Bad Poetry: a game of wordplay

naught101 writing games / word-play / writing / poetry

Bad Poetry is a poetry-building game, that allows you explore word-play of all types, and create terrible poetry along the way.

This game is a work in progress. It has only been play tested a little bit, but the rules are simple, and you can modify them as needed. Feedback or suggestions are welcome.

The game stemmed from a desire to create a framework for quick and effective collaborate poetry or lyric writing. The rules are designed partly as a way to have some silly semi-competitive fun, and as a set of creative constraints, that can help you create poetry that you actually care about, in a similar way to how story-telling games help create fictional settings. As such, you can treat it as a game, or as an exercise, and you should feel free to modify the rules to suit your purposes. Some modifications to the rules are suggested along the way.

Overview

The basic game play runs like this:

  1. Game setup phase:
    1. Set up the pages (described below)
    2. Decide on a poetry format (suggestions below)
  2. Brainstorm phase:
    1. Players come up with 2 themes (examples below)
    2. Players collaboratively brainstorm 10 nouns for one theme, and 10 verbs for another
  3. Writing phase:
    1. 3 cards are dealt out from the deck, and laid face up in the centre of the table.
    2. Everyone has 3 minutes to come up with one or more lines of poetry.
      • The lines must contain at least one word from the brainstorm lists.
      • Bonus points can be won by including word-play listed on the cards.
      • Bonus points for using extra words from the lists.
    3. Discard the cards, and repeat these steps until your poems are complete
  4. End phase:
    • Each player reads out the poems in full.
    • Tally up the scores (optional)
    • Review the poems, and edit as you see fit.

What you need

  1. One or more players
  2. One sheet of A4 paper per player (lined paper is good, but blank works too)
  3. Pens for each player
  4. Either:
    • A standard deck of cards and the word play prompt list (below), OR
    • A set of cards with the word play prompts written on them (printed cards might come later)
  5. a timer of some kind.

Set-up

Page showing the layout described

Set up the pages

Divide each piece of paper up into sections:

  • Top quarter:
    • Divide this into two columns. These will contain your two concepts and their associated word lists.
  • Bottom 1/8th:
    • Divide this into columns, one per player, for scoring.
  • Middle section:
    • Divide into 2 columns. The left will be for your poem, the right for any notes you want to make.

Decide on a poetry format

You may use any poetry format you like! The only thing that matters is that all players are happy with the format.

Some suggestions:

  • 4 couplets
    • 8 lines, where each pair of lines rhyme.
    • Double it if you want a longer game.
  • Haiku.
  • A Sonnet
    • 14 lines, with a pre-defined rhyming scheme (e.g. ABBA ABBA CDECDE, or ABAB CDCD EFEF GG)
  • Free verse
    • There are no rules, write whatever the fuck you like.
    • You probably want to decide on a number of turns to play if you choose this form.
  • Or any other form. There are lots of forms listed on Wikipedia, but you could also just make one up, no one is stopping you.

Also decide how many lines should be written in each turn. This could be one, or two, or it could be optional on each turn (which might mean that some sheets finish before others). So a sonnet will take 14 turns if you only write one line per turn, or 7 turns if you write 2 per turn.

How to play

Brainstorm phase:

The brainstorm phase has 6 turns.

  1. (Turn 1 and 2): Players each individually come up with a theme, and write it in one of the columns at the top of the sheet.
    • Players then pass the sheet on to the next player.
  2. (Turns 3-6): Players pick a column, and then brainstorm 5 words for that column.
    • Words in the left column should be nouns.
    • Words in the right column should be verbs.
    • Only 10 words total per column, if one is full, choose the other.
    • Players then pass the sheet on to the next player.

This sets you up with a bank of words that can help stimulate lines in the next phase.

Writing phase:

At the start of this phase, shuffle the deck of cards.

For each turn:

  1. Deal out 3 word play cards from the deck, and lay them face up in the centre of the table.
  2. Start the timer (suggest 3 minutes, but up to you)
  3. Each player writes one (or two) lines on the sheet in front of them.
    • Remember, this is BAD poetry. Don't stress about quality. Perfectionism is the enemy, just write something.
    • The lines must contain at least one word from the brainstorm lists.
    • Bonus points can be won by including word play listed on the cards.
    • Add any notes you want in the notes column.

