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Always read your words out loud.
You will hear the places still needing revision. You will hear the
parts that are not working (choppiness, repetition, pauses without
purpose, etc).
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Let someone else read
your work out loud. This will give you a different understanding of
what you wrote and how someone else perceives it.
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Rewrite from a different point of view,
a different perspective.
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Change the beginning or change the
ending or make the ending the beginning and the beginning the end.
Turn your words upside down and shake them out.
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Change the tense - if you wrote in
present tense, rewrite in past tense as an example.
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Change the tone - if it is funny, go
for serious or if it's serious, go for goofy.
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If you wrote in rhyme, rewrite without
the rhyme.
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If you wrote in free verse, rewrite as
a sonnet or sestina or villanelle.
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If you wrote without
stanzas, re-look at your poem and rewrite using stanza breaks.
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Look at your line
breaks. Do they add to the poem or do they take from it?
Rework them, then reread out loud to see how it sounds.
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As you go through your work, pay
particular attention to unnecessary words and remove them. You can
always put them back.
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If you have a friend or writing partner
whose opinion you trust, let them read it out loud to you. You may
be surprised by their oral interpretation and you might revise based on
this.
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And remember, in the end they are your
words. You are the writer. Whether you share your words with
the world or save them in a box placed high in a closet, they belong to
you. Always honor that. Recognize the gift. |