How to Write a Villanelle Poem

By Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley

     Here's an interesting poem type. It uses a type of stanza we haven't talked about before: the tercet. A tercet is simply a stanza with three lines, but they are used so little that Spell Check thinks it isn't a word at all.
     A villanelle has five tercets and then a quatrain, totaling 19 lines. The rhyme scheme is ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA. So you basically have to accept the fact that you're going to be repeating words. Instead of one of my hastily-written example poems, we're going to use a poem old enough that we don't have to worry about copyright.


Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
By Dylan Thomas


Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.


     Well, I guess you could probably repeat words a little less than this one does. Anyway, because of the way the rhyme works, this is a very lyrical poetry form, and it sounds very traditional. Personally, I think it's really fun, and will likely attempt my own soon.
     Thank you for reading!


Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley is an aspiring author and poet. To learn more about her, see our About Us page. You can follow her on Twitter here: @ElisabethGTK.

How to Write a Ballade

 Post by Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley, co-founder

     First of all, I'm teaching you how to write a ballade, not a ballad. A ballad has much fewer rules and is much more well-known, though they are both known for their use of refrains. Ballade is pronounced "baa (like the sound a sheep makes) laid". So, on to how to write one of these things.
     A ballade is make up of four stanzas. The first four are long, with seven, eight, or ten lines (but apparently never nine) and the last one is short, four or five lines. Each stanza ends with the same line, or refrain. Now, keep in mind that though the first three stanzas can be seven, eight, or ten lines long, they all must be the same length. Now for my example.


Hot Chocolate

I never had much care for coffee shops
My brother and I, we hated the smell
Of those ground dark beans everyone adores
Some people every day make their stops
At these legal addiction stores, and shell
Out money galore, at which I laugh, except
When sitting at Starbucks, with a cup of hot chocolate

It was a long time before I liked the idea
Of going into any coffee shop, despite
How much my elders loved these stores
Why chose a drink shop over a pizzeria?
Even into my teen years, I had a child's appetite
Which disliked anything of coffee, though I loved
Sitting at Starbucks, with a cup of hot chocolate

More recently I have found the tranquility
Of a coffee shop, is quite nice, though still
I am not so fond of the scent behind the doors
But in them I find there is an odd sincerity
Of musty darkness, and the people who fill
My cup, and so now a new place that I dream
Is sitting at Starbucks, with a cup of hot chocolate

It is another place where I know what to expect
A place to regroup when the world has shoved
And this place I now like is, it would seem,
Sitting at Starbucks, with a  cup of hot chocolate


     Okay, to be clear, you don't have to use the wacky rhyme scheme I used. (If you're confused, I used ABCACD(Ref)  EFCEFG(Ref) HICHIJ(Ref) DGJ(Ref)) (If you're even more confused now, I don't blame you.) Anyways, the only important part of the rhyme scheme was the refrain. Seriously, the rest of it can just not rhyme, as long as you've got the refrain. And normally, you wouldn't mess with the refrain like I did with the added "When" and "Is", but I sort of wrote myself into a corner. Honestly, that's why the rhyme scheme is so weird. I had planned on ABCABC(Ref) DEFDEF(Ref) GHIGHI(Ref), but I couldn't get the third and sixth lines to rhyme and still make sense with the refrain. There's a tip to be learned here. When your rhyme scheme fails: complicate!
     Anyway, I hope I have left you informed rather than confused, and once again, I hope to see the cool poetry you guys come up with.


Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley is an aspiring author and poet. To learn more about her, see our About Us page. You can follow her on Twitter here: @ElisabethGTK.

Post by Dee Aethelwyne: Drawing Process

Hi, guys! I'm Dee, and I like drawing.

I blog at faerytalesandfantasy.blogspot.com, although I'm not very good at doing it regularly. I have been posting more often recently, though.

This post isn't really a tutorial. It's more along the lines of let-me-show-you-how-I-draw. I apologize for the horrible pictures--the only camera I had on hand was my iPod, and the lighting was awful.

Sketch out the basic pose.

 This is a really rough sketch, just for me to kind of envision what I'm drawing before I start putting in the specifics. I like playing with the lines of the body and legs, and seeing how the pose showcases a certain emotion.

Add in body shapes.

 I'm still learning proportions, so please forgive the horrible figure. ;)

Clothing and hair details.

 This is my favorite part. It's where the personality of the character really starts to come out, and I love being able to design whatever outfit I feel like them wearing.

Dark the lines you want to keep.

 Pretty straightforward. Don't darken the guidelines from earlier, just the outline.

Ink.

I like inking drawings so the side opposite the light source has a thicker line than the other side. It's just a stylistic thing--you don't have to do it if you don't like it.

