"A truly great writer is one who can dedicate time to the revision process."
dimitrireyespoet.com
Revising and editing is probably the most important stage of the writing process. You can have a writer that has a natural drive to be creative so they produce, but without paying careful attention to the words on the page, the writer may not get their message across clearly.
Revising, which in this case means to change or fix mistakes, and editing, which in this case means to add information, assures that your work is concise and easy to read. It also makes sure that there aren’t silly misspellings and/or misinterpretations. If you write anything from poetry to nonfiction, these two steps should always be done. This is why many experienced writers don’t recommend sending out work as soon as it is written.
As writers, we need to allow the dust to settle, for the authorial vibrations to soften. Once this happens, we can clearly return to the work and begin phase 2 (or 8!) of the labor.
“Woah, now hold on, Dimitri. I like the raw power of my work. I don’t want the poem changing my originality. What if I never edited my work before?”
Ahh yes, super standoffish younger poet Dimitri; of course your work will go through a change! But if you edit consciously, it’ll have that original energy in addition to the added energy of a focused edit.
Here are 5 Questions to Ask When Editing
1. What’s the Purpose?
When you are writing a poem, it’s coming from the ether to your brain, then through your keypad or notepad. Either way, I am sure it is coming from some place of closeness. Be mindful that though we most often begin writing this poem for ourselves that we need to be conscious of other individuals who are there to receive our work.
After all, the work that we produce will resonate with someone in the world. No matter how specific, personal, or out of the ordinary you the work may seem, there is an audience for your material. Because of this, if you plan on reading your work to others you should always keep that in mind.
Therefore, you need to ask yourself. “What is the purpose of my poem?” If you are affected by a loss of a family member and you write a poem about carrying a box, how can you bring that metaphor and that heartache closer together? Instead of reiterating the pain, how could you focus more on the holding of this pain instead? Or if you are writing it from the “I” and using names of close individuals, how could you expand this conversation to a general audience? Focusing on the main purpose of the poem, which would be the loss of a relationship, you may decide to open up the conversation by distancing the speaker and allowing the poem to appeal to a larger audience. This can be achieved by changing the point of view from a first person perspective to a third person perspective.
This Jack Gilbert poem is an excellent example.
2. Does Your Poem Have a Heartbeat?
Is there a certain rhythm that is happening within your poem? Is it moving along with a certain meter? Is there a certain syllabic count to a breath? Many types of form poetry follow a certain rhythm, speed, and beats per line. For example: many poems you’ve probably been familiar with throughout your education refer to the countless European greats such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelley, and Yeats. Iambic pentameter is used in plenty of these poems.
If you don’t know iambic pentameter, let me break it down.
Though it is still respected today, contemporary poems have since expanded the definition of meter, allowing itself to take on new forms in free verse poetry. In pushing the limits of what makes a poem, many poets now realize that we speak in music and have learned to appreciate the nuances of language. We now notice and have decided to hone in on one another’s different inflections even while speaking the same language and living in the same countries, islands, and provinces, expressing the poetics of people.
So ask yourself, where is the pulse in your work coming from? If your poem had a main artery in the form of language or character, do you ever break character in the poem? Is your voice ever lost?
3. Does Your Title Help or Hinder Your Poem?
You will hear me say this many times throughout my blog, on my channel, and in my one-on-one sessions: a title is paramount to a poem.
Firstly, a title is important for logistical purposes. If you are working on several poems at the same time and they’re all untitled documents, it will be harder to find the poem you are looking for. Additionally, if you are a poet who drops the work for awhile after it is written, poem titles would help you remember the work if you are deciding to edit some time later.
Secondly, a title is a signpost for your reader. In a poem that may be a bit cryptic, avoidant, shrouded in poetic language (or all 3!) the title can point the audience in the right direction and allow the reader to put two and two together. Think of Jack Gilbert’s, “Michiko Dead” again.
Lastly, we name things because it makes them more meaningful. Naming your poetry puts you closer to the piece. Many poets even have insiders with themselves about poem titles.
4. Do You Have a Poetic Turn?
Think about the poetic turn being the opposite of the heartbeat in the poem. Instead of finding the pulse and the rhythm, the poetic turn should be where the heart stops. Where the poem becomes arrhythmic— where the shift occurs.
Every poem is magical because they reach some sort of epiphany; this is either where the lens of the poem shifts focus to what the poem was really trying to convey, or where the speaker discovers a different consciousness after articulating themself.
Keep in mind that you can have more than one poetic turn!
5. Line Edits: Do You Need EVERY Word?
This is what you essentially need to edit your poem for and you’ve been practicing this since you first started going to school. You will be going line-by-line to check your grammar, mechanics, and syntax to make sure the poem reads as grammatically correct as it needs to.
Now remember: since you have artistic freedom, you do have the choice to break grammar rules, garble syntax, and generally create your own style. But heed this piece of advice— it is better to know the rules of language first, before you decide to break them.
A master of a craft can deconstruct the craft to work in their favor. When you are breaking the rules too much, you also run the risk of diluting your message if the poem is close to incomprehensible. Run it by a trusted friend (preferably another poet) to see if it’s too confusing.
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