How much do you edit your work before you post it?

I guess i just check on grammatical errors thats it! otherwise i never doubt my writing.I believe in what i write

not enough and am often embarrassed

I love you Taryn

I'm not a fan of the 'Spontaneity above all' school of writing, which has produced a lot of very bad poetry that could have been vastly improved by a bit of careful editing. The art lies in 'concealing the art', so that the finished version doesn't look as though it's been edited.

Personally, I scribble down my initial ideas for a poem very quickly, not worrying about things like rhythm or rhyme-scheme, or the order in which the ideas are presented. Then, over the next couple of days, I return to it from time to time, making alterations where I think they'll improve the style or clarity, crossing out words or phrases and substituting others, changing the order of some lines, and generally trying to make it easier for the reader to follow while at the same time retaining the original line of thought. Sometimes I write two versions of a poem, one fuller and one more concise. I then leave it completely for a week or so, then return to it to see whether I think it needs any more alterations. Finally, I print out a hard copy and put it in a file - that's usually my final version.

Arthur Quiller-Couch, a nineteenth-century writer and critic, once said in an Oxford lecture on writing that as a writer, you should be prepared to 'murder your darlings', by which he meant that the writer should be prepared to strike out anything which seems, on later reading, to be awkward or misjudged, no matter how smart or clever it seemed to be at the time of first writing. I agree with him: where necessary, 'Murder your Darlings'.

I usually never edit. Poetry to me isn't poetry when its to confined to a form. In my opinion, poets who use form are afraid of what might spill out of them without boundaries! And yet I conclude 'formed words' are beautiful...

sheisbeauty86 said:I usually never edit. Poetry to me isn't poetry when its to confined to a form. In my opinion, poets who use form are afraid of what might spill out of them without boundaries! And yet I conclude 'formed words' are beautiful...


then is Shakespeare not a poet? he wrote sonnets. what about the Japanese masters who write haiku? are they not poets?

the beauty of poetry is that beauty can be found in a million different ways. just because i don't like rhyming couplets, does not mean the poem is bad. it just means it's not my taste in poetry. (i do like rhyming couplets, by the way. just an example!) there is much beauty be found and had in free verse. much pain to express. and because it's 'free verse' you can write it however you want.

BUT forcing yourself to say the same thing within a specific set of rules requires skill and imagination and the very careful choosing of words. often, what 'spills out' while using a specific form is much more potent and true than when i can use all the words in the dictionary however i want.

so don't limit yourself to free verse. there is a whole wide world of poetry out there.

Some people are good at freestyle.

Some are good at structuring poems.

And some people are good at freestyling poems structured on the fly with unique rhythms you've never experienced before because no one else invented these yet.

Just because conscious effort goes into the process beyond unconsciously vomiting words onto a blank slate, doesn't mean there is no spontaneity in the process.

if you can your words make to dance a merry jig
there are those that may give a fig...
and others that to your words aspersions make
or just read a bit, and then flake

sheisbeauty86 said: Poetry to me isn't poetry when its to confined to a form.
Well, that consigns most of the world's greatest literature to the dump.

Agreed! I write free flowing but i love syntax and structure. Rhyme alliteration, all the things i see people saying they cant abide. Snobs. Its the history of great literature! Helped people remember stories, their own history before anyone besides clergy and aristocracy (maybe) could read or write. It feels gooood to say a nursery rhyme. Its harder to do really well than free verse. Get over yourselves and take a look at the people people remember.

She walks in beauty like the night
Of cloudless climbs and starry skies
And all thats best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect And her eyes

I dare you to get more lovely and memorable than that.

I write, rewrite, edit, change words, change the order of a poem, sometimes I make a page long poem as short as 3 lines and 17 syllables (trying to say as much as possible in as little words as possible). Other times, I have an idea, write it down and wait until the poem wants to be written (sometimes, a month goes by before the poem forms). I have on occasion sat on a Haiku for 3 days and other times a free verse poem as long as 30 in a day. I guess, the time I spend on a poem, isn't consistent most days, I write until I am happy.

I used to rewrite a few times but now I only write twice.

The funny bit is I hardly edit my work. My mind takes over my hands and off I go. If my poem is shit than its shit...murphey's law ce'st la vi. The funnier bit is that half the time I don't even know what I'm writing. The challenge is just getting me to write.Kinda like a plane going into auto pilot mode. Sure there might be the odd misspelled word but a part from that the poem is written once then I forget about it.