• Member Since 26th Sep, 2011
  • offline last seen 5 hours ago

FanOfMostEverything


Forget not that I am a derp.

More Blog Posts1330

  • Sunday
    Friendship is Card Games: Mane Event

    So, as I have come to understand, the main G5 IDW line has been replaced by/subsumed into a series of mini-series and one-shots that feels like the equivalent of a network trying to kill a show by bouncing it around the schedule. Hopefully I’m being paranoid there.

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    8 comments · 162 views
  • 1 week
    Rumor Gathering

    While diminished from its peak, the Writeoff is still very much an ongoing concern. Regrettably, while I actually had an idea for the most recent prompt, my Saturdays are packed to the gills and thus I didn't have time to compose it before the submission deadline. As such, I have employed Dueling

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    2 comments · 140 views
  • 1 week
    Friendship is Card Games: Wondercolts Forever: The Diary of Celestia and Luna

    The next entry on the schedule was issues #21 and 22 of the G5 mainline, but those have failed to manifest, making me wonder if that line’s actually been ended in favor of the various mini-series currently in progress. And among them, I only have one released issue unaccounted for. As such, it’s time to turn to the next pony novel… which does not contain ponies.

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    6 comments · 168 views
  • 2 weeks
    Incident of Examination

    There's a Crystal Prep-themed Sunset shipping contest on at the moment, and one castoff idea I had got me wondering about Sunset attending CPA... and running against a logical issue. At least I got

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    0 comments · 194 views
  • 2 weeks
    Friendship is Card Games: Tell Your Tale, Season 2, Part 2

    Looks like that Leap Day hypothesis carried some weight. The long-form episodes should be interesting in their own right, but we’re not looking at one this week. Let’s see what there is to see.

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    5 comments · 184 views
Dec
11th
2013

On Rhythm and Meter, or, How do I Wrote Zeb? · 5:49pm Dec 11th, 2013

I've seen many people here comment on how hard it is to write dialogue for Zecora. I've given advice on an individual level before, but at this point, I'd like something to point to.

It's not simply enough for Zecora's dialogue (or that of any other rhyming character) to rhyme. You're literally writing poetry, and that means using rhythm. Let's analyze our main subject's first line in "Bridle Gossip":

Beware, beware, you pony folk,
Those leaves of blue are not a joke!

The underlined syllables are those that are emphasized. As you can see, each line has four iambs, metrical "feet" that consist of an unstressed syllable and a stressed syllable in that order. Thus, the line is iambic tetrameter, one foot per line short of Shakespeare.

The point to take away from this is that both ends of each couplet have to have the same number of syllables in the same rhythmic arrangement. There is a little leeway, of course; that's one form of poetic license. As long as it still sounds right, you can add or drop a syllable to a line, though contractions, filler words, and synonyms can also be used.

Note that you are not restricted to any particular style or foot. Feet come in every conceivable combination of two to four stressed and/or unstressed syllables, though disyllables, dactyls, and anapests are the most common. Combinations of different feet in a line can be done as well. All that matters is consistency; whatever rhythm you established in the first line must be repeated in the second, poetic license notwithstanding.

On the other hand, by working within the confines of a given meter, you can write song parodies. For example:

I am the very model of a modern major-general.
I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral.

Here we have a case of iambic octameter. (As a side note, Octameter Melody seems like an excellent name for Octavia's father...) Any new lyrics will have to fit the tune, and therefore, the meter, as these do:

I am the very model of a modern cartoon character
With sanity that's low enough to be fourth-wall aware-iter

I hope I've demystified the matter a bit for everyone. :twilightsmile:

Report FanOfMostEverything · 2,526 views ·
Comments ( 9 )

No, no, no, it's

I am the very model of a cartoon individual
My animation's comical, unusual, and whimsical

1596719

I see somebody watches Animaniacs... :raritywink:

Zecora's rhymes can be hard to find
Most writers seem to just simply have no time. :twilightoops:

But patience given and time taken,
can bring about quite the sensation. :yay:

Alas I have not much patience,
So I'll end this now, without a rhyme... -ence. :derpyderp1:

Came here to mention what I like to call the "Equestria, Buck Yeah" Rule, which is the awfully convenient fact that swapping "America" for "Equestria" won't affect any rhyme or meter,

It's been a year and a half, I'm pretty sure I can double post. Anyway, I was recently reminded that keeping time is canonically the main purpose of the Green Lantern Oath, so meter is especially important for parodies of that.

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