Courtney LeBlanc’s Top Editing Tip

Featured Artist Courtney LeBlanc does a lot of work in editing. We asked her to share one of her top tips on a common problem, and how to avoid it. It’s a pocket sized nugget of gold for those of us out there polishing up our chapbooks!

Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash

“In the book The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo he states that poets write the same poem over and over again. I find this to be true in my own writing; I’ll go through phases where every poem I write is on the same topic. This is okay, the key is to ensure you’re using different and unique language. I find that many poets, myself included, will have a few words that repeatedly pop up in their poems. Some of my words are: mouth, skin, touch. So when I’m editing someone’s manuscript I look for repeating words and then suggest variations or different words they could use to ensure the language is fresh and the reader doesn’t get bored with the writing.”