How to Be Your Own Best Poetry Editor
Sometimes you get to a certain point and you just don’t know what to do with a poem. You might have many drafts and you don’t know what’s working anymore. You’ve lost perspective. And on top of that, maybe you’re surrounded by a whole bunch of other discarded poems that aren’t working either and you’re getting different critiques and you don’t know who to believe and you’ve kind of lost your mind. I’m going to give you an exercise to help you deal with that situation. Many people say one of the best ways to deepen your craft is to read in your genre, so in this case, go out there and read poetry. But I’m going to make it a little more specific in order to help you be your own best poetry editor. Exercise: Read three different literary magazines and find a poem in each one of them that you’re absolutely crazy about. Now, what can you glean from these poems? How does searching for favourite poems help you? 1. These poems hold a key to what you’re aiming for in your own ...