A Home for the Poems That Become a Collection

A poem is revised at the level of the line. Where a line breaks changes what it means: a break can hold a word back, let a phrase double, or give the reader a breath. That is why poets care whether their editor keeps line breaks exactly as typed, and why reading the poem aloud is part of revising it rather than a performance afterwards.

A collection is revised at a different level. Poems written over years have to become a book, and the order does the work that plot does in a novel: which poem opens, which two sit side by side so that each changes the other, where a section break falls, which poem closes. Many poets print their poems and lay them on the floor to find that order. The manuscript also needs an acknowledgments page listing the journals where poems first appeared, because many magazines expect to be credited, and a chapbook or full-length manuscript is often sent to contests and open reading periods as a single file.

So a poet needs two things from software: a surface that respects the line, and a way to handle many short pieces as one book.

1. Create one book for the collection. Add each poem as a chapter and type its title in the chapter title field; the sidebar becomes your table of contents.
2. If the collection has sections, add an Act for each and give it a title. Acts and chapters can both be renamed freely, so "Act" never has to appear in the finished book.
3. Paste or type each poem. Use Shift+Enter for line breaks within a stanza and Enter between stanzas.
4. Revise a poem, then click Save Version Manually before a risky change. Compare Versions shows two drafts side by side, and Restore This Version brings back the one you prefer.
5. Press Listen and hear the poem in one of ten English voices. A flat synthetic voice is unforgiving, which is useful: it shows you where the rhythm depends on your own delivery.
6. Find the sequence. Drag poems up and down the sidebar until the openings and closings talk to each other. Save a version of each order you like.
7. Invite two trusted readers with a Can comment link that expires in a month. The link opens the whole collection; ask them to mark the poem they would cut.
8. Add an Acknowledgments chapter for journal credits, then export a Word document or PDF for a contest or a press.

• No rhyme finder, syllable counter or meter scansion. Keep your rhyming dictionary and your ear.
• No precise control of indentation or spacing within a line. Poems that depend on visual placement across the page (dropped lines, spaced fields, concrete poems) need a layout tool.
• PDF export is fixed at A4, so a chapbook's final page size and layout are set elsewhere.
• The Proofing Pass was built for prose. It may flag fragments, capitalisation and missing punctuation that are deliberate in a poem. Leave Picky Mode off, add invented words to your Personal Dictionary, and dismiss what you meant.
• Reader Pulse scores chapters for hooks, tension and pacing. That is a novel's vocabulary, and it will not tell you much about a lyric poem.