  4. At the end of the round, tally the scores (in the notes column, and/or in the bottom columns).

    • 2 points for each word used from the brainstorm lists.
    • Points for any word play listed on the three cards that match the line(s).
      • If there is a disagreement on whether a line correctly contains a word play, sort it out by consensus like normal fucking adults.
      • If you can't do that, try one of these:
        • Arm wrestling
        • Rock-paper-scissors
        • Hired hit man
        • Majority vote
      • If the cards aren't clear, send complaints, with suggested improvements.

  5. Discard the cards, and repeat these steps until your poems are complete

End phase:

  1. Each player reads out the poems in full.
    • Applause, general mirth.
  2. Tally up the scores (optional)
    • It's just a game, who cares, really. The real winners are the ones who can't breath for laughing at the terrible poetry you all produced.
  3. Review the poems, and edit as you see fit.
    • They probably aren't good, which is good, because good wasn't the point.
    • However, they probably DO contain some interesting word-play, and maybe some nice lines in amongst the chaos. Maybe you should save those for later :)

Prompt Cards

| Card | Rule | Examples | Points | |---------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------|----------------------------| | ♥ A | Symbolism | Use an object or event as a symbol for a concept | Sunset = closure | 3? | | ♥ K, Q | Homonyms/Homophones | Use words that are spelled or sound the same | Deer, dear; lead, lead | 4 | | ♥ J, 10 | Perfect rhyme | vowel and trailing consonant sounds match | Craze, laze, days, haze | 3 | | ♥ 9, 8 | Near rhyme | Vowel sound the same, trailing consonant similar | Dog, god; confess, behest | 2 | | ♥ 7, 6, 5 | Assonance | vowel sound the same | wide eyed fly cries | 2n-1 per syllable | | ♥ 4, 3, 2 | Consonance | consonant sounds the same | tit-for-tat | n+1 | | ♦ A, K, Q, J | Multi-rhyme | words/phrases that rhyme sonsecutive syllables | orange, door-hinge | 2n per syllable | | ♦ 10 | Same word different contexts | | ??? | 3? | | ♦ 9, 8 | Break a cliche | Change the meaning by changing or adding a word | give a dog a phone | 3? | | ♦ 7 | Mix 2 idioms/Ciches | Pick 2 cliches/idioms, and swap words | eat a book, read a fish | 4? | | ♦ 6 | Contrast extreme with mundane | | take your dog for a spacewalk | 4? | | ♦ 5 | Double meaning | a phrase that can be interpreted 2 ways | ??? | 6? | | ♦ 4 | Alliteration | Leading vowels the same | | n+1 per syllable | | ♦ 3 | Anaphora | repeat leading word of line | | 3 | | ♦ 2 | Enjambment | Run a line on to the next line | | 3? | | ♣ A, K | Metaphor | Use one | | 5 | | ♣ Q, J | Similie | Use one | | 3 | | ♣ 10, 9, 8, 7 | Repetition | Repeat a syllable word or phrase | | 2n per word, or syllable | | ♣ 6 | Pun | Go on, no one is aloud to groan | | 2, but -5 if anyone groans | | ♣ 5, 4 | Onomatopoeia | Use a word that sounds like what it's describing | splash, whiplash | 2 | | ♣ 3, 2 | Allusion | Use a reference to something from culture/history | | 2 | | ♠ A | Sight | Describe something visually | | 2 | | ♠ K | Hearing | Describe something aurally | | 2 | | ♠ Q | Touch | Describe something by feel | | 2 | | ♠ J | Smell | Describe something by fragrance | | 2 | | ♠ 10 | Taste | Describe something by flavour | | 2 | | ♠ 9 | Kinesthetic | Describe how a body sits or moves in the world | | 3 | | ♠ 8 | Internal | Describe via body-feel | | 3 | | ♠ 7 | Mix a metaphor | | | 3 | | ♠ 6 | Contrast 2 images | | | 3 | | ♠ 5 | Hyperbole | Use extreme exaggeration | | 3 | | ♠ 4 | Personification | Give an object human qualities | | 3 | | ♠ 3 | Metanym | Use part of something to refer to the whole | suit=business man, wheels=car | 3 | | ♠ 2 | Slang | Use some informal language | | 2 |

Thanks

This game developed with input from H.S.

References

Some of the ideas in this game come from: