Love and Grief
Falling in Love with J.R.R. Tolkien and Madeleine L'Engle: A Meter Cute with Melanie A. Rawls
Happy Valentine’s Day! In our special Meter Cute, I chat with Melanie A. Rawls about science fiction, grief, and, of course, her fairy tale picture book After Ever After, with illustrations by Carol Lynne Knight and available now from Apalachee Press (ordering information in the description of the video).
Are you ready to dive into the Mayhem to Meter Writing Prompts! Me too!
1) Set a timer for 10 minutes. Freewrite about your favorite fairy tale (or the fairy tale that first comes to your mind if you’re not big on fairy tales or if you love too many fairy tales to pick a “favorite”). Remember, this is freewriting, so just follow your mind wherever it goes. Keep the editor voice turned completely off. Nothing is off topic and nothing is wrong, just keep writing for the full ten minutes. If you need some help, try one or all of these questions: What’s the basic plot? Who is your favorite character? What’s the moral? How old were you when you first read/heard it? What has it meant to you? Still stuck? Feel free to just write “I’m not sure what else to write” over and over until your brain throws something your way.
2) Set a timer for 10 minutes. Freewrite about which character in the fairy tale you wrote about in part 1 you most identify with. Follow your brain wherever it goes, nothing is off topic. Maybe you start writing about the fairy tale character and end on a rant about your high school prom date, it’s all good. No editor voice, just writing for the full ten minutes.
3) Time to en-rhythm! Annie Finch talks about the importance of getting in touch with a meter before you attempt to write in it and she calls this en-rhythming. I think it’s actually a helpful and fun process to do even if you’re not trying to write in meter (and even if you’re not trying to write poetry!). Set a timer for 10 minutes. You’ll pick a poem and read that poem over and over again for the full 10 minutes. It’s important that you don’t change poems midstream and that you read the poem out loud. Any metrical poem you fancy will work. I’m going to suggest Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti, but you should do whatever poem you want.
You can also move your body instead of reading a poem. If you’re feeling more like getting your groove on, I’m going to recommend Kiki’s song “o-ou” (sorry y’all, Eurovision season is upon us and I feel really disappointed that Slovenia isn’t sending this one on to ESC). Warning: Strobe lights.
4) Now time to draft! Unlike in freewriting, you can turn the editor voice on (but still only like up to a 2 or 3) and you can start to lineate it if you’re wanting to write a poem. Set the timer for 10 minutes. Draft a poem, short story, or essay about whatever is on your mind right now. Nothing popping up? How about writing something where you are grieving a character from your favorite fairy tale.
And there you have it! You’ve drafted a new piece in under an hour! Now you can work on revising it this weekend, next week, or maybe the 12th of Never.
Thanks for letting me stop by!