Loved this post! There was one suggestion I really needed to hear: "We don’t need a paragraph explaining the rules of your world or the context of your family history before the story begins. Drop us dead-center.
Let us figure it out the way we figure out a new city — by walking around, noticing things, getting a little lost. Confusion, in small doses, is a gift to the reader. It means something is happening that requires their attention."
NOW I know why I don't like the first pages of my book, which I've re-written countless times without the advice you just shared. Never could figure out where to begin. This helps a lot. Thanks!
I love how you read (based on these suggestions) -- nothing to do with submitting to lit mags, but everything to do with what makes a writer keep reading
Glad to see the point about "alive" over "interesting" here. There's a version of craft culture that trains writers to construct clever premises and engineer surprises but it ends up producing that kind of tidy, workshop-proof writing you describe in #3. Aliveness on the page comes from a writer who's actually inside the experience. Unless the writer loves what they're creating, there's little chance for anyone else to.
Thank you as always for helping us along! The dialogue and creating subtext...so important.
This part resonated in particular about the “workshop-proof” writing. "...it’s the kind of story or essay or flash that would likely survive a craft seminar without so much as a scratch. And yet, that’s sometimes exactly the problem." As part of a workshop group that I love (and is helpful), I have also noticed there is a mechanism within pushing us all to scrub a piece until it's bleached beyond recognition, sterile, rule-following.
Loved this post! There was one suggestion I really needed to hear: "We don’t need a paragraph explaining the rules of your world or the context of your family history before the story begins. Drop us dead-center.
Let us figure it out the way we figure out a new city — by walking around, noticing things, getting a little lost. Confusion, in small doses, is a gift to the reader. It means something is happening that requires their attention."
NOW I know why I don't like the first pages of my book, which I've re-written countless times without the advice you just shared. Never could figure out where to begin. This helps a lot. Thanks!
Perhaps I didn’t have the only submission featuring laundry folding, but I sure hope it was my Laura that made you hold your breath ❤️
Ty! So helpful and encouraging.
Very helpful advice for submitting work to literary magazines!
I love how you read (based on these suggestions) -- nothing to do with submitting to lit mags, but everything to do with what makes a writer keep reading
as a lit mag editor, these tips are SO applicable and insightful!
Glad to see the point about "alive" over "interesting" here. There's a version of craft culture that trains writers to construct clever premises and engineer surprises but it ends up producing that kind of tidy, workshop-proof writing you describe in #3. Aliveness on the page comes from a writer who's actually inside the experience. Unless the writer loves what they're creating, there's little chance for anyone else to.
Thanks so much for the tips, and especially for the encouragement 💗
Love the metaphor of discovering a world like walking through a city! So good.
Thank you as always for helping us along! The dialogue and creating subtext...so important.
This part resonated in particular about the “workshop-proof” writing. "...it’s the kind of story or essay or flash that would likely survive a craft seminar without so much as a scratch. And yet, that’s sometimes exactly the problem." As part of a workshop group that I love (and is helpful), I have also noticed there is a mechanism within pushing us all to scrub a piece until it's bleached beyond recognition, sterile, rule-following.