

an abridged history/explanation of warrior cats if you didn’t read them as a kid and have questions (a primer)

welcome. i’m going to keep things to the point, this is not a plot summary, just, well, its a pandemic and people are seeking items of childhood comfort and its come to my attention that a lot of people didn’t read these books as kids and then they come up in conversation and they act shocked so! i felt compelled to write this.

[2.5k words, 10min read. section headers, no pictures. not a ton of helpful formatting. i don’t want to say don’t read this because obviously i wrote it and think it’s worth reading, but i’ll be honest, this is a lot.]

section one: about me

i was an avid reader as a child, most of which fits solidly into “stories for another time,” and some of which would necessitate me adding tags onto this post that are, well, not necessary. so i will skip over that backstory but for those aware of lexile scores, i had one that was too high for literally any book that was appropriate to give me. so reading in school was torture and reading for fun was excellent.

now because i was a first-ish grader and my mom was trying to keep the fifth harry potter out of my hands, she looked desperately for something else to pass to me. her friend, who had a daughter a year or two older than me, was into these cat books, and my mom was like “here honey you like cats” without thinking too much about it.

which is good, because as i’ll get into, it was a really good fit for me. but like a dozen books later she asked me about the plot and well. i think at that moment she realized that it might have been better to just let me read harry potter.

but yeah i continued to read them long past the recommended reading ages and still as a Young Adult will return to them for nostalgia, and also as i will get into, some really good books. (see a list of books for “morbidly curious but i don’t want to spend 56 to 168 hours reading this”)

i’m not fully caught up on the series but this is not a plot summary so that should not impact my ability to discuss this

section two: content warnings

these books (not this post) includes the following:

discussion of castration (1.1 series 1, book 1, i’m not including this on every item/discussion because this is a complicated series but i want to demo how up front some of this is)

teenage romance/sex/pregnancy (1.1ish-1.3 or 4, continues throughout the series quite a lot, comes up again in 3.4/5, 4.4-5, and a bit in 5)

death from childbirth (1.can’t remember which book, many others)

unwanted pregnancy (se super edition, or a longer one off novel, discussed in 4&5)

sex/implied, discussed, and very very very heavily hinted but never directly said/shown (1.1-3ish, se, other)

murder (constantly, 1.1, 1.4, literally every book, 3.5, i’m just listing the ones i remember off the top of my head that were particularly graphic)

disability/illness, esp. the debilitating and/or deadly nature of it (1.3-5ish, 3.1, but all of 3, 3.4ish)

dementia (1.3-5, i’ve heard in some of the later series?)

abuse (7/8 this is reported i haven’t read these books but based on what i know it’s def there)

child abandonment (1.4-5, 3.4/5, it’s also all over the place but i think those are the only major character incidents of it)

treason (1.3-5, all over the place)

the horror/tragedy of war (background, but pretty constant)

disagreeing with an integral religion/tradition (3, based on the series title, 8, and generally scattered)

the corrupting influence of power (1.4/5, possibly 7/8, others)

racism (1, 3-5, possibly others)

sexism (se, background)

patriarchal societies (se, seems to be somewhat softened based on what i’ve heard but i’m not entirely sure about this)

and more! but it starts to get stranger and this is enough to prove my point

basically everything that could go wrong does

oh yeah! child abuse also child abuse that’s a very major theme in the first series as well as during other points. and elder abuse in the first series.

okay i’ve made my point.

section three: the appeal

look. so. i think we’re kind of pastel-ify children’s literature based on movies. see, parents have to watch children’s movies with their kids, so they can’t be gritty and intense because a lot of parents will say “not for my nine year old! they can’t deal with treason!” and that seems to be bleeding into children’s literature.

but warriors is not that. it’s intense, it borders on “too gruesome for children,” and it’s from a time where kids books got to be serious and heavy and dark because they were about animals. which was great because i couldn’t find books at my reading level that weren’t too thematically difficult, so i got to read something below my reading level, but thematically too hard, so it kind of balanced out.

and then well. so. the series grows with the audience, but the books don’t grow in terms of like difficulty so new readers start deep into it and it’s a complicated thing, the fandom history is complex, but.

