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Limerick writing can save your life
The only deadlier place for falling asleep at the wheel might be on the track at the Indy 500. I was motivated, clearly...but how did I learn to write a limerick in ten minutes flat? I cheated. That is, I worked out a shortcut system for limerick writing. Now I'm passing that system on to you for FREE. Let's do this by the numbers. Ready? 1. Know your alphabet. 2. Pick a word. Any word. Let's start with...belt. 3. Run the word you selected through the alphabet. You're looking for rhymes, and you can do this in your head, in the dark, while hauling water to a drilling rig. Or not. So: ...aelt...belt...celt...delt...elt...felt...gelt... You might end up with these: ...belt...felt...melt...pelt... welt.... You have five solidly rhyming words, more than enough to supply the longer lines for any limerick. It will often work with three, so let's give this one a try. You use these words for lines 1, 3, and 5 of the poem. 4. Limerick writing time!
(To take a look at Chinese Jade as beautiful as this stream, click on the snowmelt!)
While watching a river of snow melt A fisherman wondered what he felt The trout stayed below The fast melting snow Making the man tighten his own belt ================================================================= You've just written a complete limerick, and you can (at least sometimes) do that in ten minutes or less. Not always, of course. With that in mind, here comes your Free BONUS information: What if you think your own rhyming poem is just lousy? I often think that and never even write down the words. The answer is simple enough. You can (a) play with the same set of rhyming words in an altogether different setup, or (b) scrap that entire set and try another starter word. Of course, you can also check out limerick writing by me (Fred Baker) and/or many others. A point ----> about limerick structure. The best of them are arranged as follows: Line 1: 8 to 10 syllables. Line 2: 8 to 10 syllables, rhymes at the end with line 1. Line 3: 4 to 6 syllables. Line 4: 4 to 6 syllables, rhymes at the end with line 3. Line 5: 8 to 10 syllables, rhymes at the end with lines 1 and 2. If you review a number of websites that contain rhyming humor, you'll see that much limerick writing does NOT stick to those limits. You don't really have to, either; it's your choice. A point ----> about writing support: Please feel free to Contact Us at any time with questions or comments on this topic. we (my wife and I) love to help. For example, what if you can't think of a word to start the creative process percolating? (One answer to THAT question is to look around you, take the first thing you see, and start there. In the truck, it might have been the hood I could see through the windshield, silhouetted by the headlights.) Okay, let's see: ...could...good...hood...should...wood...would.... Then: ================================================================= Pretty much every time that he could A man wore a long coat with a hood He felt that his face Was total disgrace Though the girls thought he looked pretty good ================================================================= A point ----> about the number of syllables: I try to keep them as close to 9-9-5-5-9 as possible. It doesn't always work, but it did in this example. Line 1 started out with 8 syllables. After adjusting it to 9, I could no longer remember how it was first written! If I can't remember the first version, the newer edition must be an improvement. Right? Actually, in limerick writing as in many aspects of life, it's a matter of taste. Note: I count [every] as two syllables, bcause that's the way most of us talk. Ev-ree, not ev-er-ee. We want to write phonetically, the way we hear it, rather than the way our sixth grade English teachers might have preferred. A point ----> about the rhymes on lines 1, 2, and 5: A lot of older limerick writing efforts, such as those by Lear, used the SAME word to finish line 5 of nearly every limerick as they did on line 1. That was okay back then, but it feels a little lazy for the 21st century, so I just won't go there in my own limerick writing. You can if you want (though your creative output may wind up sounding like it was written in 1845). I've also found that the more I read good writing, the better my own writing automatically becomes. My forthcoming ebook, Baker's Book of Laundered Limericks, was largely inspired by other writers who've work I've read in depth. One limerick I have yet to figure out how to write? One with [limerick] as the starter word for the rhymes on lines 1, 2, and 5. That word, limerick, just seems to sort of stand alone without many available rhyme-buddies. Il suppose you could cheat by naming somebody Jimerick, and another one Timerick. To me, that doesn't seem fair. But hey, it's a limerick, not War and Peace. The most important thing? Have fun
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