Empowered Edits
Edit your poetry with authenticity
Get submission-ready
Empowered Edits takes your poems from draft to polished using your own unique voice to have you publishing sooner.
If you would like to improve your poetry before you publish, or just improve your work for art's sake, then this is for you.
Bring as many drafts as you like and transform them into publishable poems.
What’s Included:
+ 7 video modules (self-paced, captioned)
+ 1 Audio mediation for deeper edits
+ 63-page printable workbook
+ Easy-to-follow lessons on poetic devices, form, structure, and the small tweaks that will make big impact to your poem
+ Edit multiple poems simultaneously to learn how devices suit some poems more than others (and to get more work ready to publish)
Online Training Videos
Available through a learner dashboard accessible at a time that suits your schedule. Closed captions on all clips.
Comprehensive Workbook
63 pages of structured learning and activities for you to refer back to as needed.
Editing Meditation
Yes, it's a different approach. Give it a try.
This course is for those who
- Want to turn their drafts into publishable poems,
- Have a notebook full of drafts that don't quite feel like poems... yet.
- Know that you need to understand poetic forms, devices and structure but every time you've tried to learn about them it feels academic and joyless,
- Want to put their name to vivid, emotionally resonant or powerfully political work,
- Want to edit your poetry in a way that feels aligned to your own style, not the 'classics', or even worse, AI.
Sound familiar? Welcome, you're exactly who this course was made for.
You'll leave with:
- A collection of poems ready to publish and the empowerment to send them out into the world,
- a knowledge of poetic devices so your next drafts will be even better,
- confidence in your own revision techniques to ensure that your poems are the best they can be,
- Unique and creative approaches to revision that you can use on your next drafts.
What the world needs now is more unique voices, so this course will not:
❌ Rely on academic jargon designed to intimidate,
❌ Use the classics as examples. We all know and love them but how many of us sound like them? Instead you will look at poets that inspire YOU, poets that are more aligned with your vision.
❌ Ask you to use AI in any way (although feel free to write a poem about it 😉)
What you'll learn
Empowered Edits is structured into seven engaging online modules, covering:
The Heart of your Poem & Intent and Purpose
Module One is broken into two parts designed to get you thinking in a unique way about your poems so that you can build the emotional resonance and power of your work. Typically, the poets I've taught face-to-face tell me that they have never done this type of analysis before, but they are glad they have now.
Build Emotional Resonance
Emotional resonance not only builds connection with your reader, but it's the thing that makes your poem linger in their minds. This module will have you building emotional resonance through a range of different editing tasks to ensure that your drafts are as potent and rich as they can be.
Poetic Devices
Poems are just more than lines on the page, poetic devices are what make poems so vivid, beautiful and emotive. We will assess a range of different poetic devices to elevate your work and show your skill as a poet.
Form
Experimenting with different forms or genres is often overlooked, especially by free-verse or spoken word poets. But what if your poem works better in another form? This module will demonstrate some of the most popular forms and genres and encourage you to consider if you can push your creative choices further so that your poems are in the best form the can be.
Stanzas, Lines & Shape
Learn about how stanzas and lines work within poetry and then determine how to move stanzas and lines around in your work for greater emotional resonance and power. This is also a chance to push your creative boundaries, try new creative approaches and elevate your work.
Small Tweaks, Big Impact
Sometimes it's the little things that make the difference. Now we have looked at the big pieces of your poem, we will examine thirteen key elements to get your poem ready to publish.
These are the steps that many people forget, but will make sure your poem doesn't get lost in the slush-pile.
Course Outcomes
By the end of the course you will have...
✔ Edited as many poems as you like (I encourage you to work on multiple poems to explore the full range of activities and finish with a selection of poems ready to send out to publishers),
✔ Become crystal-clear about the purpose of your poem and the effect it needs to have on your reader,
✔ Elevated the tone and mood of the poem,
✔ Completed a meditation designed to push beyond ego in the editing process and explored subconscious insight into your work,
✔ Used different approaches to build the emotional resonance of your poems,
✔ Explored poetic devices, such as symbolism, metaphor and onomatopoeia and determined which devices work best for each of your poems,
✔ Tried different poetic forms and genres to ensure the best-fit for your work,
✔ Worked through your stanzas, lines and poetic structure to enhance the poem
✔ Followed thirteen small tweaks that will strengthen your work
✔ Pushed creative boundaries that align with your voice and style, not the 'classics',
✔ Reviewed the work of poets that you respect to understand how other poets use devices and poetic techniques within their own work.
