Poetry editing: some tips

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Written by Catherin J Pascal Dunk

I like poemstellium’s approach to editing a poem, so I’m sharing it below.

Here are some other ideas I’ve used:

  • Use a highlighter to mark the best bits of your poem—then see where else you can match that standard!
  • Take a closer look at the ‘little’ words in your poem: if, but, was, and, as, am, to, the, an etc. Do you need them all?
  • Have you used basic adjectives like ‘nice’, ‘good’, ‘bad, ‘pretty’, ‘beautiful’? If so, consider consulting a thesaurus for other ways to say the same thing.
  • Have you repeated any words? Was it for effect or was it by accident? Consider using an alternative word instead of repeating the same one, to add richness and variety to your work.

Please add your own best tips in the comments. Let’s learn from each other!

Cover photo by Diva Plavalaguna on Pexels.com

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10 Comments

  6. Get rid of dead words: ‘the’ ‘a’ ‘something’ ‘somewhere’ ‘just’ ‘were’ ‘there is’ ‘there was’

    If it doesn’t sing, don’t put it in.

    Use only flavoursome words. Make shit up.

    Don’t worry about other people. Go with the flow.

    If it’s not flowing, it’s not going. Delete, rinse, repeat.

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