the appeal is that parents don’t usually read the books their kids read and so they see a book about cats and assume it’s fluff, and kids who are starved of complex content get to read hamlet-for-kids.

section four: worldbuilding/lore

oh yeah also there’s some really deep lore to explore. so there’s two bits of appeal.

i’m not doing a full world/plot summary, but i’ll explain some common elements here.

thunder/shadow/wind/riverclan: harry potter houses for cats (gryffindor, slytherin, hufflepuff, ravenclaw, except this doesn’t work for the last two but that’s fine because no one cares about them despite riverclan being pretty important in most of the books)

-kit/-paw/-star: naming conventions. everyone has a two part name. (we’ll use cinder as an example because i like the two cinders we know, even tho neither of them get to be cinderstar.) babies are -kit (cinderkit), then when they’re apprentices, which is like being a student, you know, elementary through high school, you’re paw, so cinderpaw. then you get an Official Name from ur clan leader (cinderheart). if you become clan leader, you get to be -star (cinderstar). i know i haven’t explained clan leaders bear with me. this is kind of important because i have the names burned into my memory so i cannot simply always call firestar firestar if he was firepaw at the time of the events i’m describing. it won’t be ambiguous, cinderheart/cinderpelt are a special case. if this is tricky for you it’s fine just only read the first part of the name.

clan (leader, deputy, medicine cat, elder): roles with in the clan. leaders literally have nine lives. deputies are next in line and chosen by the leader. leaders usually go through several deputies, because deputies don’t have nine lives. medicine cats are doctors. they also have an apprentice. those are all one per clan. elders are just retired cats. they’re not a special category per say, but i wanted to mention them.

warrior: adult.

warrior code: laws.

star clan: dead cats. this ties into the religion which is pretty important to the books but for the most part if you understand that dead cats get to give guidance and send their approval, you have the gist of it.

section five: so um, what the fuck

so we start with a cat named rusty who runs into the woods to join thunderclan and then his name is firepaw and we all forget that he’s named rusty except for like that one time it comes up again. bluestar is a great leader with some corrupt deputies but fireheart eventually takes care of it and becomes clan leader which is a big deal.

then a bunch of other shit happens and suddenly ashfur is possessing brackenstar and being (more) abusive to squirrelflight (who is on the outs with brackenstar anyway for lying about their kits jayfeather, hollyleaf, and lionheart because they’re actually the children of firestar’s other daughter leafpool who had them with crowfeather after she fell in love with him but he’s from windclan and she’s a medicine cat so that’s double illegal and apparently hollyleaf is alive even though she yeeted herself into a pit and died because she killed ashfur when he threatened to reveal this but couldn’t live with being the product of an illegal meeting and then it was all pointless because leafpool stopped being a medicine cat out of guilt anyway and jayfeather is just an ornery bitch about everything but especially all of this)

i’m not explaining any of that.

section six: i repeat: so um, what the fuck

so the thing about these books is they’re soap operas and dramas about cats and that means they get just as strange and chaotic as anything else in the genre. i think a lot of people like me, who read them as children, regard the series we knew as a child (usually either the first three or the first five, plus super editions) as something good and warm and comforting (despite being dark and gruesome) because they made us feel good.

they were also a breeding ground for young fandom because of all the the drama that exists and the nature of the books providing that.

section seven: super editions

the simple answer to what a super edition is has already been given (it’s a novel length one-off about a single character, and its usually either a side character - bluestar, crowfeather - or a event/perspective we don’t get to see - firestar, skyclan, greystripe - and they’re generally more mature)

my favorite super edition is bluestar’s prophecy. i read it at like 16, slinking into the children’s library with a stack of other ya fiction and a “children’s book” which dealt with unwanted pregnancy, grief, forbidden love, and more. still not sure why that’s in the children’s section.

