Letter from the Editor – by Frank Larnerd

Currently I am reading through submissions for my newest anthology, “Strange Critters: Unusual Creatures of Appalachia.” A few of the submissions have been bad, some have been rather good, and some have been fantastic.

No matter where you’re submitting your stories, here are 10 things that will help you get your story out of the slush pile and into print.

10. Follow the Guidelines – Guidelines are important tools crafted by publishers and editors to insure that submissions have a unity in their theme, length, and content. Not following the guidelines is like telling the editor you know what’s better for the anthology than they do. Using odd formats and fonts only shows that you can’t be trusted follow simple instructions.

9. Be Careful when Submitting Trunk Stories – Sometimes you have a story – that with a few adjustments might be the perfect submission. Be careful that you are not sending out a story just because you have one, rather only send out something that really fits the required guidelines. Your story might be great, but if it doesn’t match the guidelines, you’re wasting your time and the editor’s.

8. Watch Your Mistakes – Proofread your story. A certain amount of mistakes is understandable, but don’t have so many that an editor stops reading your story and focuses on looking for errors.

7. Do Your Research – Don’t know the diet of east Florida pelicans? Use the internet! There is no reason not to have a passing knowledge for your writing subjects. Watch some documentaries, read some articles, or listen to some lectures. The little details you find during research will give your stories authenticity and credibility.

6. Write Outside the Box – Do something different. Imagine what kinds of stories the editor is receiving and find a way to break away from the normal submission mold. Consider using a different time period, tone, or characters from the standard submissions. The more that you can stand apart, the better off you’ll be.

5. Setting – Your setting should be another character in your story. Every place has a history and a uniqueness all its own. Find, or craft settings that spark the imagination and lure readers into waiting more.

4. Rewrite – Give your story the attention it deserves. Polish it and perfect it, until it gleams. Don’t settle with a first draft, take the time to make your story as good as it can possibly be.

3. Craft Connectedness – Resolve your story in a way that relates to the characters and their goals. Great stories come back on themselves like a serpent eating it’s own tale.

2. Have Characters – Characters have to have real lives, flaws and desires. Make your characters should be more than a name and an occupation. Give them backgrounds, personalities, and troubles… and they’ll supply you with plenty of story.

1. Build on Drama – Everyone of us has real problems: money, sickness, shame, fear. Give your characters real drama as part of the story. A vampire chasing someone through the woods is boring, but a vampire chasing someone searching for baby formula during a hurricane is much more interesting. Pile on real human drama and you’ll have a much more readable story.

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It is Worth It!

This post by Jennifer Flaten

When both girls got roles in the school musical, they were excited. My more reserved daughter had a lead role and my other daughter, who started out having just one speaking part (five lines), was picked for the chorus, so now she would appear in every single scene, which necessitated a total of four different costumes in addition to her “kingly” costume for her speaking part.

Prior to casting the play, the drama club only meet once a week, but after the roles were assigned the rehearsals started. At first, the girls found them fun and exciting, but as rehearsals dragged, it went from fun to work.

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The girls met for an hour after school every single day of the week, except Fridays; unless the directors thought, they needed more practice-which as opening night approached they did.

They couldn’t even escape the musical during chorus practice, because they practiced the songs from the musical there too.

During this time, they girls had to pick out their electives for 7th grade and as we discussed electives we talked about what clubs they would both join next year. Now into month two of rehearsal for the play, when I asked the girls if they were planning on joining drama in 7th grade both of them claimed they had zero interest in joining drama next year. Too much work they said.

I told them that they might feel different after they actually performed the play for an audience. Basically, both girls said “Meh” to that statement. After all, what did I know?

Guess who was right? Me (yes, mom scores one). After performing the play five times, four times for fellow students and one for the community, the girls can’t wait to join drama next year.

Finally, hearing the audiences’ laughter after a funny line, getting applause after their scene, not to mention the thunderous applause for the entire cast at the end of the show, they had tangible proof that all their hard work was worth it.

Of course, because they are cool Tweens, they will have to see what the play is next year before fully committing to joining the club again, but I would put money on them joining next year.

Don’t you think this applies to writing? All that hard work creating the characters, editing, fixing the plot holes, it can seem endless, thankless even. Maybe, you think, I don’t ever want to do this again.

Then, someone reads our work and likes it; they really, really like it. Suddenly, you can’t wait to write another story.

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