It’s Sunday, the day for our

Rhyming Party today at Noon, Central Time!

Go to the

RhyPiBoMo Facebook Group

to join the fun!

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Announcing this weeks daily prize winners!

Don’t forget to comment EACH  day that you participate in order to be eligible for the week’s prizes. You have until Midnight on Saturday each week to get caught up for the week.  There were several people who would have won a prize that commented but are not registered for the event. You must be registered to qualify for a prize! Click the registration tab above or go to https://angiekarcher.wordpress.com/rhypibomo-registration/and register now!

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This week’s Daily Prize winners are:                              

Sunday              Kevan Atteberry Art quality signed print of his rhyme cartoon       Penny Parker Klostermann

Monday             Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson                                                            Charlotte Dixon

Tuesday            Who Goes There? by Karma Wilson                                                              Cecilia Clark

Wednesday       Choice of Noodle & Lou, Think Big or Happy Birthday

                            Bunny by Liz Garton Scanlon                                                                         Lori Mozdzierz

Thursday          Beetle Bop  by Denise Fleming                                                                        Helen Dening

Friday                2 Hour Manuscript Edit by Jackie Hosking                                               Jennifer B. Young

Saturday           underGROUND BY Denise Fleming                                                              Jill Proctor

 

WINNERS: EMAIL me at 

Angie.karcher@yahoo.com

with your mailing addresses to receive your prize!

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As our Daily Lesson is on stanzas today, I thought I’d share a Stanza Riddle!

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Who is tall, dark and handsome and puts up with a children’s author who…

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Writes all night and sleeps all day,

forgets to make dinner but write this buffet?

He doesn’t complain or ever ask why,

my husband Stan-za really great guy!

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Mardi Gras 2013

Thank you Stan Karcher for putting up with my shenanigans! I love you!

Happy Birthday on April 23rd! I’m telling you early in case I forget in all my RhyPiBoMo mania! = )

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Fortunately, you can’t see how messy my office has become in one short week, strewn with picture books, rhyming dictionaries, and empty coffee mugs, but look what came in the mail Yesterday! I finally got my copy of GOOD BYE, BAD BYE. It is a delight! This newly released rhyming picture book is a gem, combining Deborah’s thrifty yet brilliant text and Jonathan Bean’s amazing illustrations.

“Bad truck, bad guy; bad wave, bad bye . . .” A boy and his family are packing up their old home, and the morning feels scary and sad. But when he arrives at his new home, an evening of good byes awaits: bye to new friends, bye to glowing fireflies, bye to climbing trees. Happy Book Birthday month to BAD BYE, GOOD BYE!

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So, without further ado, I’m honored to present today’s

Golden Quill Guest Blogger

Deborah Underwood

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How’s Your Verse Sense?

You may know people whose poetic efforts are impeccable. Their rhymes are natural, not forced; they don’t use convoluted syntax (like “the box unopened underneath her bed she put”); their words skip along, effortlessly conforming to the metrical structure they’ve set up.

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You may also know otherwise-excellent writers who repeatedly bring subpar rhyming manuscripts to critique meetings. The rhymes are forced. Some lines are missing a foot (or two or three). The metrical pattern changes randomly from stanza to stanza.

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What do the former folks have that the latter folks lack? I call it verse sense: the ability to tell good verse from bad.

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Like any writing skill or asset, verse sense comes naturally to some. I feel fortunate in that it’s pretty easy for me to hear when rhyme doesn’t work. Writing descriptive passages, though? I am terrible at that. Terrible!

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Does this mean that if I yearn to write a description-filled novel, I shouldn’t try it? Of course not. But I’ll have an extra hurdle, because my natural description ability is nonexistent. I’ll need to work my tail off to compensate.

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You can probably see where I’m going with this.

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You’ve heard a million times how biased editors are against rhyming manuscripts. That’s because they’ve seen so many bad ones. And does any writer think she’s submitting a bad rhyming manuscript? Of course not!

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Thus, the bad manuscripts are submitted by people who 1) don’t have natural verse sense and 2) don’t know that they lack it.

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That last bit is important. Because if you know you don’t have verse sense, you can acquire it through study and practice. You can:

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– Learn about poetic forms in more detail. (Participating in RhyPiBoMo is a great place to start!)
– Analyze your rhyme beat by beat, marking stressed and unstressed syllables and counting feet in each line.
– Rely on writing friends who do have an ear for rhyme.
– Comb through your work to eliminate syntactical contortions.
– Read all the fabulous rhyming picture books you can get your hands on. (Read some bad ones too and figure out why they don’t work!)
– Surround yourself with good rhyme of all kinds. One of my favorite non-kidlit sources: the works of Gilbert & Sullivan. I was a huge fan of The Mikado when I was in grade school, and I attribute some of my rhyme affinity to my early fascination with and delight in that operetta’s clever libretto.