section eight: about the drama

so there’s been a lot of fandom drama about these books. i can’t tell you about the nuances, because i am an old fan, so i watched but didn’t partake. the highlights reel that i can recall goes as follows (please note i will refer to characters by name without explanation. it’s fine. the point of this section is to convey the pettiness of this drama):

tigerstar: did he do anything wrong? (the answer is holy shit yes, this isn’t discourse, it’s okay to like a villain)

scourge: did he do anything wrong, also what color is his collar? (also yes, doesn’t matter)

was the new prophecy (2)/omen of the stars (3)/etc good? (yes, eh, no, yes, no comment, no comment)

should jaypaw or hollypaw be medicine cat apprentice (neither of them, but jaypaw’s employment opportunities are limited because he’s blind, so its gotta b him)

uhh a massive tangle around this parentage drama between squirrelflight, leafpool, brackenfur, and crowfeather, which i used as the crux of humor for how batshit the plots can get, so i’m not even going to pretend i can make it funny, but just know that it’s batshit and the correct opinion is as follows: no one is right, but squirrelflight has done the least wrong, brackenfur is an asshole to her where it’s unwarrented, and hollyleaf is an idiot

and the current drama centers around brackenstar and ashfur and is tied directly to the point above, which is why i’ve kind of given up trying to make jokes about this because this is the culmination of like 35 novels.

section nine: i feel like i need to have some conclusive point to justify writing all of this

but i don’t have one, because this was really an excuse to ramble about an old passion for like half an hour. i mean i guess i can say, like, i think younger fans are sort of embroiled in this drama they don’t really have context for, because i’m not kidding, the current drama centers around the grandchildren of our original cast.

it’s kind of hard to know why, say, mistystar matters if you don’t know that she’s the child of bluefur and oakheart and if you don’t remember the drama that surrounded that when bluestar was dying and tigerstar and leopardstar were ruling a combined shadow/riverclan.

(i really hope that’s intelligible i tried to lay the groundwork for it. basically, there’s a biracial kid in a very segregated society who becomes the leader of one of the clans. which is obviously drama, especially considering that that clan was part of a weird supremacy movement a while back.)

& you know? i really hope one of the new series gets to be like, a soft reboot. just. end the current drama and pick up again with the latest generation. a) we’re starting to run out of names, and b) i think that it’s kind of tipped over the edge of sane.

the series also used to be very low fantasy. the cat societies are reasonably close to feral cat colonies (the biggest detail is that toms don’t all have their own territory, but there’s honestly in-universe discussion of this and it’s basically a culture thing), and while star clan/religion is a real and legitimate thing, there’s also a discussion of its abuse and most of the early books don’t really use star clan/related ideas as a physical force so much as a plot device, barring, like, when a new leader gets their nine lives.

honestly, i’ll always adore these books for serving the role they did, and a lot of the series is fantastically well written. but the fandom surrounding it can be, uh, not great because 9-14 year olds don’t really have good brains to understand this.

also, i’m very sad that i can’t find the flash game that was for the great prophecy. it was not very fun, but i enjoyed playing it, so if anyone knows the url so i can search the internet archive for it, please let me know.

section ten: i’m morbidly curious but there are 56 hours of books to read, assuming a very fast reading pace, so is there something i can start with to experience this without dedicating 4 days to it?

yes, there is.

it’s called bluestar’s prophecy. it’s standalone, and i should have given you enough of a background on the lore that you don’t need to know anything else. i’ve already given away the twist in series 1 that it would spoil, so you’re all good on that front.

if you want more, or want the original experience, the first series is self contained and quite good. i’ve given the broad outlines of the plot, but trust me, there’s a lot of surprises and all sorts of things i skipped over because while i like it, it’s not exactly fandom primer material

i also enjoy firestar’s quest and skyclan’s destiny for super editions, but you’ll need to read the first series to understand FQ and FQ to understand SD, so it’s not exactly a starting point. also, SD especially deals with a very different set of themes as the other books.

also, if you were to, say, search “readwarriorcats” (no spaces) on duckduckgo, and then click on one of the first links, you know, not the official site, the one hosted on one of those free website things, you know, not wix, not wordpress, the other one, you would only find lists of the books with hyperlinks.

