Revision Toolkit: The Funnel
For me revision is just as much a practice as writing is—a practice of listening to poems and helping them evolve into more complete and more intense versions of themselves. Revision is about growing a more resilient and compelling poem, not correcting glitches.
This guide lays out the formula I use for revising poems (and the questions I ask myself along the way)—with the caveat that “formula” is a wild oversimplification of a process that looks a little different for every draft.
The main idea of this three-step method is that you want to funnel yourself from making big decisions about what belongs in the poem to making small(er) decisions about word choice and punctuation.
For me revision is just as much a practice as writing is—a practice of listening to poems and helping them evolve into more complete and more intense versions of themselves. Revision is about growing a more resilient and compelling poem, not correcting glitches.
This guide lays out the formula I use for revising poems (and the questions I ask myself along the way)—with the caveat that “formula” is a wild oversimplification of a process that looks a little different for every draft.
The main idea of this three-step method is that you want to funnel yourself from making big decisions about what belongs in the poem to making small(er) decisions about word choice and punctuation.
For me revision is just as much a practice as writing is—a practice of listening to poems and helping them evolve into more complete and more intense versions of themselves. Revision is about growing a more resilient and compelling poem, not correcting glitches.
This guide lays out the formula I use for revising poems (and the questions I ask myself along the way)—with the caveat that “formula” is a wild oversimplification of a process that looks a little different for every draft.
The main idea of this three-step method is that you want to funnel yourself from making big decisions about what belongs in the poem to making small(er) decisions about word choice and punctuation.