Putting Together Your First Poetry Collection? Simple Steps to Get Started
I’ve seen it so many times, a poet has hundreds, sometimes even thousands of poems just sitting on their computer. They have the skill, have put in the work, but are ready and nervous about the next step, but not sure how to start.
Sometimes it’s a matter of confidence, but more often than not it’s more a matter of confusion. They want to put a collection together — whether a chapbook or a full length — but have no idea how. They ask, “How do I start?”
You could ask ten different poets how to put a collection together and they’d have ten different approaches. Meaning there is no one way — just like anything in poetry— to put together a collection. In today’s blog, I offer some simple steps to follow to take the first step in putting your book out there!
STEP ONE: COMPILE
The first step in compiling your full-length collection or chapbook is to take every poem you have and put all of them in one document. I always recommend using Google Docs because you can easily make copies of different drafts and access your book from anywhere.
Questions to ask when compiling:
Are there any poems you are forgetting?
Do you have poems in journals or notebooks that need to be typed up?
Is this everything I want to include?
STEP TWO: SORT
Read through the poems for three purposes:
Potential: Mark the poems that you feel represent your best work and writing.
Subject: Categorize poems by subject matter, writing one to three key words at the top of each poem. Subject and theme can be as broad as identity or as specific as tennis. It is completely up to you.
Anchor Poems: Choose poems that you feel like are hallmarks of the collection or story. These are the poems that anchor us in this world and voice. If you had to pick 5-10 poems that represent the whole collection, these would be your anchor poems.
Questions to ask when sorting:
Which poems are your favorite and why?
Which poems have a similar theme and why? What is that theme?
Which requirements are required but missing? When will you write these poems?
STEP 3: STRUCTURE
If you are creating a full length collection, narrow your page count to a maximum of 100 pages, for a chapbook 40 pages.The next few steps will help you solidify which poems you will keep and which you will cut.
DETERMINE THE ARC
In fiction, there is something commonly referred to as an arc, or how a character changes over time. The same goes for poetry.
Now it’s time to determine the arc of your collection. Like a book or a play, a collection of poems should end in a different place than it began. This means there should be a change in the main speaker as well as in the reader.
Maybe the character becomes a better person (or a worse person), they decide to change their life, they decide to leave their partner, etc.
The speaker of your book should start in one place, and through the course of the book, through contemplation and/or action, they end up in another place. Any great piece of art includes transformation.
The arc does not have to be something major like deciding to leave a relationship or questioning gender; it can be something subtler like gaining confidence, or liking yourself more. Think about what change the reader will see in your book, even if it is a slight change.
To create a compelling arc in your chapbook, consider the following questions:
Questions to ask when structuring:
Think about the transition from beginning to end. What changes and how?
Why is the speaker (or why are the speakers) telling this story? Why does it need to happen now?
Where does the book begin? What is the argument or commentary on that theme or subject matter?
Where does the book end? How does that argument or commentary on that theme or subject matter change?
Why is this change important?
What is the journey people will go on with you when they read your book?
For the storytellers at Pixar, a favorite technique for story development is a formula called “The Story Spine,” created by professional playwright and improvisor Kenn Adams.
This formula gives the storyteller the outline of a story.
The Story Spine:
Once upon a time there was ____________.
Every day, ____________.
One day, ____________.
Because of that, ____________.
Until finally, ____________.
For information on how to order using Story Spine see my blog post.
STEP 4: CUT
During this time, you might decide to remove or cut a poem or two that does not add to the arc. That’s recommended. As you go through this process your collection should become tighter and more focused.
Now you should have a rough draft of your chapbook or full length collection. Now time to either find an editor to look over or start submitting! Whatever your next step, I wish you the best.
KELLY GRACE THOMAS is an ocean-obsessed Aries from Jersey. She is a poet, editor, educator and author. Kelly teaches one-day and month-long poetry online workshops to poets all over the world. Kelly is the winner of the 2020 Jane Underwood Poetry Prize and 2017 Neil Postman Award for Metaphor from Rattle, Her first full-length collection, Boat Burned, released with YesYes Books in January 2020. Kelly’s poems have appeared or are forthcoming in: Best New Poets 2019, Los Angeles Review, Redivider, Muzzle, Sixth Finch and more. Kelly is the Director of Education for Get Lit and the co-author of Words Ignite. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband, sister and daughter. www.kellygracethomas.com