;3

[dragons-bones]

Am I going to be that person? I am going to be that person. Aymeric for the character ask meme. :)

(Blessings on your house, Tina. :3)

First Impression:

Before I ever played FFXIV, I saw a screenshot of him (I don’t remember where or how) and went, “That one. That one right there. I want that one.” Fast forward to Patch 2.4 with That Face Plus That Voice and it was all, “THIS ONE. THIS ONE THIS ONE THISONETHISONETHISONEIPICKTHISONE.”

Impression Now:

*touches his face* hubband

No, but seriously, he’s loyal, determined, firmly believes in guiding Ishgard to a better future, works his ass off, is comfortable and talented with command both militarily and politically (though it’s clear he’d really rather not deal with the latter), and is not shy at all with how starry-eyed he is over the Warrior of Light. He is A Good Boy. He is also hot and has a voice of liquid chocolate. 10/10 would marry.

Favorite Moment:

Oh goddamnit, I don’t want to pick just one… Fine. The date dinner at the beginning of Patch 3.4. I’ve never seen him so relaxed. He giggled, for fuck’s sake, he giggled and I died. And the way he just lights up when the Warrior of Light suggests taking him on an adventure. Just. That face. That voice.

Idea for a Story:

Aymeric de Borel TAKES A GODDAMN BLOODY VACATION. It’s in fact in my WIP pile, and it involves locking him out of his office, yanking his ceremonial armor off him, and throwing him onto the next airship to Limsa Lominsa. It also involves bodily hauling Synnove “Sleep Is For The Weak And I Must Science” Greywolfe out of her office, food porn (duh, it’s me), and a cabin on the beach.

Unpopular Opinion:

…I think it’s more an unpopular opinion of a fandom trend, but I don’t actually like the (mostly lovingly said from all that I’ve seen, admittedly) trend of referring to him as a himbo. Aymeric is in no way dumb as a brick, he’s just naive about some things and thinks the best of people! :(

Favorite Relationship:

With Synnove. *coughs* Sorry, couldn’t help myself. But on a more serious note… the one he has with Count Edmont. Obviously Aymeric had no personal relationship with the Archbishop, and the implications about the Borels seems to be that they passed while he was still a very young man (at least, that’s my interpretation of what little info we have, I might need to go re-read the lore book), and it’s rough not having a parental figure to go even when you’re an adult. And. Just. Edmont outright says, “I could not bear to mourn the passing of another son” at the end of 3.1. Like. OH MY GOD. ELF DAD OUT HERE ADOPTING EVERYONE. I would really, truly love to see Aymeric be more fully folded into the Fortemps family (which means: suddenly, brothers.)

Favorite Headcanon:

That he prefers the bow to the sword. This is based off A) That Scene in Patch 3.2 and B) the short story “Through Fire and Blood” from Tales of the Dragonsong War. It’s something I play with a bit in my fics (see “Grenades and Dragonkillers” especially, but it gets a nod in a couple of my other fills from last year’s FFXIV Writes). Naegling we know was a gift from his foster father, and it’s probably considered much more appropriate for the Lord Commander of the Temple Knights to be wielding a sword, but for whatever reason, I really like the idea that Aymeric is much more comfortable with a bow in hand and a quiver on his back.

[inkingaboutwords-blog]

Lesson 2: Editing

1) Foreword

Hey there crew! A couple changes this month: I reordered devices before forms, because it makes more sense that way. I won’t be taking submissions to workshop from here on out, because I just don’t have time to (this platform also isn’t great for interactivity, and that’s really showing, but I’m going to continue to press on with this approach to get the content done so that I can transfer it to something better next year and hopefully that experience will be more interactive and more digestible for people.)

This lesson is pretty heavy (will probably be the heaviest one) because it’s focused on identifying different formats, and there’s a LOT of technical terms to cover regarding that. Two things I want to make clear in regard to that:

I use the words ‘form’ and ‘format’ interchangeably. Just want to make sure that doesn’t confuse anyone. Form is the more correct term, if you’re wondering.

You really, really don’t have to perfectly memorize the correct term for everything to be a poet (this applies to devices as well). It will help you a lot when discussing poetry, and a little when analyzing poetry, but what’s really important is just that you understand the concepts even if you can’t put a name to them. I’m not doing this to make your work more academic, just to give you tools to improve the way you want to.

