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[Write On Wednesday] A Prose Sonnet

Today’s prompt continues the month’s theme of looking at different short story forms you can try out.

This one’s a challenge, but really fun.

Right-click to download the audio only

The Prompt

Write a story in 14 sentences

Tips

  • You can simply write 14 sentences.
  • You could use the Petrarchan form of sonnet where the first 8 lines/sentences propose an argument or an idea and the second 8 answer or refute it.
  • You could use the Shakespearean form, with three groups of 4 linked sentences, followed by two lines/sentences that provide illumination, a revelation, a twist or an explanation.
  • You could write a sonnet series, with each group of 14 lines fulfilling a different function in your story.
  • Writing this way is hard but it frees you. Instead of worrying about writing well, you’re concentrating on the form. Sometimes that tricks your brain into writing really well; sometimes it’s just a triumph to have written at all.

Leave a comment telling us how it went!

One thought on “[Write On Wednesday] A Prose Sonnet”

  1. Here’s my effort toward a Shakespearean-style sonnet story.
    Just a little walk like so many others in the post-equinox sun’s glare.
    It Happens Every Spring
    https://wp.me/p1AR9N-3eg

    Now on to what Bruce Holland Rogers calls his “Italian prose sonnet.” Petrarchan it ain’t.

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