How do you write an English sonnet?

Let me give you the basics in the exact format:

This line's ending rhyme is a

This line's ending rhyme is b

This line's ending rhyme is a

This line's ending rhyme is b

This line's ending rhyme is c

This line's ending rhyme is d

This line's ending rhyme is c

This line's ending rhyme is d

This line's ending rhyme is e

This line's ending rhyme is f

This line's ending rhyme is e

This line's ending rhyme is f

This line's ending rhyme is g

This line's ending rhyme is g

Every line should be written in iambic pentameter, ti-DUM ti-DUM ti-DUM ti-DUM ti-DUM.

Use the first eight lines to set up the situation you wish your Sonnet to comment on and then comment on it in the last six lines.

Or, use the first eight lines, the octet, to set up a situation, and use the last six lines, the sestet, to complicate the situation or express an opposite to the situation.

For instance, the octet might describe a person who is loved. The sestet might say that the person not attainable, or does not return the love. The octet might describe virtues, and the sestet might describe offsetting faults. Opposing viewpoints or problem-answer or request-denial, any of these are good uses of the turn at line nine in a sonnet, and is also called the volta.