My eye intent on all the mazy plan
Sunday night as I was lying in bed I had an idea for the collection of poems I’m working on. Dare I call it a manuscript when I’ve only got five poems I would put in the “ready” pile and the rest are drafts, notes, mere puffs of smoke jotted down in the corners of my workbooks? Not an idea about the poems themselves, or the general theme of the collection – that I’ve known for a long time, since before I realized that I was writing a collection of poems that belong, that could belong, together in a manuscript. What came to me was an idea about the structure of the collection and the order in which the poems might eventually find themselves. What came to me was a plan.
I’ve never done this before. I’ve never said that rather than write this poem and that poem I’m going to write this collection, this – go on, say it – manuscript. I picture nineteen poems (that’s not enough for a book-length manuscript but could make a nice chapbook) on four themes. The themes would determine each poem’s place in the collection. I wouldn’t just have Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV – no, I’d move back and forth between the themes coming back around to each at certain point. It could work, or it could be too clever by half, or it could go completely un-noticed by any readers I might one day entice into reading all nineteen poems. I might abandon it by the wayside as I continue to work.
But having this plan, this artificial impositon of order on what is by its very nature a disorderly process – the creation of something – makes it all less scattered and terrifying. I can be methodical and practical about something that is neither methodical nor practical. I can say I have three out of the four Theme A poems written and they are poems One, Six, and Twelve. I can say I have one of the Theme B poems written; I’ll make that poem Three. I have a Theme D poem written and it should probably be poem Four. And all of this will probably change but having this structure, this ladder to climb, makes it all seem so do-able now, so completely do-able.
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Good for you, calling it a manuscript! Because of course it is — just a baby for now. And I do so absolutely relate to the need for order in the lovely chaos of creation. My husband finds it hilarious that I have to write down lists for everything I do — chores in a day, errands to run, timeline for a short story, name ideas for the third child we’re not planning on having
— but if I don’t, the top of my head flies off… and it’s never easy to find again. Please keep us updated on how your little chapbook grows! I’ll be rooting for you.
I think this makes perfect sense, the structure, the framing of the ideas in your mind. When I started writing my novel, I had similar thoughts about part one and part two and a structural theme tied to the seasons. It really helped me make progress in the beginning. I did, however, get to a point where I knew the structure was too limiting, no longer necessary. Any tool that helps the process has value.
Good luck, and keep us posted!
Good for you! Always trust wherever your process is leading you, I say. Putting structures like that in place can be wonderful–regardless of whether or not the reader ever notices them. It will inform the writing process, and you can always point out things like that on the flyleaf.
[...] – though I found it a few days late into the month, it’s a perfect challenge to drive forward my chapbook project. I’ve stalled on writing new poems for this manuscript I’m building in my mind. [...]