How to Organize Your Poetry Manuscript in 10 Easy Steps—Renee Emerson

For more articles, videos, books, and resources about faith and art, visit RabbitRoom.com.

by Renee Emerson

Before I wrote my first poetry collection, I thought that a collection was just what it sounded like—a “best-of,” random assortment of poems thrown together in the order they were written. But when I started to compile my own work, I began to read other poetry books with my eye on their form. What kind of poem did they choose to open the collection? Were there section breaks, how many, and why? I felt like someone who walked into a party and was trying to learn a new dance, carefully watching where you tap your boot and where you turn around.

A poetry collection is greater than the sum of its parts. While you could just throw together your 60-odd poems and hope for the best, most poets put time and thought into creating a collection that moves like a poem in itself, so the effect is more like someone going out on the dance floor to do the Renegade rather than clearing the floor for a set of jumping jacks.

By the time I began working on my fourth collection, I had a method:

1. Print Out All of Your Poems

Within reason, of course—if you have 10,000 poems, perhaps choose your favorite 100 or so. Most poetry manuscripts are 60 to 100 pages long, so I will typically aim to print out at least 70 pages of poetry. The more, the better in the earlier stages, so you can have room to cut poems with wild abandon.

While you could do all of your editing and manuscript building digitally, there is something to be said for physically holding your poems in your hands; after all, if you want these poems to eventually become a tangible book, sitting on a shelf in a home or bookstore, then treat them like they are objects of art–to be written on, crumpled up, thrown across the room maybe, but tangible nonetheless. 

2. Read and Rank Your Poems

Read through each of your poems and rank them. I limit my rankings to a simple 1 for “best,” 2 for “good,” and 3 for “ok,” with the goal of cutting as many of the “ok” poems as possible as I continue to write and revise the manuscript. During this phase, I also watch for poems that could serve to begin or end the collection. 

Don’t be afraid to use your own judgment with this. Just like you aren’t going to ask your mentor or writers group advice on each line break and word choice in an individual poem, you don’t need to bring an outside opinion in when you are first choosing poems. Compiling a manuscript is leveling up as a poet; you are aspiring to a more difficult artistic task, and you have to trust that you are ready for it.