The Blank Verse Challenge (Practice IP with me)

[rayheinrich]

I'll take a look at the link, haha the stressed and unstressed syllables were the death of me in every poetry class I've taken.

Sorry, I was in smart-ass mode. If I'm going to be smart-ass I should at least try to be helpful as well. So:

I find it helps to get in the mood for doing a specific rhythm/meter.
Before I'm writing something, iambic pentameter in this case, I'll say this out loud:

di DAH di DAH di DAH   di DAH di DAH (pause)

di DAH di DAH di DAH   di DAH di DAH (pause)

And several more times just to get in the swing of things. You can even write the line above
your line and say it first and then your line and it will make the faults in your line stand out better.
Also your brain is really great at forcing the line you've written into the rhythm you are trying for.
It helps to step away for a moment, pet the cat, and then come back and read your line.
It needs to be long enough so your brain forgets what rhythm it was forcing the words into.

Here is a great set of tiny lessons for learning this stuff:
(It's a great site, with lots of helpful articles. I just read #5 and learned a few things myself.)

Learning Meter #1: Stressed and Unstressed Syllables
https://www.writebetterpoems.com/article...-syllables

Learning Meter #2: Stresses in Sentences
https://www.writebetterpoems.com/article...-sentences

Learning Meter #3: Reading for Meter
https://www.writebetterpoems.com/article...r-in-poems

Learning Meter #4: Writing with Meter (How to write a line of iambic pentameter)
https://www.writebetterpoems.com/article...with-meter

Learning Meter #5: Varying Your Meter (How to screw up intentionally.)
https://www.writebetterpoems.com/article...variations