How Do You Put Together a Manuscript?
So it's the middle of the month and here's what I've done so far:
To-Do List (revised)
This weekend
Write three poems. Done
Week 2
Start to revise and reorder poems for manuscript. In process
Read a book of poetry that I bought from the Dodge Festival. I'm reading Ross Gay's first book of poems, Against Which. It's phenomenal.
Week 3
Attend one poetry reading locally.
Write one poem. In process
Work on manuscript.
Mail poems to two journals (new addition)
Week 4 (end of month)
Hand off manuscript to fellow poets for critique.
Write one poem.
Mail poems to two journals.
With that housekeeping out of the way, I could use your advice. I'm seeking help on how to put together a collection of poems.
When I first arranged my manuscript years ago, I put my poems together chronologically because it made sense at the time. Since I've been blogging and writing more poems, I've had to move away from that. At this point, I see three major sections: public, universal poems; poems about my childhood; and motherhood poems. I have about 60 poems to work with.
Any suggestions/tips/do's and don'ts on how to arrange a manuscript collection would be greatly appreciated. And if you have never put together a manuscript, tell me what you like to see when you read a book of poems. As a reader, what do you enjoy about reading a book. Do you notice the structure? Do you like themes? What don't you like? Tell me everything!
Thanks, in advance.
To-Do List (revised)
This weekend
Write three poems. Done
Week 2
Start to revise and reorder poems for manuscript. In process
Read a book of poetry that I bought from the Dodge Festival. I'm reading Ross Gay's first book of poems, Against Which. It's phenomenal.
Week 3
Attend one poetry reading locally.
Write one poem. In process
Work on manuscript.
Mail poems to two journals (new addition)
Week 4 (end of month)
Hand off manuscript to fellow poets for critique.
Write one poem.
Mail poems to two journals.
With that housekeeping out of the way, I could use your advice. I'm seeking help on how to put together a collection of poems.
When I first arranged my manuscript years ago, I put my poems together chronologically because it made sense at the time. Since I've been blogging and writing more poems, I've had to move away from that. At this point, I see three major sections: public, universal poems; poems about my childhood; and motherhood poems. I have about 60 poems to work with.
Any suggestions/tips/do's and don'ts on how to arrange a manuscript collection would be greatly appreciated. And if you have never put together a manuscript, tell me what you like to see when you read a book of poems. As a reader, what do you enjoy about reading a book. Do you notice the structure? Do you like themes? What don't you like? Tell me everything!
Thanks, in advance.
Comments
i'm working with the poem that i want to end with, and working back from that. when i read a collection i like to see the leap made between the first and last poems presented.
i also like to see circling between themes, creeping deeper an deeeper into different themes every time it is revisted, and also a well thought out rhythm between longer and shorter poems.
any help - or am i being too literal minded?
What you call a pamphet, we call chapbooks, which is a collection of about 20-32 pages.
Has it been difficult to put together your pamphet?
Truth is -- when I read a book of poetry, I just pick it up and turn to a page. I rarely will sit down with a book of poems and read it from page one through the end. But I might just be odd.
I think it is (despite what I just wrote) inportant to include something very strong and appropriate for the first poem in a manuscript -- and for the last poem too. Bookends.
Mine started with the sonnet I posted for Poetry Thursday last week, which was about my daughter, then went back in time through my poems inspired by genealogy and gradually forward in time - a couple about more recent history, and a couple of poems about relationships now, ending with a slightly lighter one which included mention of couples among other things . But I had to leave out one of my favourites, because it just didn't fit in with the others. I think it's too jarring to go directly from something quite serious to something humourous.
I agree with Jim about bookends.
If I was doing a longer book by myself, I would probably divide it into about three sections - there can be a discontinuity between sections but I like some sort of continuity and development between poems in each section.
I woudn't have a clue how to arrange mine chronologically. Before my hard drive died I could have looked at the date on the file. Since then, I have only a hazy idea of when some of the poems were written. They all have the date of import from the backup on them.
So there's your completely useless comment for the day. Enjoy!
Erin, I like to see a progression, too. But I try Jim's method and throw my poems down the stairs to create an order!
Jim, I have to admit, when I read a book of poems I like to jump around until I find something that peaks my interest.
Catherine, seems like bookends are a common theme here. Thanks for sharing your process.
When I first arranged my poems chronologically, I started with poems about my youth until my present. Most of my poems go back at least 10 years.
Maybe I should put together my three sections as if I was putting together a chapbook. Hmmm...
And for my second book (with publishers as I speak) one of the editors there is rearranging what I arranged anyway - so maybe in the end it doesn't really matter cos it will be re-arranged anyway?
But what I tended to do was go by instinct - what poem felt right to go first, then what felt right o follow. (I do get myself in a bit of a muddle however.) It's a good idea to arrange them bu subject - e.g everyday life, family, landscape ...
I've never taken that advice, which was given to me with my first book manuscript. First, it seemed more than a little arbritary, and then it seemed odd to figure out by what basis to judge the "best" poems--by their previous publication?
For me, it's about the conversation the poems have with one another, as they sit side by side. Sometimes that necessitates the inclusion of what is indeed a marginal poem, one not likely to get published, but it says the absolutely right thing between these two other poems. Sometimes it's what bb says, too, just about the rhythms, movements, vortices that a particular combination creates. But I like to think of the book MS really as a single, breathing thing, a really big poem.
Of course, about my own reading habits, I do jump around with a book of poetry, much like what Jim describes above.