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Poem Revision Ladder

by DiscoLlama Creative Production › Editing

51 minutes 7 Steps

  1. Read it aloud

    3 minutes
  2. Cut the scaffolding

    10 minutes

    Try deleting the first and last lines. They're often warm-up and summary.

  3. Sharpen the verbs

    10 minutes

    Replace weak verbs, is, was, seemed, with ones that move.

  4. Line breaks

    15 minutes

    End each line on a strong word, and let breaks create a small surprise.

  5. Step away

    10 minutes
  6. Final read-aloud

    3 minutes
  7. Save the version

    • Save it as a new version, keeping the old one
    • Note what changed and why