Revision: To Change or Not to Change

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Once you've begun the process of revising a piece of art, stay with it. Work the poem or the painting for a specified amount of time each day. Do your free or fun write for fifteen or twenty minutes to loosen up before you turn to the left brain work of editing. I advise against starting to edit cold. Artists can be too hard on themselves without a warm-up. Always begin your day remembering how much you love your art by playing with it first.

Once you're done playing, you are ready to chisel or sand (depending on how much shaving needs to be done) your latest construction. Pull out the piece you slept on overnight from underneath your pillow and take a fresh look at it. " Ohmigod!" you cry. "I thought this was a decent piece of work. What a bunch of bull hockey!" Okay, that's the only negative say you get for the rest of the day. Just pick up your tools and see what you can do with this rough bit of raw material.

At this point, people often do one of two things: they throw the baby out with the bathwater, meaning they wad up their potential masterpiece and trash it even though that, once revised, the piece may have been priceless. It's very difficult to retrieve a complete idea and all it's inherent feelings, once it has been tossed to the dogs. Or they look at it with their lazy eye and tell themselves that's good enough. "My Muse wouldn't have led me down that primrose path if She didn't think it was worthwhile." Try to remember, your Muse is just another fickle god (or goddess), and as such, expects you to use a little common sense about the gifts she lays on your table. You need to clean the fish and before you serve it.

There are many, many books written about the revision process. Go to your local library and get some help. Turn to your writing group, take a workshop or a class. My current favorite is a book called Immersed in Verse: An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet's Life by my friend, the fabulous Allan Wolf. Don't be fooled by the playful cover and title. Yes, it is designed to appeal to young adults, but it is totally helpful to poets and writers who desire to take themselves seriously and create their best work.

Some of my and Allan's suggestions are the same:

1. Sleep on it
2. Save what you have
3. Remember that nothing is precious. There's more where that came from.
4. Play with the poem fearlessly.
5. Read it aloud. Many times.

And here's one Allan suggests that I like and will use in the future:

6. "Highlight the poem's golden moments." Allan says take a yellow highlighter and highlight your poem's three or four best lines. These are the lines that are essential to the core meaning of the poem. These lines are the "…organs – brain, heart, liver, and lungs," and might I say, soul of the poem.

Once you've highlighted these "golden moments," check out the rest of the poem with a critical eye. Do the rest of the words and phrases support and enhance these lines? Or do they simply weight them down like a ball and chain? Set the poem free! As my partner likes to say "Cut, cut, cut!" And as another writer once said, " You must kill your darlings." There will be another chance to use your favorite lines if they simply don't move your golden moments into the limelight.

On the other hand, never horde your favorites either. You have the perfect phrase, but you've been saving it for a piece you haven't gotten around to writing yet. It fits right here in this poem and highlights your golden moment, making it shine. But it was meant for another poem. What's a poet to do? USE IT! Never save anything. Again, there are always more brilliant metaphors where that one came from. You're a writer. You've got a million of 'em.

—Mendy Knott is a writer, poet and author of the collection A Little Lazarus (Half Acre Press, 2010). To order your copy of A Little Lazarus directly from the author, please click here.