3 Poetry Editing Tips that Helped Me When Publishing My First Chapbook
Putting together a poetry collection can be daunting. There are so many things to consider and worry about in the lead up to its release—will readers connect with the collection, which poems do you include, how do the words look on the page? One of the biggest worries, however, is editing the poems and the manuscript as a whole so everything is in the best shape it can be.
While there’s plenty of resources and checklists out there for editing your poems, here are some of the tips that most helped me when working on Self-Portrait as a Sinking Ship that I hope will help you!
1. Trust your gut but be open to change
While editing, you will absolutely come across sections that need to be changed but don’t forget to trust your gut if you feel something works really well. If you ask other people to give it a read, listen to the feedback you receive and consider how it might improve a line, section, or poem. When you’re reading the same lines over and over again, especially when it comes to your own work, things that might need changing start to blend in with everything else and it can be easy to miss an opportunity for improvement. That’s why it’s helpful to have at least one or two other people read your work and hear what they have to say about it. You can earnestly take things into consideration and decide to make changes that ultimately work for the best—and those parts you feel in your gut are right, you may decide to keep as is!
2. Don’t be afraid to cut or rework sections
At the same time, don’t be afraid to completely remove sections either—or even cut entire poems out if they aren’t serving your collection as it changes. I ended up cutting a poem or two from my chapbook and also reworked/rewrote stanzas from poems (and switched out words that were repeated a bit too often throughout), and they were made even stronger with those updates. Don’t be intimidated by changing things around. You can always go back to a previous draft if you find the edits aren’t working and start over—remember the opportunities are limitless when it comes to your work.
3. Print and read every poem aloud
This is so helpful when editing your poems. Being able to hold the work in your hands and see it on an actual piece of paper (as opposed to the computer screen) is incredibly useful and with a few highlighters and sticky notes, it can quickly become a catch-all space for any mistakes that may have been missed throughout the editing process. Reading your poems aloud can help with this too. Then, not only will you have an idea of how the poem looks on the page, but you’ll be able to hear how each word works (or doesn’t)—even if you’re just reading them aloud to yourself. Being able to hear how the poem sounds and flows is so valuable and can absolutely end up changing the entire organization or direction the poem takes and ultimately, even the collection as a whole.
