Conversations in Poetry: Writing Tips

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After you write your first draft, read this revision and editing checklist. Then look over your draft and revise it to make it better. Be sure that you are able to answer “yes” to every question below.

• Is the poem “about” one thing? If I introduce many different things/people/images into the poem, do they all contribute toward that one thing, in some way?
  
• Does the poem have a clear point of view?
  
• Does the point of view stay consistent throughout the poem unless I have a good reason for changing it?
  
• Can I answer this question: “Why does this poem want to get written/said right now— what’s the “trigger” that makes the speaker want to say what he or she does, that makes the poem seem urgent, or at least necessary?
  
• Have I thought of ways to bring my reader into the scene? Are there sights, smells, tastes, textures, and so on, that make the reader feel as if he or she is right there, in the poem?
  
• Does the poem draw the reader in at the beginning with fresh language, an unsolved dilemma, a sense of needing to know more, a crazy idea that makes the reader wonder “what next?”
  
• Does the poem feel “over” at the end? Have I moved from one place to another in the poem, creating a sense of “arrival” at the end—not that all problems are solved, but that something has changed?
  
• Have I tried to use several metaphors and similes? Have I struggled to invent the freshest ones possible?
  
• Have I looked through every line and eliminated any tired, clichéd language?
  
• Have I looked at each line-break, to see if my choices contribute to the meaning of the poem?
  
• Have I used complete sentences? Do I have a good reason for every single time I don’t use them?
  
• Have I used standard spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation? Do I have a good reason for every single time I depart from the standard?
  

Sometimes you have a good story to tell in a poem, but you don’t know how to use the facts of that story to get the reader as involved as you are with the emotional content of that story. Here are some suggestions to slow the pace down, to get the reader to really focus with you.

Story: I went to the circus with my old grandmother, who nearly choked to death on cotton candy and who wanted to ride the merry-go-round. I was horribly embarrassed, especially when she got on the white horse and started slapping it as if it were a bucking bronco at the rodeo.

Tricks

1. Stop for a personal reaction
   1. Your reaction
      • What does this trigger in you NOW, as you think about it?
      • What made you think of it right now?
   2. Others' reaction
      • Who else was watching? What do you think it seemed like from his/her perspective?
      • What would the merry-go-round horse say if it could speak?
      • What do you think it was like from your grandmother’s perspective? What was she thinking?
2. Break up the order of things
   1. Change the arrangement
      • What happened before? After?
      • How is now different from then?
      • Are there two sides to this story? Can they both fit in?
   2. Slow things down with being verbs, speed them up with action verbs.
      If you want to have quiet thoughtfulness for a moment, use a slow verb. Then speed up later.
   3. Use an arrangement that calls attention to itself, that takes the attention away from the event.
      • Start every stanza with the same phrase. Use other kinds of repetition.
      • Remind your reader that you’re telling a story, so that the reader notices YOU and not just the story.
      • Introduce new and unexpected detail: Is there another story that can add to this one? Does your imagination go crazy when you start thinking about this story? Use this stuff.