Flat colors.

I used Copic markers to color this, but you can use whatever you have on hand. It's all just the flat base color for now. 

AFTERNOTE: I don't like the color scheme I used for this. I should have done her hair in pink and her dress a pale blue. 

Shading!

Add shading according to your own style, put on the finishing touches, and you're done!

Anyways, that was a really quick tutorial. Once again, sorry for the poor quality! I'll put together a better one for you all someday to make up for this. :)

Anyone have any questions? I'd love to answer them.

How to Write a Pantoum

Post by Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley, co-founder

     A rare and interesting type of poetry is the pantoum. It is made up of a series of quatrains (four-line stanzas) with the second and fourth lines of each stanza being the first and third lines of the next. Sort of like poetry juggling. Because of the repetitive style, this style of poem is very good for themes of nostalgia, memories, and the like. Here's another one of my on-the-spot poems for an example:

I let out a sigh
I don't want to leave
My homeland behind
What can a child do?

I don't want to leave
Sadly, in the end
What can a child do
When the time has come?

Sadly, in the end
Nothing can be done
When the time has come
And I have left

Nothing can be done
I let out a sigh
For I have left
My homeland behind


     Obviously very rough, and my repeated lines aren't always exactly the same, but you get the idea. It has kind of a cool feel, huh? Obviously, though, you have to be careful with this one. Partly, this is because it is easy to make it boring. Partly it's because it's really easy to get yourself stuck when you're trying to get the second-to-last stanza to actually make a final stanza that makes some sort of sense.
     But doesn't this seem like the sort of poem that would be fun to make really long? And, once again, I've found another poem type that I'd like to do a contest with.


Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley is an aspiring author and poet. To learn more about her, see our About Us page. You can follow her on Twitter here: @ElisabethGTK.

Building a Language Part 4: Words

Post by Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley, co-founder

     Yes, we've reached that part. The planning is finished. You have decided what sounds you will use for the words, the symbols that will represent them, and even how they will be arranged in a sentence. All that is left is creating the words themselves. So, is there any way more interesting than just going through the dictionary?
     Well, an automatic response might be "Try translating something!" But the problem with that, is that languages are never directly translatable. The Spanish phrase "Me encanta" may literally translate to "It enchants me", but the meaning is far closer to "I love it". Ironically, the people of Pompeii had no word for "volcano". Your language much have the same sort of things. It is not an extension of your language, it is an extension of the people who speak it.

     My advice would be to start with the things that are necessary for speech, such as pronouns, articles (the, a, an), conjunctions, etc. Once you are done with that, you can move on to the more interesting parts.
     A good place to go from there is the subjects that would commonly be discussed by these people. There are bound to be farmers, right? Start with some of those things. Is religion common? If so, explore the words that would commonly be used in that area. What terms do they use relating to war? What are things that merchants would commonly talk about? Hunters? Royalty? Children? What are common, every-day items and activities that everyone would know? Foods? Pet animals? Whatever they use for transportation? Keep searching for areas like these, and try considering them apart from your own world. Look purely at what these people see and live in, and what they think of those things.
     Another thing to consider, is descriptive words. Nouns and verbs are obviously important, but adverbs and adjectives, as well as how they are used, help define, or show, a culture. Like English, do they have many words that basically mean "great"? Or "very"? Do they have a lot of ones referring to color? Do they have very few? What words would they use to describe someone they were in love with? Someone they hated? Their home?

     After going through all of these several times, you will have both the basic framework, as well as plenty of verbs, nouns, and descriptive words. What do you do now? Obviously you won't have gotten everything. Well, I'd say now is the time to crack open a dictionary and see what words you have "missed". Keep track of which words the dictionary had that you didn't, and which ones you had that the dictionary didn't, and be proud of every word you have already made that they don't have.
     You now have a working language. It isn't done, you will probably never stop adding to it, but it works,  it is full, and you can now you can teach others it to others. Once you have reached this point, writing a novel must seem positively easy, right?


Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley is an aspiring author and poet. To learn more about her, see our About Us page. You can follow her on Twitter here: @ElisabethGTK.

We have a poetry contest open, which you can find here.

Building a Language Part 3: Grammar

Post by Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley, co-founder

     Having decided on which sounds to use and assigned those sounds to letters, we are now going to look at the grammar. More than anything, this post will try to show you some of the things we take for granted in our language, some of the things so natural that we don't question them, so that you can make your language differ from English. Studying other languages can also help you to find ways to construct your language differently. Of course, if you want, you can simply use the English grammar, but it's so much cooler to have your very own.