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Basically, you must do whatever you need to do to make your rhyming manuscripts very, very good. Because that is what they need to be–for your own sake, so you can get them published, and for the sake of the kids who will read them.

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So where are you on the verse sense spectrum? Are you certain you’re rhyme-savvy, because many friends you trust have told you that? Are you so-so? Do you suspect that you don’t have a natural affinity for rhyme?

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An honest assessment, with the help of trusted critique pals, will help you plan your next steps. Then onward to rhyming glory!

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Two of Deborah’s Latest books:

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Deborah is the author of the following children’s books:
The Loud Book (Houghton Mifflin, 2011)
The Quiet Book (Houghton Mifflin, 2010)
A Balloon for Isabel (Greenwillow Books, 2010)
Granny Gomez & Jigsaw (Disney*Hyperion, 2010)
Pirate Mom (Random House, 2006)

She writes the Sugar Plum Ballerina chapter book series with Whoopi Goldberg.

She’ s written numerous nonfiction books for educational publishers. Her poems, articles, and stories have been published in National Geographic Kids, Spider, Ladybug, Pockets, and other children’s magazines. She has also been hired by educational publishers to write leveled science books, phonics readers, testing passages, and test questions.

Thank You Deborah Underwood!

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RhyPiBoMo Daily Lesson: Sunday, April 6th
By Angie Karcher © 2014
Lesson 8

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Stanza

A Stanza is a rhyming pattern in poetry that forms a group. (write this down)
A stanza can have any number of lines. These groups of lines are given specific names.
Usually there is a blank line between stanzas to separate them.
The different verses in music are stanzas.

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I listed these yesterday but we will go into more detail now…

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Special names of stanzas depending on the number of lines:

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2 lines – Couplet
3 lines – Tercet
4 lines – Quatrain
5 lines – Quintet
6 lines – Sestet
7 lines – Septet
8 lines – Octave
9 lines – Nine-line stanza
10 line – Ten-line stanza etc…

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Couplets, tercets and quatrains are the foundation of poetry! (write this down)

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Couplet – A 2 line stanza with end words that rhyme.
For example:
I want to climb the tree so high
And reach to touch the cloudy sky

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Tercet – A 3 line stanza with end words that rhyme.
For example:
When walking down the gravel road
I spied a slimy, greenish toad.
He jumped into in his wet abode.

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Quatrain – A 4 line stanza with a variety of rhyme schemes.
The most common rhyme scheme for a quatrain is where lines 2 and 4 rhyme.

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For example:
I see while sitting in the grass
and counting sheep by twos.
Two, four, six, yes eight of them
are really full-grown ewes.

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How could I get through this post without mentioning

Jill Esbaum’s adorable rhyming picture book titled

STANZA…

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Stanza is a closet poet who secretly enters a poetry contest. He’s hoping to win first prize, fame, fortune and Lotsa snapper treats.

*My favorite two lines are “he’s itching to write” and “he’s doggone depressed”
It’s such a delight and the meter is Stantastic!

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Here are other variations of quatrain rhyme scheme.
For example:
ABAB
I ate the chip.
It made me want
to do a flip;
a silly stunt!

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For example:
AABB uses two couplets
The apple is a yummy snack
to eat while sitting on a yack.
Remember, though, to share a bite
This will prevent a yack-snack fight.

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For example:
AAAB
My brother is always annoying and loud.
My mother believes that his head’s in a cloud.
He really embarrasses me in a crowd.
I wish he would just go to sleep.For example:

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AABA
A pickle is crunchy when you take a bite.
The noise is so loud, I think that it might
cause mountains to topple and elm trees to fall.
This is a good reason for pickle-bite fright!

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ABBA this is called an envelope verse, the middle rhyme is enveloped by the outer rhymes.
Word on the street is it’s going to rain.
I’m a sad fella,
sans my umbrella.
I am preparing to get wet again!

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Longer stanzas are made up of various combinations of the couplet, tercet and quatrain.

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There are obviously many combinations that can be used in different stanzas. One I came across is called a Spenserian stanza. It was invented by Edmund Spenser. Each stanza contains nine lines in total: eight lines in iambic pentameter followed by a single ‘alexandrine’ line in iambic hexameter. The rhyme scheme of these lines is “ababbcbcc.” Whew! That’s quite a poetry puzzle! I dare you… LOL

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Resources:
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/stanza-examples.html
http://www.mrdaley.com/wordpress/poetry/stanza/

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Writing Prompt: Write what appeals to you with the examples above. Writing the AABA and the AAAB were the most fun for me!

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Okay, now do everything else on the pledge for today and don’t forget to comment on today’s blog post!

RhyPiBoMo Pledge

Please comment ONLY ONE TIME below for a chance to win today’s prize!
Prizes will be drawn by Random.com next Sunday for the previous week.
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