HOT OFF THE PRESS! We love to share our information with writers, and we’re happy to pass some of our INSIDER’S SECRETS along to you. Feel free to print these posts to use as a reference. Pass the links along to your writer friends. It’s packed with great information. DEADLINE-DATED lists of anthologies, theme issues, and contests are included at no charge!

In This Issue:

* * Learn how to keep your poetry alive in FOSTERING ORIGINALITY IN POETRY.

* * Break these rules and editors and agents WILL REJECT your work. AGREEING TO AGREE: BASIC PRONOUN RULES will help you clean up these common problems.

* * We’re giving away a FREE REPORT that outlines industry-standard Manuscript FORMAT Guidelines when you order our E-book entitled REJOICE IN REJECTION. Go to: http://www.WritersReliefBlog.com/post/Rejoice-in-Rejection-e-book.aspx.

* * View a short lesson on how to properly format your TANTALIZING TITLES.

* * Clarify your confusion about ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE.

* * We have a level of service for every budget. CHOOSE ONE OF OUR THREE LEVELS OF SERVICE. Get your submissions mailed out quickly and easily. http://WritersReliefBlog.com/post/Three-Levels-Of-Service.aspx

* * You won’t find a better list anywhere (AND IT’S FREE!) of upcoming ANTHOLOGIES, SPECIAL-THEMED JOURNALS, and CONTESTS. Visit: http://WritersReliefBlog.com/post/Anthologies-Contests.aspx.

↓ Scroll Down to Read These Exciting and Useful Articles!! ↓  

Poetry demands originality. It is, however, unfair to expect brand-new poets to produce fresh, original work all the time—even the most seasoned poets struggle with this task. Poets often find that they must first imitate what has come before them—by reading the work of others and by imitating the work that inspires them—until their own unique voice begins to come through. And by honing the craft through dedicated practice, a poet develops his or her own style.

Finding the creativity needed to create new subject matter and imagery in poetry is easier said than done, but we’ve come up with a few tips on fostering originality. These can be applied to most other genres as well.

Read widely. By reading and absorbing the words of others, your repertoire of skills widens, building on the skills you’ve already developed. Read collections of contemporary poetry, attend readings, and subscribe to poetry journals to broaden your horizons.

Imitate. We’re not talking plagiarism here. Imitating the works you admire helps to develop your own style, and as confidence grows, so does individuality.

Avoid cliché. Images and themes that have been overused lose their power and beauty. Period.

Make each word count. Poetry is a spare form of writing, requiring each word to pack a punch. Choose your words carefully, and aim for clear and concise language. Use action verbs and concrete nouns, which require fewer modifiers and are more dynamic. Avoid the passive and the abstract. And when searching for that perfect word, keep in mind that it need not be exotic or scholarly or unpronounceable to be meaningful.

Make each line count. Each line should be an integral part of the poem and help the poem progress. A four-line poem with four powerful, original lines is better than a two-page poem with four powerful, original lines.

Imagery. Let the poem’s images appeal to the readers’ senses—sound, sight, taste, smell, touch—through metaphors, similes, or descriptive words. Avoid tired similes (free as a bird, quiet as a mouse) and overused metaphors (my love is a rose). It can be difficult for even an experienced writer to create fresh metaphors and similes, but this is what makes a poem interesting.

Don’t overexplain. If the poem is effective, your use of language is sufficient to get the message across to the reader. You don’t have to explain everything.

Take risks. Poems that tackle difficult or uncomfortable subjects make an impact on the reader. Or try using humor, satire, or irony, which can also make even dull subject matter come to life.

Write naturally. It’s not only unnecessary for a poem to rhyme, but it can sound forced or strained if not done properly. And unless you are attempting to write in a Victorian style, avoid the use of "thee," "o’er," or "’tis." While the poetry of a hundred years ago may be appealing, most poets are writing for a modern audience.

Grammar and punctuation rules need not apply. Poetry is free of the usual constraints of writing rules. Line structure provides natural breaks without commas or periods, and the author has free reign over other matters of style. If it works for the poem, the grammar police will turn the other cheek.

