By: Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 10:14:00 +0000

I absolutely agree, Emma, that it’s important to edit your work on the page and not on the screen. The screen is very deceptive and makes things look better than they sometimes are. When I’m editing poetry I am quite ruthless about cutting stuff out, sometimes stripping a poem down the bone and then building it up again if it needs it. Sometimes only a single line from a poem is worth saving. Other times not even that, but the poem is demanding to be written so I then re-approach it. I find reading a poem aloud at all stages of editing is crucial in terms of hearing what works and what doesn’t. Where a sentence is unintentionally clumsy and where a poem loses life. I find that if I cut a poem, and don’t miss what has gone, it should not have been there in the first place. In one sense, your outside eye, is the most important tool one has as a writer – it’s what we need to edit our work, even though we are absorbed in the work, we also need to step outside of it and see how it’s being crafted. What is the effect? How does it make me think, feel and so on. Leaving a poem for days, months, weeks and then returning it is also a way to see it more clearly. What looks good one week might not survive six months in the draw. That’s also why early publication of poems isn’t always a good thing – once the book is out there’s no way to reclaim it and do the re-writes. Hope this helps.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 21:08:50 +0000

Good point about trying to become an outsider to edit your work… it’s tricky, and I think that only comes with a lapse of time to give you that distance from a piece of work. Or I find it helps if someone else makes suggestions about cutting lines or chunks out or swapping the order as it changes my perspective on the text. Wish I had more time before tomorrow’s deadline now though!

Comments on: pen marks no order

By: Bernardine Evaristo

By: Charlie