Revision Process

[milo]

As a reader, I have often spent hours on a single poster's poem and returned multiple times if the poem sparked my interest or if the writer was doing interesting things in the revision process or if the poster and raised some interesting dialogue.  On the same note, I have posted once, read the revision and felt completely disengaged by it so never returned.

I think you're on to something, because I think that it's natural to spend more time on poems that you like and that hold something intriguing for you as a reader. But, sometimes I find something intriguing in the process of doing an edit -- maybe I thought I hated it and then doing a line by line crit reveals something I didn't previously see. That to say that working with something over time can spark interest where there was none initially.

Well, like I said, sometimes I am just intrigued by the dialog. I have spent a good deal of time on poems I didn't care for at first just because I was enjoying the process or because I enjoyed interacting with the poet.

I guess it pays to be interesting if you are looking to start a dialog about your poetry.