Sturgeon's Law

I like to make lists as a way of focusing myself. I like to make these lists 13 items long as a way of flouting common superstition about unlucky numbers. (I've long claimed 13 as my favorite number.) I'm going to start doing more lists of this sort here. The first one will even be poetry-relevant.

13 Things You Can Do to Have a Better Chance of Publication in The Eleventh Muse
(in no particular order)

1. Write a persona poem or a dramatic monologue.
2. Write a poem using an omniscient (or limited) third-person narrator.
3. Write a poem about something that didn't or won't happen.
4. Write a poem that says what you can't.
5. Use specialized terminology consistently through a poem--science is especially good, but there are near-infinite areas of jargon you could potentially mine.
6. Write a poem that uses humor while addressing a topic seriously.
7. Energize every phrase and line to varying degrees. Write with controlled wildness.
8. Use repetition, rhyme, and other rhetorical devices; know why you used each.
9. Juxtapose two or more things that are not only unlike but unexpected, and make them work together in the end.
10. Ensure that your poem uses form, whatever you may take that word to mean.
11. If you have a philosophy, make sure the poem sells it. Make the intangible tangible.
12. Use beauty as a means, not an end.
13. Put a door on the house, but don't give a tour.