Anyway, that’s me for the month. Hope you enjoy the lesson.

Mostly sincerely, Vex

---

2) Index

1. Foreword

2. Index

3. Lore

  3.1 Syllables

  3.2 Words

  3.3 Rhyme

  3.4 Stress

  3.5 Foot

  3.6 Meter

  3.7 Stanza

4. Devices

  4.1 Substitution

  4.2 Triple construction

5. Forms

  5.1  Kelly Lune

  5.2 Collom Lune

  5.3 Gwawdodyn

  5.4 Rispetto

  5.5 Descort

6. Skills

 6.1 Editing

7. Suggestions

 7.1 DIY

 7.2 Edit Some Poems

 7.3 Edit Backwards

 7.4 Write Scansion

 7.5 Try New Formats

---

3) Lore

3.1) Syllables

In English, a syllable is a set of letters that form a single sound in a word. Meter uses syllables to measure the rhythm of a line. A few poetic forms, such as the Kelly Lune, constrain the number of syllables on each line, and though poetry sites tend to explain forms in terms of syllables, it's rare that this is the intent of the form (if a site gives you a range ie "this line should be 10-13 syllables", then this is a misreading/misexplaining of the form's meter)

It's worth noting that you've probably been taught that a haiku counts syllables per line, but that's incorrect. More on that when we cover haiku.

Rarely, a word may vary in how many syllables you pronounce it with due to divergence between how it was originally said, and how it's commonly said. This is true for words such as "". Technically, this is only really true if you're pronouncing words wrong, but do what you want cause a pirate is free. (Also get used to breaking rules! You need to be comfortable with this to be a poet)

3.2) Words

Similarly, some forms may describe the number of words on a line. The Collum Line is one such example. Many of the forms not measured in meter are designed to be accessible to new poets.

3.3) Rhyme

Rhyme is a repetition of sounds. There are many types of rhyme that we will cover in a later lesson. The most basic form, where two lines end with the same sound, is used to define many formats. We're covering this now because this lesson is about being able to understand formats.

3.4) Stress

Stress is a measure of which sounds in a word are more emphasized. Stress is important because we use it to build rhythm in our works, which affect their flow when performed or read. To denote the stress of a line, people commonly use a notation called scansion. In the simplest form, a stressed syllable is marked as ‘x’ and an unstressed syllable is marked as ‘/’.

e.g.   x    /   / Syl la ble

Further reading: The wikipedia page covers more complex versions.

3.5) Foot

A metric foot is a single measure of a pattern of stresses in a line. Sometimes scansion will have lines broken into feet using ‘|’ (this can also denote a pause in the reading if two are used ‘||’)

e.g.

  x   /     /        x      /         /            x     /       /         x         /       x     / Syl la bles | and such sounds, || Will not know | what rhyme | a bounds.

The first three feet in this line are known as dactyls, while the last two are trochees. Here’s a list of what feet are named: Trochee:       stressed - unstressed Iamb:             unstressed - stressed Spondee:      stressed - stressed Pyrrhic:         unstressed - unstressed Dactyl:          stressed - unstressed - unstressed Anapest:       unstressed - unstressed - stressed Amphibrach: unstressed - stressed - unstressed To determine the name of a meter using these feet, just add ‘ic’ to the end. (trochaic, iambic, spondaic, pyrrhic, dactylic, anapestic, amphibrachic)

3.4) Meter (or Metre)

Meter is a way to describe the flow of a line being spoken, written, or read, and create an intentionally concordant (or rarely, discordant) rhythm in how it is delivered. A “base meter” describes the most common meter in the line, verse, or poem you’re talking about. A “mixed meter”, like in the example above, contains different feet in the same line - these are often used at the end of a stanza to break an established pattern for impact. Sometimes a mixed meter line is simply the result of a poet needing to use a particular word (meter is less often the most important factor in word choice). When a metrical foot repeats in a line, a prefix is used to signify how many times the foot has repeated. 1 = meter 2 = dimeter 3 = trimeter 4 = tetrameter 5 = pentameter 6 = hexameter etc. (It's not common to go over 6, since that's a loooong line, but if you feel like fucking shit up, go ahead)

