You know what I'm sick of in life? Its bloody seriousness. Your girl leave you? Tell her to eat cake and die. Your friends ignore you? Tell 'em you'll f*uck their mothers. Who cares. I've been thinking more and more of writing nonsense verse. I loved Edward Lear and the incomparable Shel Silverstein. I can do that stuff- I think. So what's this post about? Tell me what you feel the most important 'rules' are in writing- nonsense verse. Every contribution will be appreciated.
I think that art--any form whatsover; be it literature(poems, novel, prose, etc.), visual(painting, film making, etc.), or music--can only flourished and grow through freedom. What I really meant to say to you is this: DO WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT. If you think you should write nonsensical poems, please do. Nobody should be able to tell you not to write these poems. You're a not a slave or living under oppressive regime, you're a free human being. So do you whatever you want and don't let anybody dictate to you what you can and cannot write.
Valid points! Thank you! However, I would like to write nonsense verse that people would enjoy. There must be a few unsaid 'rules' that successful writers in the genre go by. Hmmmmmmm.
"Fury said the mouse, that he met in a house: 'Let us both go to law, I will prosecute you. Come I'll take no denial, why we must have a trial; for really this morning I've nothing to do.' Mouse said to the cur: 'Why dear sir, such a trial with no judge or no jury would be wasting our breath.' 'Well I'll be the judge and I'll be the jury,' said old cunning fury 'I'll try the whole case and condemn you to death!'" -The mouses tale, "Alices Adventures in Wonderland" - Lewis Carroll
A nice excerpt! Thanks! Sometimes I think nonsense verse is exactly the tonic we need on all these too serious days. Have a great Christmas!
I disagree. Not only have many of the greatest writers in history flourished most under oppressive regimes, drug habits, etc., but the freedom to do anything can - at least for some - be the most restrictive brief of all; the absence of any boundaries often takes away the impetus to do something. For example, nonsense verse is unbounded by language or even common sense, but it's one of the hardest things in the world to do well. I think that a major unwritten rule is that, in the absence of coherence in the language, a coherent structure, rhyme scheme, etc. becomes far more important in marking the piece out as gibberish poetry rather than just gibberish. Neurotic Aloisyus Swimming with the fishes Spied upon the banks All of his unwashed dishes. Easy-going Shiva Dancing in the river Saw her unwashed dishes and then I'm stuck.
kidder, greetings dude. I think it will help you in the beginning if you just write some stuff that just takes the piss. It will help warm you up. There are lots of targets out there from politicians, to overpaid celebrities, to silly custom and narrow minded thinking. If you can find some of Spike Milligan's work on the internet it might help inspire you. I think it helps if you can laugh at yourself, too. Anyway, put some stuff up so we can peruse
Hi, Scorpion! I haven't been here much lately. I have been...busy. But I'll have to get at more nonsense verse and submit it here. You're right- there are lots of targets. And Spike is great!
With a lot of verse you will find that you'll be open to a lot of criticism, but I'm sure that like me that won't change your lifestyle A few times in this forum I've had some negative comments (I say fair enough) and once there was even a very depressing thread which sadly caused venomous animosity amongst people that don't even know each other. If you can put up with that and not take the bait of those that are gagging to turn an art forum into a war zone then you'll be fine. And just to set things right, the positive comments I've had from people here far outweigh the negative ones. I've also had constructive criticism from poets with a mature clarity that ellucidated form and structure that I wasn't aware of. My main advice about dealing with those that like to kick sandcastles is to write them in the two global things that hang between our legs. And then write a poem about it, of course.
i agree with self control. i write fantasy fiction, which many people may naively look at as "anything goes" writing. it's fantasy, right? so you can do whatever you want, can't you? not so. there are conventions to fantasy and other types of genre writing that readers expect (although not always consciously) when they pick up a novel. at first i felt very resentful and limited by this, until i became aware that the conventions do not exist to present a formula telling us how to write, but in fact are there to be used by the author as a tool to build structure and assist with organization of ideas that can otherwise very easily grow out of control. it helps to make the tale tellable. the trick is not approaching the conventions of a particular type of writing as a formula. you do not write your story or poem to fit the conventions. you apply the conventions to your writing, to give it structure and make the tale tellable. again, i also have to agree about nonsense verse: the greatest nonsense poems i've read are unbound by the rules of logic and language, but have strong structure, making clever use of meter, rhyme, and alliteration, which i have probably misspelled.
"WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU WANT" is a good attitude towards writing, but only in the case that you're writing for yourself. In your blog, your diary, your notebook during lectures... Sure, write whatever the fuck you want. But most people who write do it to express their ideas to others, or to make others feel a certain way. If you just do whatever the fuck you want, ignoring every rule in the book, you'll just end up with something that nobody understands. If nobody understands it, how exactly is it going to affect them? So then, what was the point of showing it to anybody, if they weren't meant to get it?
Structure etc. differentiates between nonsense verse and just nonsense. You won't find many of Lear's or Spike Milligan's poetry deviating too heavily from a set structure.
creative types especially tend to resent "rules" and being told what they can and can't do, because dictation is contrary to the creative process. i think it is very important to think not in terms of "rules" telling an author or poet how to write, so much as tools to help provide form. remember, you are not writing to "obey" the rules. there is nothing an editor hates more than formula writing. the "rules" are there to be shaped to fit your writing, to give your ideas recognizable shape, and meet the audience you want to reach halfway.
i think that even if you're working on the early stages of a project you plan to submit for publication or grading, "whatever the fuck you want" in the form of freewriting is an exellent way to generate material to be developed further. maybe 99% of what you write in a freewrite may be totally unusable, and that's ok, because it's the process that is important. you can't build up a structure and tear it down at the same time. use the freewrite to generate ideas, and if you only get one eloquent phrase out of pages and pages of freewrite that can be used as a jumping-off point for more developed writing, it's worth the effort.
They are not rules, so much as guidelines. A writer who knows there are rules and bends them is generally more palatable than someone who simply doesn't know the rules. I'm talking basic stuff like how to compose a sentence. You can write in fragmented sentences if it produces the desired effect, but if you do it all the time it'll lose any impact it ever had. Similarly, inventing words when there are none for what you want to say is one thing, just slapping the keyboard about is another.
Definately good advice from SC and kitty. Before delving into freestyle writing, or in this case nonsense verse, it would be worth studying experts on the genre such as Edward Lear, or good old Spike(bless his soul). I remember seeing Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Becket and The Maids by Jean Genet, and apart from the obvious humour, the essence of both accepted classics went above my head. I would applaud, however, any piece that can communicate a strong feeling by the writer, that perhaps we may share and tend to overlook. Obviously you can get that with all forms of poetry, because surely that's one of its objectives, but not everyone is inclined to commit themselves. A bit like marriage really.
How many smithereens would a pauper complicate, If his hat was evereaching to drop money in it? haha what on earth?
If I had a lot of money, I'd buy a great big bus, I'd paint it with a coat of honey, Then find a word that rhymes with bus.
