Seeking submissions to literary magazines is an endless chore of searching databases for current submission listings. Your first task is to read what the magazine publishes to understand if your story fits with its genre, theme, tone and word count. Additionally, the document to be submitted has to be in a specific format, resulting in a number of copies of your story with different tags, such as doc., docx., and pdf., as well as different line spacing – double, one and a half, or single. With two stories published and a third coming out in January, I’m happy to say the effort is well worth it.
In addition to links to current submissions, these various websites, newsletters and blogs also offer craft talks, videos, workshops and articles on all aspects of writing. Much of the info is free, in-depth workshops are offered for a fee. It’s the best of both worlds.
I have discovered no one season is better than the other for submitting. However, because most magazines take three to six months to respond, it’s best to submit one or two seasons ahead, such as winter for spring and summer, etc.
Below are three links to regular posts of literary magazines seeking submissions.
Writers often overlook an important aspect of developing their characters. Playwrights have a certain description of their actors in mind when they craft their play. One might have a limp or be blind in one eye and the people who portray those characters may not be lame or blind but they can imitate those characteristics.
In a novel, however, authors forget to describe how their protagonist or antagonists walk. An individual I remember distinctly from my hometown had a distinctive hop step with one leg that was unforgettable. Writers can create an interesting experience for their readers in describing how their characters walk.
Someone who has been overweight most of their lives might have a bow-legged waddle to help their bear the excess weight. Likewise, if the character has lost most of that weight, they may still exhibit a modified waddle when they walk.
If you observe someone who walks a lot, they often have muscular but skinny legs and stride with an air of confidence. Maybe they have a bounce in their step or seem to be someone who could burst into a run at any moment.
Does the character have a bad knee? Weak ankle? Do they favor one leg over the other? Do they shuffle their feet? Walk erect or slumped over? Does someone wearing high heels seem comfortable walking in them, or awkward?
There are numerous variables in describing how a character walks. A hunter may use stealthy techniques to move through the woods. Stalking steps might also describe a predatory human. Short, sure steps may be used by an individual trying to navigate icy conditions. Tip toeing through the house to avoid detection when coming home late is another way of describing a teenager or cheating spouse.
Suggestion: Pay attention to how people you meet or see in your daily activities walk. Make some notes and adapt those mannerisms to your characters.
Far too often writers forget about giving readers a better vision of their characters. What I mean is that we humans touch our faces — sources say — roughly 1,000 times each day. Do writers share any information about how their characters do that?
For instance, imagine a grizzly old man with a scraggly beard. What kind of impression does he make when he tugs on that beard or picks some scrap of food out of it? Is it gnarled and matted or neatly groomed? Gray or brown with streaks of white? Does he stroke the beard when he’s contemplating some advice he’s given or is planning some devious activity? Could you shock your reader by having him shave the beard and appear as a much younger, more vibrant member of society?
Think about the various ways people touch their faces and how you can envelop those touches into your character profiles.
What does it say if your protagonist tugs on his or her ear lobe?
Can you describe how a younger woman applies her make-up versus an older woman?
If tragedy strikes, how does your character weep and wipe away the tears of anguish?
Does your professor contemplate a question by placing their chin in their palm?
Could you divulge a clue about a criminal by whether they use left or right hand?
Take a few minutes and review your manuscript for subtle nuances you could make that bring your character closer to readers. Do you wash your hands after sneezing?
If you are writing a memoir, whether it is your personal history or that of a family member, a great resource can be found in correspondence from that individual.
I always wondered where my father was stationed in the U.S. Navy during World War II. I remember hearing him say something about Norfolk and Brooklyn but never knew when he was there. When one of my daughters told me to look through some recycling, I was shocked to find letters my dad had written to my mom during the war years.
They were rather mundane but provided insight to his military service as an Electrician’s Mate, 2nd Class. What I also found in that box of letters were letters from my uncle who was also in the U.S. Navy but saw combat in the Pacific theater. He was assigned to a minesweeper and provided a snapshot of his service in letters home.
In a letter dated February 13, 1945, my uncle wrote: “Censorship rules have been made more lax and we can tell anything that’s happened up to the last 30 days. The biggest event was the invasion of Saipan. I’ve been to Guam, Tinian, Makin, Eniwetok, and most of the Hawaiian Islands.” Earlier in that same letter he opened with: “I’m in the sick bay under observation for acute appendicitis. They don’t know whether they’re going to operate or not. I sure hope they do because I’d hate to have it act up while on patrol.”
His letter was not postmarked until February 16th. It was received by one of his older sisters in Chicago on February 22nd, 1945. I share this because it is precious information for my uncle’s five daughters who never heard about his war exploits until I have been able to share these letters with them.
Correspondence can be valuable in preserving history and sharing life’s lessons.
As 2022 kicks into high gear, writers often think about and consider establishing resolutions regarding their writing for the year ahead. Here are a few worth taking a look at setting for yourself.
I commit to writing 500 words a day.
I sustain the ability to write 1,000 words every day.
I complete my novel by August 1st.
I compile my memoir and publish it by September 15th.
I develop a character arc for my novel by April 10th.
I edit my work within 60 days of “completing” whatever I write.
I send 10 query letters to publishers every week.
I set aside two hours to write every other day.
You will notice in each of these suggested goals for your writing that three are no “can” or “will” or “might” words. There are, however, action verbs since action is a major element of establishing any resolution.
The second element of resolutions is will power. If you set a goal and fail to act on it, or do not follow through on the commitment you made to yourself, learn from that and apply corrective behavior. You can do it!
