Post by j.ajabad on Nov 17, 2014 18:44:59 GMT -5
Ten Years ago I took a Creative Writing class. I still have a few resources from my notes/handouts and my textbook. While rummaging through my room last month I came across a handout covering 14 Steps for Revising Poetry unpublished written by Allen Ginsberg.
I haven't used these steps in years but I thought these steps would be great to have when a poem seems to need revision. I decided to retype these steps, share and archive them here. My notes are in parentheses & bold.
Fourteen Steps for Revising Poetry
1. Conception (idea/understanding clear)
2. Composition
3. Review it through several people's eyes (either have others read it or if you cannot find someone to read your work attempt to view your piece through your audience's eyes.)
4. Review it with eye to idiomatic speech (too formal)
5. Review it with eye to the condensation of syntax (blue pencil and transpose)
6. Check out all articles and prepositions: are they necessary and functional?
7. Review it for abstraction and substitute particular facts for reference (for example: “walking down the avenues” to “walking down 2nd avenue”)
8. Date the composition (this is optional but often helpful in chronicling growth and draft sequence, if you're so inclined).
9. Take a phrase from it and make a title that's unique or curious or interesting sounding but realistic
10. Put quotations around speeches or referential slang “so to speak” phrases.
11. Review it for weak spots you really don't like but just left there for inertia reasons.
12. Check for active versus inactive verbs (for example: “after the subway ride” instead of “after we rode the subway”).
13. Chop it up in lines according to breath phrasing/ideas or units of thought within one breath, if any
14. Retype!!
Did you find these steps useful? Do you have your own revision process for your poetry? Share it. We'd like to read them.