Form. There are many different forms of poetry that can be employed, but it is not necessary to write in couplet form, for example, in order to be taken seriously.

Enjoy yourself. Letting go and writing for the sheer pleasure of it often produces the most original and creative pieces. Embrace the joy of writing and see what happens.

Trying to figure out how to use pronouns correctly? We at Writer’s Relief want to make it easy for you. The basic grammar rule governing pronoun agreement is that pronouns must agree with the word or words they refer to in both number and gender.

Simply put, agreeing in number means that if the word is plural, the pronoun should also be plural; if the word is singular, the pronoun should be singular as well. Let’s look at a couple of examples:

1. The man in the blue suit pushed his way through the train’s closing doors. (The singular pronoun his agrees with the singular noun man.)

2. When the final bell rang, the children ran to their school buses. (The plural pronoun their agrees with the plural noun children.)

Now let’s look at gender agreement. Agreement in gender simply means that if the word is feminine (like the name Alice), the pronoun should be feminine, and if the word is masculine (like the word boy), the pronoun should be masculine. If the word has no gender (like the word chair), the pronoun should also be genderless (it, its, they, their).

In the examples above not only do the pronouns agree in number, but they agree in gender as well. In the first sentence the pronoun his agrees with the masculine noun man, and in the second sentence, their is the appropriate pronoun since the plural noun children can refer to a group of boys, girls, or a mix of boys and girls.

Here are a few more examples:

3. The trees lost their leaves at the same time each year. (The plural pronoun their agrees with the genderless noun trees.)

4. Rachel always insists on watching her family’s home movies. (The singular pronoun her agrees with the feminine noun Rachel.)

5. The jury reached its verdict. (The singular pronoun its agrees with the genderless singular noun jury. Note: Jury is a collective noun, a noun that is considered to be singular even though it refers to a group of people or things. Other collective nouns include team, committee, and class.)

Easy, right? Well, as with everything in English grammar, some sentences create tricky pronoun situations. Just remember the following rules, and you’ll never have a problem with pronoun agreement.

1. Pronouns that are always singular include anybody, anyone, anything, each, each one, either, every, everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, somebody, someone, and something.

Example: Each of the boys passed his math test.

2. Pronouns that are always plural include many, few, several, and both.

Example: Many of the poets at the conference read their new poems.

3. Pronouns that can be either singular or plural, depending on the noun they refer to, include all, none, any, some, more, and most.

Example: Some of the participants brought their lunch. (In this sentence the pronoun some refers to the plural noun participants, so the plural pronoun their is correct.)

Example: Some of Jill’s poetry has been published, and it is available in the local bookstore. (Here some refers to the singular noun poetry, so the singular pronoun it is correct.)

Understanding and using these basic rules will help you to write sentences in which the pronouns always agree. Now if only we could say the same about people!

Still not sure that your pronouns are in agreement? Contact Writer’s Relief. Or read more about pronouns: Pronouns and Antecedents, Relative Pronouns: Who Versus Whom, The Use Of Gender-Neutral Language In Your Writing.

Formatting titles gives some writers a headache. Should the title of songs, stories, movies, books, screenplays, etc. be in italics or quotes? When you're trying to remember if you're supposed to use underlining or italics or quotation marks for titles, here are a few simple rules.

Remember that people used to type their work or write it longhand. When titles needed to be italicized, italics were represented by underlining. These days, many people avoid underlining to minimize confusion between words that are underlined and hyperlinks.

1) Underlining and italics serve the same purpose. Never do both. Do NOT use quotation marks, underline, or italics together.

2) For any work that stands on its own, you should use italics or underline. (Stories or chapters from within a book are considered PARTS of the book.)

3) A work that is part of a larger work goes in quotation marks.

4) No quotation marks around titles of your own composition. 

