Long ago, in another city in another state, I began writing poetry seriously and seeking to publish it. Okay, you say, then the big issue was getting editors to accept my poems. That is a biggie, of course, but only part of the process, and a part that depends on other things, such as filing and record-keeping.
Keeping records then, almost fifty years ago, and now, in another century in another millennium, are two different things. You probably won't be surprised to find that the old way worked better for me. Here are the essentials of that process:
- write something that might resemble a poem
- revise that something into resembling a poem more closely
- type up the best draft
- revise the best draft
- make a "final" draft and file it
Doing these things gave me a file of more-or-less poems that I could submit to editors. What editors where? Here's that process:
- research poetry publications and their editors
- select a publication to submit some of my poems to
- send off the poems
- get the editor's response (most probable response: rejection; sometimes, acceptance)
- do more research and submit more poems
I did mention record-keeping. Until I started using computers, I used file-folders, notebooks, and index cards to file final drafts and to track places to submit poems, submissions, and the responses to submissions. Most of those records still exist, in a box in storage somewhere. Several years ago, I wrote another blog post about this process.
I've had more trouble with tracking drafts and keeping records on a computer than I ever had with hard-copy files and notebooks. Short poems like haiku are especially hard for me to know (1) where they are and (2) what has happened with them.
I still use notebooks to write first drafts, but I type up subsequent drafts on a computer. Just this month, I've decided to record final drafts of short poems, and records of submitting them, in an actual physical notebook rather than casting them into the sectors of a hard-drive.
Here's a question to end with: If you write poetry, how do you keep track of final drafts and their records of submission? Someone has to have some good ideas out there.