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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or check out my website at www.franklarnerd.com

Where Does a Story Start?

by Alethea Williams

Most of us who write have had the experience of someone wanting to tell us their story so that we can write it down and make lots of money.  The two things I have trouble conveying to people who don’t write are:

1) I have enough story ideas of my own.
2) If they dream the story from beginning, to middle, to end, with a little discipline they can write their own story.

So where does your story start?

Characters: Do you see your characters first? What do they look like? What are they doing? Are they talking to you? (If you’re hearing an imaginary conversation between characters you know you made up, you’re not losing your mind. You’re a writer.)

Loving Handsome Couple Relaxing by photostock at freedigitalphotos.net

Stylish Lady Standing With Trunk by sattva at freedigitalphotos.net

Setting: Do you visualize a situation first? What’s happening? Where is this action taking place? Is it day or night? What’s the weather like?  Can you smell anything?

Sunrise by dan at freedigitalphotos.net

Plot: Does the story occur to you beginning to end? Or does the middle slump so you have to scramble to come up with what comes next? Do you outline? If so, do you stick to your outline or does the story insist on taking off in its own direction? (When the muse is visiting, I find the plot unrolling like a movie in my head and myself typing as fast as I can to keep up.)

My Spring Garden Notes by Simon Howden at freedigitalphotos.net

Theme: Perhaps you have a message you want to convey through your story and build the entire story around your theme. Is there a lesson in what you have written? Do you mean for readers to take a moral to heart from your writing? (Readers have said that they were hesitant to start reading Willow Vale because it seems like a sad book. It’s actually a very hopeful book, so I am grateful so many have stuck with it and finished Francesca’s story!)

Writing is half hard work – the willingness to sit butt in chair and persist until it’s done. The other half is magic – watching the story unfold as our characters and start talking, with us writing as fast as we can to keep up!

The author of historical novel Willow Vale, available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Jargon Media, Alethea Williams blogs on Actually Alethea about writing, writers, and Wyoming history.  Follow on Twitter @actuallyalethea, or visit Alethea Williams: author on Facebook.  Comments and honest feedback always welcome!