Due to an overwhelming amount of requests, we have compiled a list of "suggestions" that you might find helpful, not only in entering competitions but also in further developing your poetic voice. These suggestions were arrived at by the observations made of our 1000+ monthly visitors, our 300+ monthly submissions . . . here goes: Spelling and grammar are crucial Typical errors in most cases could have been avoided with the "spell check" feature. Most common after spelling errors were missing or misplaced apostrophes. Fortunately, due to our no-cost-online-format, many of our competitors who re-submitted their work after it was removed from the competition found mistakes they had no idea were there. I wonder what they did before, when their work was snail-mailed, with a reading fee and quietly pushed aside due to said error(s)? Have someone else read over your work. Consistency If your work is in the past, present or future tense you must be sure that it remains so, too many pieces failed to progress to our "Fina-List" for this reason. "Biting off more than you can chew" Unfortunately some poets wish to fly before they've tried crawling. Some of you tend to be too "wordy" forgetting that "poetry is the shorthand of the heart". If you are bold enough to submit a piece over 200 words in length it had better be able to carry the reader through each and every word, in each and every line. The larger your submission the more likely you will succumb to cliché, repetitiveness, or deadlier . . . losing your reader's interest. Your Poetic Voice Take time to read the poems that have previously won or made our 'Fina-List". You don't have to find winners on the Mattia website, you can visit other poetry competitions and read their winners too. This suggestion is not so that you can imitate what you read, but observe the ability of those who have found something that presents their own voice. Some poets spend their creative lifetime wallowing around in their own expressions and never benefit from "getting out there". Please, please, please avoid . . . Cliché -- can't stress this enough. Typically, there is one type of poem that tends to drag the inexperienced poet into that dreaded land of cliché -- the love/breakup poem. People, take it from us, your "broken heart" has been bashed, mashed, and crushed along with every other word you can think of. Quotes -- someone else's thoughts may lend themselves well, but try it on your own . . . this is poetry! Questions -- asking means having to answer. "Why this?", or "how come that?" can be a fast way to cliché. Stories -- some entries just plain read like a storyline. If it reads like any given paragraph out of a novel chances are it won't be given much consideration as a poem. All over the place themes -- unless one is skilled at jumping from dragons in a tower to a baseball diamond, all in the same poem, one runs the risk of not getting very far with one's readership. Try to maintain a common thread throughout, something to keep it together. Poor titles -- can't express enough how often some pieces just simply did not live up to their title, or vice versa. Punctuation Marks -- If you're going to use punctuation marks in any part of the body of your work then be sure to use them throughout. For example, we have set aside potential finalists because they would use a question mark in one instance of their entry and not be consistent enough to do so when they asked another question in the same piece. Religion, politics -- careful here, if it doesn't work at parties . . . read it back to yourself and consider its poetic sound. If one element strays toward preaching or raving you could lose your audience. Due to spammers, email addresses on this site will no longer have links. You must manually enter the address. Questions?  E-Mail   08info_AT_mattia.ca | EDITOR'S CHOICE - Poets & Readers | | COMPETITION RULES | | MAIN INDEX |