3.7) Stanza

A stanza is a grouping of lines. Stanzas are further categorized according to how many lines are in them. 2 = couplet 3 = tercet 4 = quatrain 5 = quintain 6 = sestet 7 = septet 8 = octave

Most formats group lines for rhythmic structure, but stanzas often are written in a way that gives the stanza structure in other senses. This is an emergent property of the format. Consider a narrative poem in a format with four quatrains followed by a couplet. It would be unusual to split the sections of the narrative in a way that didn't relate to the stanzas of the format. It makes sense to use the first stanza as a setting, the middle two as the conflict, the last quatrain as a climax, and the couplet as an anticlimax. Thus the rhythmic structure informs the narrative structure.

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4) Devices 4.1) Substitution (or Inversion)

Substitution is where an unusual foot appears within an otherwise normal meter. This is described above as ‘mixed meter’ in the section about meter. (When speaking of the device, it would be proper to call it substitution, but in describing the meter of a line ‘mixed meter’ makes more sense.)

A great example comes from a Shakespeare line you’re probably familiar with:

x    /      x    /     x   /         x    /     /       x        / To be, | or not | to be, || that is | the ques | tion

In this we see ‘the ques’ is an iambic foot within a trochaic meter.

4.2) Triple construction

Now commonly known as ‘The rule of three’, triple construction involves using three of something. It doesn’t sound like much of a literary device, but it has a big impact in writing. Supposedly this is because three is the smallest number of things required to form an identifiable pattern, making it easy for readers to recognize, and allowing the most people to get the pleasant feeling of seeing where an intentional poetic device was used.

Examples of triple construction that we’ve already discussed today include tercets, dactyls, anapests, amphibrachs, and trimeter. It also occurs very often in parallelism, which we covered in the last lesson (in fact, the example I used, “I came, I saw, I conquered”, is probably the most famous instance of triple construction ever). ---

5) Forms

5.1)  Kelly Lune

The Kelly lune is a format created by Robert Kelly in an attempt to make an English version of the haiku that was more conceptually consistent with the original form of haiku than the commonly accepted 5-7-5 format. The form still lacks some of the constraint of an original haiku. The Kelly lune is defined as a tercet of 5-3-5 syllables. It has no other restrictions.

5.2) Collom Lune

A variant of the Kelly lune reportedly created through a misremembering of the constraints defines the format by words instead of syllables. It’s still a tercet, but the Collom lune has 3-5-3 words.

5.3) Gwawdodyn

This form is an example of formats described by rhyme. The area where the Gwawdodyn originated has many quatrain-based formats, and you’ll note the similarity they have to the Limerick. It involves a quatrain that has three 9 syllable lines (the 1st, 2nd, and 4th) that all rhyme, and a 3rd line of 10 syllables with an internal rhyme that either rhymes with the end of the 3rd line, or the middle of the 4th.

So either --------A --------A ----B----B --------A or --------A --------A ----B----C ----B---A (worth noting C could also rhyme with A)

5.4) Rispetto

A rispetto is a form that is defined primarily by its meter. It involves two quatrains of iambic tetrameter. It also has a rhyme scheme of abab ccdd.

5.5) Descort

This is both the strangest and hardest of the forms we’ll cover this lesson. It is not defined by its meter, syllables, words, or rhyme, but rather by its inconsistency in all those things. In a descort, each stanza must have a different number of lines, and each line must have a different number of syllables. A rhyme must not occur in multiple stanzas. Some sources I’ve seen report that each line also must have a different meter from each other line. I’m not sure this is following the original definition, but it certainly is in the spirit of the format. One poet from the time and place the format was created is known to have written descort poems where each stanza is in a different language. ---

6) Skills

6.1) Editing

Following up on last month’s lesson in drafting and analysis, now we’re going to get into the hard work. For my 2nd draft, I like to start by ensuring every stanza is in the correct order. Usually a beginning and an ending stand out evidently (though I find I often have multiple suitable endings and have to choose one - the others will be later reworked to suit another space in the narrative). If you don’t have obvious contenders for the beginning or ending, or if you feel what you do have isn’t strong enough, make a note to come up with something better.

