Forever Distracted By Life
Race for the Crown 2024
Before We Begin
Good morning marathoners, and the Friends of #FoDiByLi new and old. Welcome to marathon day.
For those of you joining us here at FoDiByli for the first time welcome, and for those of you who are returning welcome back. I am as always honoured that you have chosen to join me for a day of writing, perseverance, and friendship crafted in that most ethereal of places … poetry.
The aim of today is very simple, write poetry and be proud of yourself for having done so. Whether what you write is wicked good or just a little weird it really doesn’t matter. FoDiByLi will forever be about participation above perfection, and if you leave today with just one new poem written then you have still created something wonderful.
There are no hard and fast rules, but do try to write along with the prompts as they go live each hour during the first twelve hours of the event. Part of the fun of poetry marathons is writing to the same creative prompts alongside other writers, it doesn’t matter that we are spread out across the globe, we write together and in the lines we leave upon the page we find each other. Some of my dearest friends are the whom I have never met in person, but through our participation in events like this we have transcended the barriers of time, distance, and all of the other things which make us unique. It is not in difference and division that we find our way to peace, but by sharing ourselves through acts of love and compassion. There is no act of compassion more meaningful to me than the sharing of poetry and this is why we do what we do, to bring just a little bit of love into the world.
During the first twelve hours you can write any style, form, or theme of poetry there are no restrictions, just write and do what feels right for you. If you are planning on taking part in the second stage of the marathon, then do consider writing at least three sonnets. This will make taking part in stage two easier as you will have different poems to choose from when it comes time to deciding which of your poems to use as your lead sonnet in the second stage. At hour 13 you are invited to begin writing your ‘Crown of Sonnets‘. While the first twelve hours of this event are intended to be an endurance race (there is a reason we call it a poetry marathon) the second half is an all out sprint and participants should try to finish the first draft of their ‘Crown of Sonnets‘ as fast as they possibly can.
With the current record for fastest finisher being DS Coremans with a finish time of 17 1/2 hours in 2022 could this be the year for someone else to be first across the line?
Using the template provided; you should craft a fully finished first draft of a crown of sonnets:
To use the template, you should copy each line of the main sonnet you will be using individually into the spaces of the purple ‘lead sonnet’ section. As you can see in the example above when you do this, the spreadsheet will do the hard work for you and transfer all of your start and end lines into the rest of the template. You can of course tweak these lines as you write, but this helps you craft your sonnet, getting an idea of the rhyme scheme you will need to use as well as just mapping out the shape of the piece as a whole. It is worth saying, this is not a common form of poetry, nor is it easy to write, but it is so worthwhile. Of the four finishers from the 2022 marathon only one had written a Sonnet Redoublé, Crown of Sonnets before (that was me) and one person had only just started writing poetry in general just months before. Be bold poets, don’t let this form scare you off, because I promise you, there is no one way to do this right. When you write the final line of your Crown and cross that finish line, you will have achieved something very few people can claim to have done and you should be immensely proud. All you have to do to join the four previous winners in the Royal Circle is try.
(Technical support will not be available on the day of the event, so if there are any issues accessing the template it is recommended that you join the Friends of #FoDiByLi Facebook group as a copy of this document will also be uploaded there.)
Sonnets in general are often associated with love. But don’t feel constrained by this theme, poetry is a space in which you should find yourself and reflect whatever is within you upon that page. But, while theme is open to interpretation, form can be helpful and this is where the shape of a sonnet can help you as you craft your work.
A sonnet traditionally has 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter. This sounds really technical, but it just means each line should rhythmically have ten syllables. In our earlier example, ‘In this example, the words go here’ the rhythmic breakdown would look more like this:
In – this – ex-am-ple – the – words – go – in – here
As most of the words are monosyllabic, they each count as one syllable, but the word ‘example’ has three stresses ‘ex-am-ple’ this means when you say the word, there are three distinct sounds that make up this word. If you are struggling to keep to the metric count, try counting the syllables on your fingers as you write and say the words out loud. While you might look a bit strange if you are doing this on a train (I used to do this a lot when I was commuting back and forth each day and got more than a few funny looks) it really does help when it comes to crafting your work.
In terms of rhyme scheme, you can of course create your own, not use one at all, or you can jumble up the traditional forms associated with the sonnet. There are however two rhyme schemes that academic writers would consider the traditional rhyme schemes most associated with this form, they are the Shakespearean/English Sonnet, and the Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet.