Books: Italics or Underline

CDs: Italics or Underline

Articles (Newspaper or Magazine): Quotation Marks

Chapter Titles (not chapter numbers): Quotation Marks

Magazines, Newspapers, Journals: Italics or Underline

Names of Ships, Trains, Airplanes, Spacecraft: Italics

Poems: Quotation Marks

Poems (Long): Underlined or Italics

Plays: Italics

Short Stories: Quotation Marks

Song Titles: Quotation Marks

Special Phrases ("let them eat cake"), Words, or Sentences: Quotation Marks

Television Shows and Movies: Italics

Television and Radio Episode Titles: Quotation Marks

Knowing when to use quotes, italics, or underlining can be difficult. Writer’s Relief proofreaders can help you proofread your creative writing submissions to be sure your titles are properly formatted.

Many writers are confused by the terms active and passive voice. Contrary to their sound, the terms have nothing to do with the tense of verbs. Rather, they refer to the performer of the action in a sentence. While most creative writers shy away from using the passive voice, this does not mean that passive sentences equate to incorrect grammar usage. This article will teach you the difference between the two voices and how to use them properly in sentences in your writing.

What is an active voice sentence? The subject of the sentence performs the action.

Example of active voice: A member of the high school’s National Honor Society planted trees in the park.

Here, the subject of the sentence, member, is performing the action, planted.

What is a passive voice sentence? The subject becomes the receiver of the action.

Example of passive voice: The tree was planted in the park by a member of the high school’s National Honor Society.

This time, the subject, tree, is not performing the action. Instead, it is the receiver of the action. A clue that this is a passive voice sentence can be found in the prepositional phrase that occurs at the end (by a member of the high school’s National Honor Society). Many passive voice sentences contain prepositional phrases beginning with by.

Consider the following sentences. Are they active or passive?
1. Gleefully stomping in the puddles, the little boy ran down the sidewalk.
2. The band was applauded by the audience.
3. The story is being written by a member of the historical society.
4. The robin, searching the sky for its mate, perched on a branch of the pine tree.

The first and fourth sentences are active voice sentences. In each, the subject is performing the action of the verb—the boy is doing the running, and the robin is doing the perching.

The second and third sentences are passive. In each, the subject of the sentence is the receiver of the action. To check, simply look at the sentence and ask yourself if the subject is performing the action. In the second sentence, is the band doing the applauding? No, so that sentence is passive. In the third sentence, is the story doing the writing? No. That sentence is also passive.

How to make passive sentences into active sentences
To make these sentences active, simply rewrite them so that the subject performs the action. In sentence two, the audience is doing the applauding, so in the active voice, the sentence should read: The audience applauded the band. In the third sentence, the performer of the action is a member of the historical society, so we can rewrite the sentence as follows: A member of the historical society is writing the story. (Notice that in both cases the subject is found within the prepositional phrase.)

Consider the following sentence. Is it active or passive?

5. Problems were solved.
Since the problems aren’t doing the solving, we know that this sentence is passive. To make it active, simply add an appropriate subject. For example, the sentence could be rewritten to read: We solved the problems. Now the sentence is active because the subject, we, is doing the solving.

Is active voice always preferable? Not necessarily. Active voice sentences are usually more forceful and precise, and if you want to emphasize the subject, you should use active voice. However, passive voice is best if you want to call attention to the receiver of the action. For example, consider this sentence:

6. The President of the United States was shot by an unknown gunman.
Clearly, this sentence is passive—the subject, President of the United States, is receiving the action rather than performing it. However, in this case, the passive voice is preferable to the active voice since the receiver of the action is more important than the performer of the action. Making the sentence active would delay getting the most important information to the reader.

Both active and passive voice sentences are useful in writing, and understanding the difference between them is helpful in creating clear, strong prose. If you are trying to get your creative writing published, we suggest experimenting with various sentence structures to find what does and does not work. At Writer’s Relief, we target literary journals and book agents for your particular style of writing.

REMEMBER TO CHECK OUT OUR LIST OF WRITING CONTESTS and ANTHOLOGIES! You won’t find a better list anywhere (AND IT’S FREE!) of upcoming anthologies, special-themed journals, and contests. Find it by visiting:
http://www.writersreliefblog.com/post/Anthologies-Contests.aspx