Another question I need to ask

Today I edited two books written in verse.

I am not a poet. I am no expert in poetry. This is not my forte. And, yet, I did not think to ask either client if the manuscripts they hired me to edit were written in verse.

One of the books is very short, less than 1,000 words long. It's written for children. The other is longer, about 1,300 words and written by a grandmother for her young grandson. One is intended for public consumption; the other is personal to be given as private and person gift.

Both suffer from the same issues: uneven meter, forced rhymes, awkward phrasing.

I am not a poet, yet I have enjoyed poetry. In my youth, I read (more than once, mind you) a collection of poems my mother gave me: Piping Down the Valleys Wild. I've read haikus, sonnets, and other stylistic poems. I've read the epic poetry of the ancient Greeks. I read Milton's Paradise Lost ... and disliked it. (Were my English Literature professors still alive, they'd disown me for that.)

One hallmark of an accomplished poet is good rhythm, whether iambic pentameter (hello, William Shakespeare) or trochaic meter or something else.

I know when the rhythm and rhyme please the ear. There's an easiness to it that is really, really difficult to create. The meaning may take some work to parse out, but the poetry itself pleases both the ear and tongue.

I've written poetry, and I never got the hang of it. I do not have that ability to create "easy" poetry pleasing to the ear in both rhyme and meter. The best that can be said of my poetry is that it's doggerel.

One of the manuscripts, I think, would be better expressed in prose form. I suggested the client look at the Berenstain Bears books for young children. Bears in the Night is a fabulous example (not to mention a favorite when my children were very young) of a book written in prose, but poetic in nature. Its words are simple, its meter consistent, with breaks in rhythm effective and deliberately attention-getting.

The other manuscript, too, would benefit from more accomplished expression, whether that be in verse or narrative form.

Well-written children's literature is difficult to write. The author must combine a good story with age-appropriate language and brevity. Word choice in children's literature is as critical as for poetry.

So, the next time a prospective client contacts me about editing his or her book, I should probably inquire as to whether it's written in verse. I don't do horror. Apparently, I don't do poetry either.

#knowyourlimits #editing