Sorry, I've been barely checking in here for the past few months and didn't see that this thread had risen from the dead. Oh, ouch, I said some awfully cringe-worthy things! But at least it started a good conversation.
As for my original question, I've actually stopped posting my blank verse for critique here, because I know full well what my problem is--namely, that I just can't shut up. When I write blank verse, I find myself yammering on and on and on, and it takes me years--literally, years--to edit the thing down to something in which every line earns its keep. In contrast, if I write a sonnet, I'm forced to shut the hell up in 14 lines; the volta structure helps me get to the point, too, and of course the rhyme scheme limits what I can say, too. But I currently don't do so well when those training wheels are off. I'll need a lot more practice with shorter stuff like sonnets before I'll have the discipline for really good blank verse.
I did get a long chunk published this year, but the one I'm currently working on won't be ready for a few more years yet, at the rate I edit. Personally, I think editors balk more at the length of blank verse pieces, and perhaps their apparent density on the page, than the meter of them.
Julie the Expert
|
Threaded Mode
