Preparing to Write a Sonnet

• 1). Decide on the topic or theme that you want to write about in your sonnet. Write this idea down.
  
  
• 2). Choose the kind of sonnet that you want to write. Different kinds of sonnets will suit different sorts of topics better than others. For example, Shakespearean sonnets are well suited to topics or ideas that you want to describe and then complicate more and more before a resolution in the couplet; Petrarchan sonnets are well suited to working through ideas or quandaries; and Spenserian sonnets work well with story telling. Write down the type of sonnet that you will write underneath your topic.
  
  For a list of the different sonnet forms see Terry Clitheroe's The Poets Garret website.
  
  
• 3). Study the kind of sonnet that you have chosen carefully. Most sonnet types will involve a strict meter, a regular rhyme scheme, and a set grouping of stanzas (most involve three quatrains and one couplet). Meter and rhyme scheme are things that you can work through line by line, but the stanza structure of your sonnet is important to the way that the idea of your sonnet will develop into your sonnet's conclusion. Write these details down underneath the name of the sonnet type that you have chosen.
  
  
• 4). Plot out your idea by making a list of the main points that you want to write about in your sonnet. Write these points below what you have already written down. It is a good idea to limit yourself to one or two main points per stanza, to include at least one image with each point, and to consider how you want your main points to develop from stanza to stanza.
  
  

Editing and Finalizing your Sonnet

• 1). Write a draft of your poem from the notes that you have written out. This draft can be as rough as it needs to be. Do not worry if it does not fit the rhyme and rhythm of your sonnet type perfectly; let the sonnet form guide you while writing, rather than trying to force things into it.
  
  
• 2). Edit the draft of your sonnet one stanza at a time, making sure that each line and each stanza is made to fit the meter and rhyme scheme of your selected sonnet form.
  
  
• 3). Bring the stanzas of your sonnet together after you have edited them.
  
  
• 4). Edit your sonnet as a whole. Make a note of whether your stanzas, when put together, make a clear sequence; if your images are expressed to your satisfaction; and if your final two lines make a satisfactory end.
  
  
• 5). Take the notes that you made in the previous step and make all of the necessary changes to your sonnet. This will complete your sonnet.