The ending is typically the most evocative or contemplative line. If you plan on performing the piece, it’s a good idea to ensure an audience will recognize it as an ending or you’ll get scattered applause (more about this later when we cover performing). Usually the reason an audience might not recognize an ending is because the piece doesn’t contain a strong narrative for it to conclude, so they are unsure if more is coming. We could go deeper into this, but for brevity, let’s just say if you have this problem just test the piece with friends until you get it right.

The beginning is more versatile, so whatever suits the piece or your preference is likely fine. Strong beginnings tend to set up a context for the narrative, or an unusual perspective on a well-known topic.

Once you have two locations, the rest of the poem can be constructed as a journey from one to the other. Start by placing the best work in your draft between the beginning and ending in whatever order suits it, then go through and mark spots where it is difficult for a reader to jump from one thought to another. These will most often be between stanzas, but consider carefully where this also might occur between lines. Once the gaps are identified, you can fill them in with things that will make that transition easier (in a later lesson, we’ll look at how this relates to memorizing). Throughout this process, you’ll likely find lines that sound janky, or ones that speak about things a bit removed from the overarching narrative. I mark all of these lines, and occasionally stanzas, to be deleted (though not all of them will be, some will just be improved).

The sad truth is that to allow your poem to reach its potential, you often have to cut out something you really want to say about the topic because it doesn’t fit the narrative well enough. Don’t be scared to cut those - the narrative will deliver your message so don’t cheapen it with clutter. Cutting lines isn’t forfeiting your right to say them, you can still put those thoughts into a draft for a separate poem.

Once you have a poem with a solid narrative, you can start digging into the finer details to polish them up:

Check your syllable counts and stanza sizes. Even when writing open verse, consistency benefits a piece by introducing intentional repetition to the rhythm. It will also set you up for the next step.

Work out the meter of each line, and use that to decide where the impact will be. Meter is a mechanic you can use to emphasize anything you wish. The more consistent an existing pattern (in this case, the base meter of your work and how often you apply it to a line) is, the more powerful it is to break it using mixed meter or an unexpected change.

Consider adding more devices. Your first draft will have devices you came up with and thought were clever, but it will also have lines you wrote just to support those devices. Often these lines can be adjusted to contain more devices. For emphasis, it pays to pick the devices already used in the best lines of the poem, and try to use those particular devices elsewhere.

Consider removing devices. Sometimes they can be too heavy-handed in one area (I see this most often with assonance), or they overshadow or obscure the actual messages in the words (and this with metaphor). If you feel you have those problems, try to distribute the devices more evenly throughout the piece (it’s worth noting that this may not necessarily mean removing devices. It’s possible to achieve the same effect by spreading that heavy-handed use of devices throughout the whole work. If you can manage this, it will REALLY pay off.)

Further watching: Paper People by Harry Baker for an example of said pay off for using assonance heavily but consistently.

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7) Suggestions

7.1) DIY

Have a try at making your own format. Remember that the rules around meter, syllable, and rhyme are only the mechanical side of a format. Most poetic forms were created in a particular context with a particular purpose, such as to entertain, to tell oral history, to court, etc. The context you write your form for may give it narrative or syntactic rules as well.

7.2) Edit Some Drafts

Take something you wrote for lesson one and try the editing steps above. Make a checklist to ensure you try each step. Note down additional steps your own process requires.

7.3) Edit Backwards

Take the same first draft and swap the beginning with the ending, and see how this changes the end result and also the editing process.

7.4) Write Scansion

Find a poem you like and determine the meter of each of its lines. Identify the base meter, and name all of its stanzas and meters. Write down the rhyme scheme if it has one. It’s much easier to read meta-information about poems if you practice identifying it in existing pieces. Don’t just do this for a classic poem, try some songs you like too.

7.5) Try New Formats

Try out the formats we covered today. They’re all pretty easy and interesting forms to write.