Advice: adaptations and line lengths

[morgan]

I've never done NEPMO before, and I've never really written any story poetry, so I need some advice.

To make my life a bit easier and to let me keep working on my NaNo novel, I was planning on adapting a novel this year instead of creating my own plot. I chose Elvenbane by Mercedes Lackey and Andre Norton, which is pretty epic, and (I think) would translate well.

But I have so many plot bunnies and ideas that I kind of want to start something new. Also I sort of adapted something for Script Frenzy, and it was harder than I expected (although it was my own work, and a lot of new material had to be created, so that could account for it).

What do the wise and experienced NEPMOers recommend?

Also, I was wondering how long people generally make their lines. Because if every line is 10 words, that's a novel in poem format. Is there a convention?

Thanks in advance for helping me out.

[kenysmeyn]

I'm not sure if there are any experienced NEPMoers... most people posting on the boards (myself included) seem to be first timers. I'll try to give advice anyway, but take it with a grain of salt.

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Free Verse:

Most poetry in the last century has been in the form of free verse. Wikipedia describes free verse as "a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern". On one hand, lack of structure can make things difficult; it is incredibly easy to write *bad* free verse. On the other hand, free verse is faster to write and can come out quite nicely.

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Structured Verse:

English is a stress-timed language so it's structured poetry is measured by the metrical foot.

Measures include trimeters (3 feet), tetrameters (4 feet), pentameter (5 feet) and hexameter (6 feet).

Metrical feet in English include the iamb (short syllable/long syllable), trochee (long/short), dactyl (long/short/short) and anapest (short/short/long). You can replace "long" with "stressed" and "short" with "unstressed" if that makes more sense to you.

By far the most frequently appearing form of poetry prior to the turn of the century was in the form of iambic pentameter. That is, a ten syllable line with five short syllables alternating with five long ones.

Considerable variation was allowed though. Shakespeare had line that ranged in length from 8-12 syllables and occasionally had other types of metrical feet, although iambs were the most common.

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I'm not sure what form I'd recommend; I still haven't picked one myself. Free verse seems so much less stressful, but I can't imagine reading a 100 page story in it.

As for content, my vote is for starting a new story instead of doing an adaption.