Writing skills take time to grow. Whether you are into writing songs or poems. One of the common features among song writers and poets is that they all aim at attain a rhythm in what they do and at the same time they intend to target a particular audience. This means that they always ensure they do their level best so that their audience could feel and relate to the songs or poems. However, this is only achievable for poets who have gathered the right experience and adequate skills.  If you are still learning to become a better poet, then you need to invest a lot of discipline and commitment because it takes time and it requires you to be patient. As beginner, there are many mistakes that you might make. As you keep participating in more poetry contests, you become better. Below are some of the rookie mistakes that you should avoid; 

1. Lack of research 

As a beginner you might realise that poetry isn’t what you initially thought it was. Chances are it is more involving than you thought since it requires you to express your feelings in a poetic manner. In order to be able to understand how to do this in systematic way, you need to keep doing research. When you fail to do research, then you are unable to successfully participate in these free poetry competitions. If don’t do research, you will not be able to know what some poetry competitions expect of you. Research is very important and useful for both beginners and experienced poets. 

2. Not planning 

Planning is an important stage in almost all aspects of life since it is through planning that you get to achieve your goals. When it comes to poetry, planning is very essential. This is mainly because it allows you to write a good poem without the fear of not completing it. Planning in poetry will put you closer to winning these poetry contests. When you plan, you need to look at the title, consider the theme and finally develop a trail of thoughts that will help you write an amazing poem. Basically, without planning you could end up writing a poem without direction and without the proper flow. 

3. Repetition and lack of editing 

When it comes to writing your poems, you need to be very careful. You need to have an amazing diction and above all that you need to make sure that you aren’t doing any type of repetition. Whether it’s grammatical relationships or vocabulary repetition. Clearly, you need to find lots of words and their meaning before you can start writing your poem. Excessive repetition will knock you out of many free poetry competitions you participate in. Sometimes you may not notice repetition because you didn’t edit your poem. Editing helps you realise some of the mistakes you’ve made while writing the poems. 

4. Lack of practice 

As a beginner you have a lot to learn in poetry. This means that you need to be consistent with your practice sessions. Writing more poems only gets you in a better position of winning. Practice also helps you to improve your skillset and language. This means that if you don’t practice enough then chances are your poetry skills might never grow.