Prompts: Love Story
Write a love story between two characters without using the word “love” or “romance”. Show, don’t tell. Bonus Point: If you can write the story… Read More »Prompts: Love Story
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Prompts: Introduction
When I’m stuck in a writing rut, I like being challenged to write a story that fits a certain theme or follows a specific prompt/challenge.… Read More »Prompts: Introduction
From the movie “The Dead Poets Society”
In honor of Robin Williams, a quote from “The Dead Poets Society”, which taught me how to be my own person and was one of… Read More »From the movie “The Dead Poets Society”
A Personal Story from Neil Gaiman
“My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls… Read More »A Personal Story from Neil Gaiman
A Reading of “Ulysses”
On our tour through the UK, we decided to also pop in for a visit to Dublin, Ireland. While gathering information for nearby attractions through… Read More »A Reading of “Ulysses”
3Elements Review
I’m so excited to have my story, “Safe”, published in the Spring 2014 Issue of 3Elements Review! This magazine has a fun “theme” where they… Read More »3Elements Review
Writer’s Toolbox: All I Need To Write by Grant Snider
**The Writer’s Toolbox series are resources I’ve found that have helped me in developing my writing and my writing career. I hope you will find… Read More »Writer’s Toolbox: All I Need To Write by Grant Snider
Write 1 Submit 1
While falling down the black hole of the internet not long ago, I stumbled upon the illuminating blog of L. Lambert Lawson. He’s a speculative… Read More »Write 1 Submit 1
Happy (Belated) New Years!
I can’t believe another year (+ another month) has passed. I think this same exact fact every year. Yet, even though I know I’ll think… Read More »Happy (Belated) New Years!
Writers Toolbox: 5 Fiction Mistakes that Spell Rejection by Moira Allen
**The Writer’s Toolbox series are resources I’ve found that have helped me in developing my writing and my writing career. I hope you will find them as useful as I do. All copyright is retained by the original writer.
Original article found here.
Ask most fiction editors how to avoid rejection, and you’ll hear the same thing: Read the guidelines. Review the publication. Don’t send a science fiction story to a literary magazine, and vice versa. Don’t send a 10,000-word manuscript to a magazine that never publishes anything longer than 5,000 words. Spell check. Proofread. Check your grammar. Format your manuscript correctly. Be professional. Failure to observe these basics, many editors say, accounts for more than 80% of all short fiction rejections.
But what if you’ve done all that, and your stories are still coming back with polite, form rejection letters? I asked nearly 50 fiction editors — from traditional literary publications to flash fiction ezines — what types of problems resulted in the other 20% of rejections. These are the problems that plague stories that meet all the basic requirements, but still don’t quite "make the grade."
Read More »Writers Toolbox: 5 Fiction Mistakes that Spell Rejection by Moira Allen