That’s about how long a sonnet idea should feel in your head. You do, after all, have to fill up fourteen lines with it.Īs a gauge of length, think of it as a good, relaxed joke (and not a knock-knock one) told around a campfire. (Hint: filler makes for slow poems.) So yes, choose a narrow topic, but choose one that leaves room for some elaboration and description. So if your topic can be completely stated in a single sentence… you’re going to need some filler. That being said, the lines are ten syllables long. So choose a topic with a relatively narrow focus. It is not, for example, long enough to tell a story with more than a few characters, nor is it long enough to explain a complicated topic while still having room to make a point about it. Until then, here are some factors to keep in mind while you’re brainstorming and deciding:Ī sonnet is fourteen lines long. You have until next Monday to choose which one you’re going to start with. So for beginners, especially, I recommend finding a topic you’ve never seen done before. These are all well and good, but easy to become redundant about. So avoid clichés (which might mean not writing a love poem), broad topics like “passion” or “hate,” and general descriptions of nature or beauty. Now here are two secrets that most people don’t know:ġ) The more original your initial idea is, the easier the sonnet will be to write.Ģ) The more specific your initial idea is, the easier the sonnet will be to write. The most romantic thing that anyone’s ever done for youĪ realization about an idol or mentor who changed in your eyes No one will see this list but you.Ī rebuttal to a famous poem, quote, or sayingĪ color that means something different to you than to most peopleĪ time of year that fills you with unusual feelings In one, long, unorganized column, jot down anything and everything that comes to mind. So everybody get out a notepad and pen or open a blank Word document. And sometimes starting with a brand-spanking-fresh idea is the way to go anyway: no preconceptions, no initial discouragement. Everyone (and I mean everyone) has a few good ideas in them somewhere. Or what if you’re not a writer at all? No worries. Are there poem ideas you’ve always wanted to try but never sat down to write? What about that list of flash fiction or short story ideas you haven’t gotten around to? If you’re a free-verse poet, take a look back at some of your jotted notes that never got executed. If you’re a prose writer, go peek in the notebook on your beside table – or in that Word document that has random freestanding lines that don’t fit in any of your novels. But how do you go about dreaming up subject matter?

Trying to write a sonnet with no initial concept is pretty much guaranteed to give you a dull, meandering poem. The very first thing you must do before you sit down to write a sonnet is find an idea worth writing about.

Funny sonnet examples by students