Ron’s challenge (see post below) is a wonderful one. Character development is what I do most of the time anyway, so I took a deep breath and decided I should try the sonnet thing, but in honor of National Novel Writing Month I am modifying the challenge to only 30 days & 30 sonnets. I played catch-up the first two days and now have four very bad–extremely bad–but structurally correct sonnets in a notebook. Wish me luck.
I am writing in long hand, something I rarely do anymore. My handwriting is terrible now and so the computer is a blessing. But it’s wonderful to again have the tactile experience of watching a word form from the pen in my hand. It’s also nice to pound the pen and beat out the rhythm, though doing that reminds me of why I didn’t go far as a young piano student and why the dance classes in junior high phy ed were such torment; I couldn’t even deal with the two-step.
I'm doing the sonnet thing, too. As a neighborhood boy once said to me in his clubhouse when I was seven or eight, I'll show you mine if you show me yours. 🙂
And did you show yours?
I think I'd rather "show mine" in a clubhouse than show these sonnets to anyone.
I did show mine, but he had to pay me a quarter first! That's about how much poets make, isn't it?