I feel that long books of poetry and such writings are lost on the modern reader who typically is impatient and has a short attention span. So I do not think that I want to put out a large collection of poems, but how many is the right number for this collection?
FORTY IS A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER
I first set the number of poems for my collection, Through These Dark Lands Are Edges Of Joy, at forty or so pieces. I like the number forty, it is all over the Bible. Forty poems give about twenty to thirty minutes of reading and I thought the message of encouragement could be easily conveyed within that scope.
CHAPBOOK
My format was to be a chapbook, which is by definition a small collection of poetry, twenty-five to thirty-five poems (about forty pages) so forty short poems would push the upper range but I could still call it a chapbook.
I went through my collection of unpublished works and found a little more than forty so I figured fifty wasn't much more and could still work; it would be too big to call a chapbook but could work as a small collection.
MORE CAME TO ME
As I was polishing the fifty or so I felt inspirations to add in a couple more. Additionally, in my daily Bible reading I got some ideas for a few more that I thought would easily fit in the collection.
Well, sometimes one thing spins off into another because a sentence or phrase is not right for that piece but it is too good to throw away, so a few more came into being.
Then I had about sixty-five poems.
RESEARCH
I am not an expert on the subject, so I looked around for books about going through hard experiences since I did not want to make someone feel worse than they already did, which sometimes happens. Some of the books said some really powerful things that I did not consider- which means I added a few more poems.
DONE?
A few weeks ago I called it done. I had worked on the collection for about nine months and I had about 92 poems and thought it was getting way too big. I was eager to finish it up, so I got some help with editing and started to make the final adjustments to the manuscript. Someone suggested the collection was too dark for my purpose of being an encouragement, so I did some "tweaking" and had a couple of ideas for a few more poems to finish the collection with an upbeat feel.
It was now at about 99 pages including the usual stuff at the beginning. I felt the collection was at the absolute maximum length it can go.
AND THEN
And then while reading my Bible this morning I got an "impression," or an idea about another poem that would be so perfect at the end of the collection, so here it goes again. I worked most of the day on two more to finish the collection and stuck them in.
REALLY, NOW
Ok, I really think it can't be any longer than a hundred and one pages, and that includes all the legal stuff at the front and the appendix at the back.
WHAT HAPPENED?
I could have just said forty and stopped there, or fifty or sixty-five, but in this case, I am trying to fulfill what I believe is a mandate from the Lord to do this thing as an offering to Him, so I prayerfully let Him dictate the length and content. If my vision was for a particular product of a certain size then I could be arbitrary, but since I want to be in obedience to the Lord's guidance I must let him dictate.
BESIDES
I want to get it done and give it to people in time for Christmas and will need to move ahead with the printer soon.
If you are in need of encouragement or know someone who does you should order a copy today, you will glad you did.
FORTY IS A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER
I first set the number of poems for my collection, Through These Dark Lands Are Edges Of Joy, at forty or so pieces. I like the number forty, it is all over the Bible. Forty poems give about twenty to thirty minutes of reading and I thought the message of encouragement could be easily conveyed within that scope.
CHAPBOOK
My format was to be a chapbook, which is by definition a small collection of poetry, twenty-five to thirty-five poems (about forty pages) so forty short poems would push the upper range but I could still call it a chapbook.
I went through my collection of unpublished works and found a little more than forty so I figured fifty wasn't much more and could still work; it would be too big to call a chapbook but could work as a small collection.
As I was polishing the fifty or so I felt inspirations to add in a couple more. Additionally, in my daily Bible reading I got some ideas for a few more that I thought would easily fit in the collection.
Well, sometimes one thing spins off into another because a sentence or phrase is not right for that piece but it is too good to throw away, so a few more came into being.
Then I had about sixty-five poems.
RESEARCH
I am not an expert on the subject, so I looked around for books about going through hard experiences since I did not want to make someone feel worse than they already did, which sometimes happens. Some of the books said some really powerful things that I did not consider- which means I added a few more poems.
DONE?
A few weeks ago I called it done. I had worked on the collection for about nine months and I had about 92 poems and thought it was getting way too big. I was eager to finish it up, so I got some help with editing and started to make the final adjustments to the manuscript. Someone suggested the collection was too dark for my purpose of being an encouragement, so I did some "tweaking" and had a couple of ideas for a few more poems to finish the collection with an upbeat feel.
It was now at about 99 pages including the usual stuff at the beginning. I felt the collection was at the absolute maximum length it can go.
AND THEN
And then while reading my Bible this morning I got an "impression," or an idea about another poem that would be so perfect at the end of the collection, so here it goes again. I worked most of the day on two more to finish the collection and stuck them in.
REALLY, NOW
Ok, I really think it can't be any longer than a hundred and one pages, and that includes all the legal stuff at the front and the appendix at the back.
WHAT HAPPENED?
I could have just said forty and stopped there, or fifty or sixty-five, but in this case, I am trying to fulfill what I believe is a mandate from the Lord to do this thing as an offering to Him, so I prayerfully let Him dictate the length and content. If my vision was for a particular product of a certain size then I could be arbitrary, but since I want to be in obedience to the Lord's guidance I must let him dictate.
BESIDES
I want to get it done and give it to people in time for Christmas and will need to move ahead with the printer soon.
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(c)Adron 10/8/17
