[Yves S L]

Instead of counting syllables to approximate accentual meter, why not learn to aurally differentiate between 5 beat and 4 beat lines as you are writing to get an approximate syllable count?

My main issue with folk who approximate accentual meter by using a range of syllables, then write "rhythmically", and then count later is that I cannot see how adding an additional step after one has written the lines gains the necessary real-time fluency in accentual meter. It is a neither here nor there approach to me that just muddies the waters, and makes it harder for the ear to learn to accurately judge what is happening as it is happening.

For me, the point of strict accentual meter is that it is simply the fastest way to learn how to control rhythm, and then afterwards one can use one's ear to consciously create the whatever rhythmic patterns one hears in one's mind.

There is an endless range of rhythmic and tonal possibilities in iambic pentameter alone, from the soft pittter patter of a small children at play to the insistent banging of a drum.

What is meter? It lies purely within your own personal abilities to process sounds.