To Ode or Not to Ode...

So, I've been mostly focused on fiction lately and have completely neglected my poor poetry book :) But an email from the ever awesome Christine Fonseca has it on my mind again. She asked about odes, a poetic form I generally steer clear from because every source I've consulted lists a different set of "rules" for these babies. Which bugs me :D

However, in speaking with a few students and parents, it seems these are still regularly taught in language arts classes (though again, I'm not sure who is teaching what because other than saying that odes were "usually" written in praise of something, I've never come across two sources that give you the same set of instructions on them, and every class I've taken teaches them differently. If at all. The seminar I took in grad school barely touched on them).

But this has me curious - what are the main forms they are teaching in school these days? For which forms are you googling for help? I know my writing blog still regularly gets hits on the how-to write a sonnet and heroic couplets posts. All you teachers/parents/students - what forms have you googling for instructions?

My book, Poetry Pointers, so far contains chapters on two dozen different poetic forms. But I want to make sure I'm covering the ones everyone will need :)

WIP Wednesday

I am happy to report that I am actually doing pretty well on all those nasty edits I've been slogging through :D I have now edited up through chapter 9 with chapters 1-8 making their way through their last round of critiques.

I think I might actually have this baby all polished and presentable by the end of the year LOL Woohoo!! Of course, I am aiming on having it done before then, but in an effort not to get ahead of myself, I'll just shoot for Dec 31st :D

I have also begun another project, a new blog called Papers, Prose and Poetry which focuses on...well, papers, prose (essays) and poetry :D It will work a little differently than this blog. I will only be posting three days a week over there, focusing on Papers on Mondays, Prose on Wednesdays, and Poetry on Fridays. (Starting on Monday Sept 21st).

My non-fiction book, From Papers to Poetry, will soon be making it's way through editors and this blog was created as a companion to the book. In it, I'll give tips for writing various forms of essays and poetry, discuss how to write research papers, give helpful hints on researching and writing these often painful assignments, and hopefully have a little fun with it all. I will be coming up with a few games and contests for my readers - I am looking forward to getting it started.

I would really like to set up a weekly poetry contest like the one they used to have on Poetry.com - I've posted some of the poems I came up with in the contest. It was just so much fun to be given a limited number of specific words and have to come up with something poetic :) If I can figure out how to do this on my own blog, it will definitely be there.

Anyhow, that was my week - how are all of you doing?