Tuesday, June 28, 2005
The Types of Poem Draft
I was thinking about my writing, and I decided my poems go through the following stages:
- Handwritten scribble in my notebook or on another convenient piece of paper. The sparking idea, phrase, metaphor, or whatever.
- The word-processor work-in-progress, with whole poem passages but also notes and outlining, definitely not recognizable as a whole poem yet, even if I print it out.
- The printed draft, which is recognizable as a whole poem but usually not any good yet. What I mark up and revise to make into a decent poem. This is the first stage that I'll show anyone, and even then only the most trusted.
- The finished draft, which still needs work but which I'm not ashamed to show to a workshop or my interested friends. I will still be focused on polishing this stage.
- Allegedly finished, which I might put in a manuscript or send to a journal, but which I'm still most likely going to change in the future.
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Steve,
Do you find yourself working on several poems at once? Also, do you find that when you sit down to write, you feel the need to write something new? A good portion of my writing week is spent in revision on current projects; and I'm wondering if I should feel guilt for not writing something brand new every time that I sit down. Thoughts?
Do you find yourself working on several poems at once? Also, do you find that when you sit down to write, you feel the need to write something new? A good portion of my writing week is spent in revision on current projects; and I'm wondering if I should feel guilt for not writing something brand new every time that I sit down. Thoughts?
I usually have two projects open at once, one the primary project and the other the in-case-I-get-stuck-on-the-first-one project. Once the primary project is truly done, the secondary one typically becomes the primary (though sometimes it goes back in the folder, and sometimes secondary projects get done before primary ones). I often spend much time revising. The last two days, I've only done revisions on my current primary project, which right now is going from stage 3 to stage 4 on my list.
Similar to my method, Steven. Sometimes i skip the first step though and just sit down and write, revise, write, revise all in one setting. Sometimes i'll draft a poem sober and revise it stoned. lol. hope your day is glorious.
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