Editing Tips
- Read it backwards to see if you get any new meaning or can switch lines around for a new emphasis.
- Add a line between your lines and see what images and metaphors you can add.
- Create sensory lists of 5 sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch images that evoke the mood you are trying to create in your poem, then add the best ones.
- Condense: keep only the necessary lines. Don't explain too much.
- Make the title the first line of the piece, or have it give away pertinent information that isn't repeated in the poem.
- Write a sister poem or another poem using a different form about the same topic.
- Read your poem. Read another poem that has a different rhythm. Re-write your poem from memory.