Editing A Poem
Here are some ideas and techniques if you are stuck on rewriting a poem.
Remember that the whole point of editing is to edit through someone else’s eyes. You need to not be in love with the poem. Use Time-as-an-editor.
Also remember all-art-is-subjective, Each-poem-Is-New. Focus-on-Process-not-the-end-goal
- Read-Writing-Aloud to hear the sound of it.
- Where does the poem surprise you? Make these accidents intentional. Build up to them or go in different directions.
- What is the imagery doing? Is it coherent? Is it mostly Concrete-or-abstract? Are you following Show-Dont-Tell? Should you?
- Does the form reflect the content? Look at another Poetic-form to find one that might work. Can you build in rhyme or is the rhyme inappropriate?
- Look at line breaks. What are they doing? Are they intentional?
- Remove clichés (or deliberately Twist-a-Cliché)
- Remove joints of poem and common words.
- Keep a The-Spark-File
- Cut-the-Last-Lines
Transform the poem and create something new out of the ashes. ( [[ Transform-Existing-Work ]])
- Use a line as a new poem
- Create a negative-poem
- Combine three images from separate poems or separate sources.
- Condense to a single sentence
- Cut-Up-Technique - shred the poem
- n7
- Use [[ Text-Manipulation-Tools ]] to outsource the process to machines.
Notes mentioning this note
First Draft
A first draft is a rough bash of a piece of writing. Unlike the [[0th-Draft]], you know what you want...
Writing Index
Writers love writing about writing and I’m no different. It does mean that there’s bucket loads of advice out there...
Show Dont Tell
This is one of those key bits of writing advice that is repeated often but is actually quite important. It’s...
Poetry Resources
Here’s a list of things that have helped me with poetry (as opposed to more general [[Writing-Resources]] or [[Publishing-Resources]].
Time as an editor
When you write something, put it in a drawer for a little bit so you can look at it objectively....
Free Writing
One of the most useful tools when starting to write sometmething and one of the simplest. You [[Write-to-a-Timer]], usually for...
Editing is writing
I’ve long since thought that putting words down on page in a [[First-Draft]] is the only writing that really counts...
Make Marginalia
Make notes while you are reading in the margin. This was sacrilegious to me at first but soon it helped...
2020 03 20 Rebecca Thantony workshop
[[No Right Way to Be Creative]] How obvious or mysterious we are. Accessible vs obscured. Use [[The-Five-Senses]] for descriptions. A...
Read Writing Aloud
When you are [[Editing-A-Poem]], read the poem or words out loud. Writing is a translation of an oral medium so...
Write about one image
A way of [[Starting-a-Poem]], or [[Editing-A-Poem]]. Instead of a scattershot approach of differing images throughout a poem, try focusing a...
Write about one emotion
A starting point for a poem. Instead of trying to [[Write-about-one-image]], you start by writing about one emotion instead. The...
Rewrite-the-same-poem-in-different-forms
A way of [[Editing-A-Poem]]. Take your [[First-Draft]] and try writing it in different [[Poetic-form]]s. See what each form does to...