Scroll down for a detailed analysis of each module.
Sample part of Module Three
View this abridged sample from module three, where Melissa talks about poetic devices.
Self Paced - Online
Set your own schedule.
With full access from the moment you enrol, you can move through the material at a pace that suits you best. Tackle one module per week and take your time to absorb the lessons.
OR, if you're feeling inspired, you can complete the entire course in a single weekend. But remember, you should always let a poem rest, so make sure you factor that in.
Plus, you can repeat the modules as often as you like, ensuring you get the most out of each lesson.
What Makes This Course Unique?
I named this course Empowered Edits, because, like its sister course Empowered Beginnings it s about freedom, confidence and self-expression.
I'm not interested in making you sound like any other poet, what we all need is more unique voices.
The course has been designed based off my face-to-face poetry classes. It's not AI designed, it comes from my years of expertise as a published poet and educator.
The first module is likely to be different to other poetry classes that you've done, but it is essential step in the editing process. For so many poets, we are not sure what inspired us to write the first draft - it just arrived. In module one you will interrogate this, and get to the heart of your poem.
Part of this journey is using a meditation. Again, this might be new to you, but please try it. It moves you beyond cognitive, ego-based edits and pushed further into what is really at the heart of the poem.
I've also included Quick Challenges and Reflection activities. These are designed to embed your learnings, so that these approaches to editing become second-nature.
I know what it's like to feel intimidated by poetry
As a teenager, all I wanted to do was write - poetry, fiction, non-fiction. I worked as hard as I could to get accepted into the Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, which at the time was a prestigious course. But, during my study, and after graduation I didn't write poetry for years.
Intimidated by the ‘masters’ and daunted by the ‘indie’ poets, I was convinced that I would never be able to write as beautifully or as passionately as them. I kept these (incorrect) feelings of inadequacy in my heart as I created this course because, although I have moved past that chapter in my writing career, I know that many writers still face confidence challenges.
My heartfelt intention is to empower writers with a spirit of courage and determination to create work that is authentic to them. I wish to demonstrate ease and flow, rather than advance ideas of exclusivity within the poetry community.
Melissa
About your tutor
Dr Melissa Watts has a Bachelor of Arts with Honours (creative writing & literary studies) from the University of Melbourne (2004) and a PhD in creative writing & history from Federation University (2023).
Melissa Watts has published poetry, fiction and non-fiction. Her poems have inspired other artists to craft bronze statues and compose piano performances for audiences in New York.
She has published a collection of free-verse and structured poetry exploring the relationship between people and place. In Small Towns (2022) Melissa shines a light on the unsaid. She picks the scab of small-town tensions, then unflinchingly aims her bow at social injustice, tipping her hat to the feminist poets who have come before her.
Melissa is currently exploring pathways to publication for her novel depicting the lives of female cartographers in World War Two.
She has hosted keynotes at Melbourne Writers Festival interviewing British author M.J. Hyland and Ballarat Writers Festival interviewing YA icon Maureen McCarthy. She has spoken at Clunes Booktown and maintained monthly radio programs interviewing authors such as Paddy O’Reilly, Graeme Simsion, Toni Jordan and Angela Savage. Melissa spent several years as the publicity officer for Ballarat Writers working on large literary projects including festivals and competitions. Melissa was the 2024 judge of the Martha Richardson Poetry Prize.
When not writing Melissa has worked in instructional design and online learner engagement strategy for some of Australia’s largest corporations.
Learning Module Details
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Module 1, Part 1: The heart of your poem
Module 1, Part 2: Intent & Purpose
Module 2: Build emotional resonance
Module 3: Poetic Devices
Module 4: Poetic Form
Module 5: Stanza, line structure and shape
Module 6: Small tweaks, big impact.
Feedback from the live classes
This course is just new to the online space, but here is what my face-to-face participants have said:
The polish & more.
'This program not only gives you the 'polish' to finish your poem, it provides you with the cloth, the surface and the muscle to complete the task. The handout was a great resource for the course and for future reference.'
My own poem
'I enjoyed that the activities focused on my own poem. I looked at it afresh.'
Mix of theory & creativity
'I loved the mix of theory and creativity. I feel like my poem has completely changed into something so much better! Also, love the workbook.
Beginning & Emerging
'This course is perfect for both beginning and emerging poets.'
Questions?
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