Pronouns:

     Pronouns are generally considered essential, though not necessarily by those who speak your language, as they allow you to refer to something without using its proper name. Look back at that sentence and notice how many pronouns I used. So, if your language has pronouns, how many? How specific? Do they have one pronoun that is universal? That would result in "I", "it", "she", "we", and "you" being the same word. It might seem confusing to us, but in Hebrew there is only one word for "but", "and", "yet", etc.
     Or do they have dozens of pronouns that are far more specific than English? (For example, that differentiates between "you" singular and "you" plural?)

Conjugation:

     In English, conjugation is pretty simple. The verb changes based on tense, as well as number of people referred to. In some languages it is simpler, for example, Mandarin doesn't differentiate between past, present, and future. Others are more complicated, such as Spanish. Spanish has a different set of verbs for nearly ever pronoun, and for the different tenses. How will your language conjugate? Remember that the complexity of the language reflects and is shaped by the culture.

Number of words:

     Do we really need so many words to express a concept? Or, do we need more? In Spanish, "I run." is literally translated "Yo corro." but because the pronoun is reflected in the verb, you can also just say "Corro." Maybe your language can do the same thing. Or, maybe it uses more words. Perhaps they always accompany a name with the pronoun. For example, my language, New Orcish, has each noun prefaced with an article/pronoun, for example "The/him shopkeeper that sells a/it grapes is more honest than other a/they shopkeepers."
     Try to find things like this, things that truly separate your language from any of the languages you know. Changing the base framework in this way makes it so truly unique; a language, not a code. And it adds a realism and depth to the language, and the world.



Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley is an aspiring author and poet. To learn more about her, see our About Us page. You can follow her on Twitter here: @ElisabethGTK.

We have a poetry contest open, which you can find here.



For the next post in this series, click here.

Building a Language Part 2: Symbols

Post by Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley

     Last time we talked about selecting the sounds for your language, and this time I'll be showing you how to make letters for them. I've divided it into three steps: choosing a style, designing the letters, and assigning the letters.


     1. Style:

     First is choosing the style of your alphabet. For example, do you want letters with the level of complexity of a Chinese word? A Latin (what's used in English and Spanish) character? Greek? This would obviously affect the time it would take to write, so keep in mind the practicality of the nation, as well as who uses the written language. If only the rich, who have time anyway, can read, then it could be very complex. If everyone uses it, it will probably be simpler for convenience.
     Of course, just like English, there could be different versions, some more complex, some more simplified. A wonderful example would be the Forerunner language found in Halo. Though it wasn't actually invented, the books give fairly good descriptions. Cortana explains that they tend to embellish on their base symbols, making it look like they have way more letters than they really have. It is also show that the Forerunners had a 3-D version of their letters. Wouldn't that be cool, letter sculptures? But I can imagine that only aliens with the ability to construct worlds would have the leisure time to make such a complex writing system.
     Another part of style is the type of shapes and lines used. Would it be flowing, like Arabic? Geometric like Russian? A mix of simple shapes like Latin? This can change the feel of your language quite a lot, and helps to define the culture that uses it. For example, my language, New Orcish, is similar in style to English, but a bit more complicated, and with more flowing shapes.
     Another question to ask yourself is, how is the punctuation (if it exists) differ from the letters? Punctuation tends to be smaller, and in English it's mostly just small dots, and dots with tails. Is yours similar? Is it a part of the letter? Does it go directly under the letters? Etc. Also, do they have number symbols, or are their numbers always written out?

     2. Design:

     These last two can actually be switched around in a way, as you can make a letter specifically for a sound, or you can make all of the letters, and then assign them. Obviously these steps are a lot more straight-forward, as well. Basically, for this step, all that you do is implement the design elements you decided on in the last step. This maybe be harder than you expected, so don't worry if it takes a long time. Also, make lots of different letters. Don't erase the ones you make, just make more next to them. Take on base letter and make different versions, make lots of completely different ones too. This will help you to explore what you want better, as well as give you lots of options to chose from. Once you have enough, proceed to the next step.

     3. Assign:

     Now you just decide which symbol applies to which letter, and which punctuation mark, and which number. This is basically just personal preference, so I can't really instruct you here.


     One extra tip I have for you is a website called FontStruct. It allows you to build your own font, so you can just input your letters instead of the English letters, and then you'll be able to type in your language. And other people will be able to type in your language too! A wonderful thing to have when your books become bestsellers, huh?




Elisabeth TenBrink Kelley is an aspiring author and poet. To learn more about her, see our About Us page. You can follow her on Twitter here: @ElisabethGTK.

We have a poetry contest open, which you can find here.



For the next post in this series, click here.