Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart.

16.16: Poetic Structure: Part II

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard How does a poem happen? Absent an external structure, what makes a thing a poem? The key word in that question may be “external,” because ultimately the poem on the page will be the implicit definition of its own structure—even if it borrows…

16.15: Poetic Structure, Part I

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Rigorous structure in poetic formis commonly pointed at when we declarePoems have meters and rhymes, as the norm. Yet words without patterns can roar like a stormSo why pay attention, why study with careRigorous structure in poetic form? Just set it aside, surrender…

16.14: Poetic Language

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard We might begin with description. Or we might begin by deconstructing the act of describing. Wait. No, not there. Let’s jump in AFTER the deconstruction. Let’s leap beyond a statement of topic, let’s hurdle clear of mundane declarations of the audio file’s…

16.13: Day Brain vs. Night Brain

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Patterns in the way we’re speaking may betray which ‘brain’ we’re using; often bound by what’s familiar, sometimes loosed for free-er choosing. Writing like the day-brain’s thinkingSinging while the night-brain’s winkingAll the cadence going funky(golden-mantled howler monkey) Credits: This episode was recorded by Marshall…

16.12 : Singing Versus Speaking

Your Hosts: Mary Robinette, Dan, Amal, and Howard Can you hear your writing sing, being intoned instead of read? With the dialogs as tunes whose tags say “sung” instead of “said?” When the rhythm of your prose echoes the rhythm of a song you’ll see perhaps you’ve been a poet…