Rhyme Scheme : abab cdcd efef gg
Shakespearean/English Sonnet
Rhyme Scheme: abbaabba cdcdcd (or cdecde)
Petrarchan/Italian Sonnet
In both of these examples the sonnet is broken into two sections, the first octave (the first eight lines) and the second sestet (the last six lines). Try to think of the octave as the place to explore the theme of your poem. In the ninth line of a sonnet we traditionally have ‘the Volta’ (a begins a resolve, or explores an opposite view as presented in the initial octave). Each sonnet you write, even in your crown, should feel distinct and contained, and by using the Volta in line nine it can help provide a sense of balance in your work. You can emulate this in the full crown of sonnets by having the first eight sonnets fully explore a theme, and then have the ninth sonnet act as a Volta, a first opposition to that theme that begins your resolve in the final six sonnets.
These rules however are just a guide, they can be helpful, but in the heat of the moment, they can also be a hinderance, so when it comes down to just you and the page before you, do what feels right and be proud of what you write. When it comes time to craft your crown of sonnets, try to use the same rhyme scheme and rhythm in your fourteen sonnets as you did in your lead sonnet, this can help make your crown of sonnet feel cohesive and complete.
While the spreadsheet is there to help, if you would really rather go it alone, then once you have your lead sonnet, follow this form below to craft your crown of sonnets.
A Crown of Sonnets is 15 individual linked sonnets where each successive sonnet start with a line from the 15th sonnet which you will have written during the first stage of the marathon. The first line of Sonnet 1 starts with line 1, and ends with line 2 of Sonnet 15; The first line of Sonnet 2 starts with line 2, and ends with line 3 of Sonnet 15…The first line of Sonnet 14 starts with line 14, and ends with line 1 of Sonnet 15.
Good luck poets, and I shall see you all on the other side.
DS Coremans
Feel free to share your work here on Forever Distracted By Life or on any of the linked #FoDiByLi platforms below:
After the Marathon
All participants who took part in either stage of the marathon (whether you completed the event or not) should email their work within the spreadsheet template provided for the second stage of the event. This spreadsheet has spaces for your stage one poems as well as your crown of sonnets. Alternatively, you can send your work in an attached word document if you would prefer to do so. The title of this email should be ‘Race for the Crown Confirmation’.
These poems will not count as submissions, but poets who are confirmed to have completed all twelve poems from stage one, or the full crown from stage 2 will be sent a certificate to commemorate this achievement. All emails should be sent to dsc@fodibyli.com with the subject line ‘Race for the Crown Confirmation’.
All participants taking part in the second stage of the marathon will have one month to finish their Crown of Sonnets and send it to DS Coremans, crowns finished after this time are still an achievement but may not be considered for publication in this first anthology collection. However completed crowns should be sent to DS as soon as possible after they are finished, even if the draft is very rough, the email time signature will be used to confirm which three poets finish first and will be eligible for submission as the primary feature of the anthology collection which will open for submission later in the year.
With the current record for fastest finisher being DS Coremans with a finish time of 17 1/2 hours in 2022 could this be the year for someone else to be first across the line and claim their crown?
Musical Inspiration
Throughout the day the prompts will be accompanied by musical prompts that have been composed and performed by Mr Paul James. Paul has been working tirelessly over the past few months to put together these tracks to help guide and maintain that creative headspace required for a poetry marathon to take place. Listen along each hour, and let us know if you like the music as much as we do. Paul is a Composer, Modular Artist, and Sound Designer who has graciously donated his time and his abundant talent to FoDiByLi in preparation for this event. If you have enjoyed listening to these tracks and would like to listen to them again as you write your redouble then head over to the FoDiByLi Youtube channel where all of the tracks will be made public after the event has completed.
Thank you Paul.
Friends of #FoDiByLi
If you would like to share your work in the private Facebook group set up specifically for sharing work and networking with other writers this is a fantastic way of being part of the FoDiByLi community during this event. You can share your work as comments under each hours post, and after the event those taking part may be able to offer their praise for the things they like about your work. To join, head over to Friends of #FoDiByLi and once you have been accepted into the group you can share your work and chat to the other poets and writers taking part.
#FoDiByLi
Follow the Forever Distracted By Life website or any of the linked social media accounts for more writing prompts, original poetry and fiction. Like and share these prompts and posts to help spread the word about #FoDiByLi.
Recent Poetry Prompts from #FoDiByLi
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