Interviews with writers are my favorite. Even if I’ve never read, or heard of, the writer, I can’t turn the page without reading the interview. Now that I’ve had a kid, I read them even more–they’re even better a snippet at a time. The part that I really go for is the part where the writer talks about their writing process. I’m not sure why we ask that question, but I always want to know the answer. Poets seem to fall into one of two groups as far as first drafts go: either they write a long, quick, crappy first draft or they write one line at a time, slowly, not moving on to the next line until they’re happy with the current one. I’m in the first group, and I’ve always just shrugged at those in the slow, careful group. I figured that writing style was mostly something we were born with, mixed with habits we picked up, or fought off, in school.
The last month or so (okay, since those fun acrostics I was writing) I’ve become increasingly ready to figure out why I have such a hard time writing poems using form. I grew up staunchly free-verse, and most of my tries at formal verse over the years have been frustrating, to say the least. This past week I have been talking with a friend of mine who uses form gracefully, and I realized in trying to figure out how he does it that what has always been my biggest challenge when trying to write formal poetry is how to handle revision. Where I would typically axe a stanza, the sestina requests that one remain. Etc. My first drafts have always been cavalier, meant to fill the page, to throw a net over the hole as a safety measure before erecting something more lasting. But suppose that habit actually makes writing a decent poem in form more difficult? Formal writers are more likely to answer that interview question about writing style as tortoises, one line at a time. Maybe that’s because formal writing works better that way, not because that just happens to be their style.
So this week I’m going to try something new: I’m going to try to change the way I write. When I’m writing in form, I’m not going to let myself speed through the first draft. I’m going to try writing more polished lines as I go, stopping for water and to dust the shelves while I think about the next line. I invite anyone else out there who has trouble with form to join me this week for one slow first draft.