Are you in or not? This month kicks off National Poetry Writing Month. Write a poem every day (or at least try to) and post it to your blog if you dare.
Which leads me to the question:
What do you think about posting your rough draft poem in public? Would you do it?
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This is an evolving post. I am in for NaPoWriMo. As of last night, I was at 3 poems in 2 days. I like to get ahead in case something happens. Now I’m at 3 poems in 3 days, so I’ll write another today to stay ahead. The ideas are coming fast and furious.
UPDATE: Eek. I have not written my poem for today (April 4). I’m at 4 poems in 4 days, but I want to stay one ahead. Look at this page for a list of my working titles and other poets participating in NaNoWriMo.
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Okay, I’m a fiction writer, and surely no one wants to see the rough draft of my (or any!) novel on line. But I have passed out to students a few pages of an early version of one of my published novels so they could see how rough it was. They seemed to like knowing that everyone writes disorganized crap at one point of the process, and that the revision is where the art takes place. (On the other hand, when I lead exercises in a class, I never read mine. Some things should remain a mystery.)
I’ve posted poems if I believe, at the time, that I will not probably submit them for publication. Or I will post a poem that is already set to be published (just one so far!). And every poem is something of a rough draft, or at least highly likely to be revised if I ever go back to tend to it. It is interesting that you ask; I see from some submissions guidelines that if an editor sees a poem anywhere online (even on a blog), it will have been considered “previously published.” That scores against poets posting their work, which, I think, is unfortunate. See MiPoesias.
Actually, I regularly post drafts of poems on my blog. I call the posts – “Poems in Vitro”. I kinda agree with Mary Kinzie that poems -(even published ones)- are at best conditional anyway and never immune to further editing.
I am, by the way, participating for the very first time in the NaPoMo challenge. But luckily I’m doing so “under the radar” so to speak. It’s a daunting task I must say for a writer who pumps out a couple of poems a month if I’m lucky. Should be fun!
I don’t have any problem in principle with posting drafts of poems online. I haven’t posted any of my own poems (finished or otherwise) in my blog, because I started the blog more to talk about other poets’ work that interests me, not to publicize my own poems.
I don’t really work in drafts — when I write a poem, I tend to work line by line from beginning to end, crossing out and rewriting as I go. Generally by the time I get to the end, the poem feels pretty much finished to me. So in that respect, I don’t really have drafts, as such, to post online or anywhere else.
(I write by hand in a stenographer’s notebook, the type that’s spiral-bound along the top. In the notebook the finished versions of poems sometimes have many lines crossed out and rewritten throughout the poems. It can be slightly a mess to read. I don’t type poems until they feel basically finished to me.)
I did post several poems in the Cafe Cafe group blog when I was active in it. The poems I put there were not “drafts,” they were finished poems, though usually very recently finished. Usually I posted the poems the same day I wrote them, or within a day or two.
What one of the other commenters mentioned — that some poetry magazine editors consider a poem to be previously published if it’s been posted anywhere online — is a consideration for me too. I’ve sometimes withheld posting poems online because I wanted to submit them to magazines and didn’t want previously publication, even on a blog or whatever, getting in the way.
I think posting drafts for a brief time is a healthy process–both from the perspective of avoiding foiling their publication eligibility, and also because that’s about all my ego can take of exposing unpolished work to the world. My poems don’t usually change all that much from their original conception, but I am a compulsive editor of small things–modifiers, adjectives, whittling down a line length by one word.
Keeping the draft “alive” on the blog for a few hours forces me to accept these NaPoWriMo poems as mine, as well. Most prompt-writing, for me, get shut in a drawer the moment I’m done. I never go back and revise or publish, because I didn’t really consider them “my” poems to begin with.
Sandra, I do that with the drawer, too. Usually. This time, I am keeping all the drafts — in, gasp, order — in a notebook. This will save my sanity and prevent me from never looking at them again.
Lyle, I always find it interesting to see how people work and create their poems, paintings, etc. I write a big mess of words and then go back and edit. For me, it’s important to get what I want to say onto the paper before I forget.
Nick, What do you mean by ‘under the radar’?
Debbie, Congratulations on your publication!
Leslie, That is a good idea. I think students often don’t realize how awful most writing is to start. When they do not write perfectly the first time, they can easily become frustrated. Did you do this with adults or children? I’m curious. Young children are more forgiving of themselves, and adults are harder on themselves.
When your poetry garners as much attention as mine you’re usually writing “under the radar” all the time.
NaPoWriMo has been a great kick in the backside to get me writing again after about a month’s break. I’ve written one or two poems each day so far, but probably won’t get around to typing them into my blog. I’m lucky I have time to write the poems! ha ha. Maybe I’ll at least post the titles periodically.
Even if only 10% are interesting enough to go back and edit into something decent, I’ll be happy with that!
You asked about whether I showed my drafts to children or adults–both, actually. The kids were high school students in a class I was speaking to as a “guest writer”–they were surprised to see that a writer had to work as hard as they did on revising papers, essays, etc. (The teachers were VERY grateful to have an outsider supporting the view that revision is important!)
Adults were also relieved to see that most things don’t arrive perfectly formed on the page. It seemed to be a way for them to get permission to be bad and yet continue.
Leslie,
Thanks for your reply. Yes, permission to write drafts is vital for writing.
Hey, I can’t get your blog link to work. I’d love to stop by your blog if you have one.
DA
Deb: OK–I’ve accepted the challenge–a week late– and will be posting drafts as comments to the relevant post here