Be realistic. Avoid resolutions you know in your heart you lack the fortitude to stick to. Yes, goals are a good thing but they require honesty and commitment. Saying you “want to” quit smoking does not commit you to quitting. Quitting does.
Think about what you need to accomplish as a writer. Be honest and then apply yourself to you. Write that goal down and post it where you can see it. After sticking to it for seven or more days, you have it made.
When my father told me how I could quit smoking, his advice was that if I could make it one day, I could make it two days. If I could make two days, I could make it four days. If I could make it four days, I could make it a week. If I could make one week, I could make two weeks…and so on. I followed his advice and more than 46 years later am still making it!
Considering participating in the effort to write a novel in the month of November?
It is a monumental task if you think of a 90,000 word novel. That’s 3,000 words a day during the 30 days of November!
Doable? Yes!
The first step, in my opinion, is to get an early start during October. Sit at your keyboard and time how long it takes you to craft 1,000 words. If that takes 1/2 hour, you need to dedicate an hour and a half each day to crank out 3,000 words. Allowing for creative thinking time, if 1,000 words takes an hour to generate, now you are up to three hours a day.
When is the best time of day for you to write? Early morning after that 1st cup of coffee and before the day kicks into high gear? Later in the evening as you start winding down?
Think about when you will have the time to best dedicate to get the words out. Set the goal and stick to it, allowing some down time to refresh and renew the commitment.
Generating 1,000 words a day is a good objective for us as writers. It can be done!
This blog was recommended by Lawrence Wilson and can be found by following this link to the original source.
Welcome aboard! This is your editor speaking. On this trip through your recently completed draft, we’re going to run through a few easy steps to take while you re-read. These steps will teach you to recognize common mistakes and eliminate a lot of red ink along the way. My fellow editors will thank you, and manufacturers of red pens everywhere will curse you. Remember, in the event of a grammar emergency, a Google search will point you toward your nearest online dictionary or style guide. Now, let’s take a quick look at the procedures that will help you navigate any turbulence, and take that prose from rough to smooth.
1. Read Your Work Out Loud
This is probably not the first time you’ve heard this tip—it’s a venerable old chestnut of writing advice. Nonetheless, a huge percentage of writers see this advice and think, “Okay, good idea. Here we go, I’m reading my draft out loud… in my head.”
It may come as a surprise that reading your work out loud in your head and reading it out loud with your voice are not the same thing. One is a purely mental exercise; the other is a physical action. Reading out loud forces you to listen to your own words in the same way that your audience would hear them for the first time. It also helps you understand that words are meant to be spoken, and that writing does not only exist on a page. You can’t get those results from reading in your head, no matter how much your internal narrator sounds like Morgan Freeman.
Get a glass of water, clear your throat, and start talking. It might feel embarrassing to read aloud to an empty room, but your empty room will forgive you. Incidentally, your pets or house plants may be the perfect audience.
If your sentences are too convoluted, you’ll catch that. If you stumble over awkward phrasing, you’ll catch that too. If you have to take a deep breath halfway through every sentence, you’ll learn to break up those long clauses. Similarly, if you find yourself stopping constantly, you may realize your sentences are short and choppy. Reading aloud will give you a sense of the rhythm and flow of your writing.
Most importantly, you will find obvious mistakes. Your grammar app may not alert you if you used the word “corpse” instead of “course,” and your spell check may not realize that you used the word “realize” six times on one page. But you’ll notice those things if you read out loud, and when you do, you’ll vow never to edit in silence again.
Also, your editor can tell if you didn’t read your piece out loud. Just saying.
2. Take Action… Verbs!
Now that you’ve caught your most glaring errors, let’s dive into a style tip that can wake up your writing like a strong cup of coffee.
There are some sentences that are boring. They are just dull. They are perfectly functional, but they do not bring any life to your writing.
Check out those two paragraphs above. In that first paragraph, I used action verbs: “caught,” “dive,” “wake up.” In the second, I chose stative verbs and statements: “there are,” “they are.” I nearly fell asleep writing that second paragraph.
Take a glance at your verb choices. Are you starting every paragraph with “there is” or “they are?” It’s fine to do that once in a while, but if you’re hoping to captivate your audience, consider switching up your verbs every so often. Almost any sentence can be rewritten to feel more active and dynamic—this is especially important to remember when writing opening lines. Even if you’re writing about abstract concepts or a stationery setting, you can recruit a few action verbs for a stylistic shot of espresso.
3. Watch Your Purple Prose
Word choice is one of those key elements that determines a writer’s voice, so as an editor, I tread lightly when giving feedback in this area. However, when editing your own work, it’s a good idea to examine your word choices carefully. Words have great power, and as a radioactive teenager once said, with great power comes great responsibility.
If you re-read a sentence and a particular word stands out to you, remember that a reader could have the same experience. Ask yourself if you want to deliberately draw attention to that word. If so, great! You’ve made a powerful word choice. If not, find a thesaurus and try again. Remember that an eye-catching word can pull a reader out of a narrative. If you throw a word like “obsequious” or “crepuscular” into a fast-paced action sequence, you may send readers scrambling for a dictionary instead of turning the page. But that same word could be the perfect choice in a different context.
Also, remember that you don’t need to choose “writerly” words to be a writer. You don’t need to adorn every sentence with an opulent metaphor, or describe every sunrise like a beacon of hope that unfurls its majestic brilliance across the verdant blanket of a lush meadow. Editors call this kind of language “purple prose.” Just like the accidental application of too much perfume, a draft dripping with purple prose can overwhelm and distract a reader.
While examining your word choices, confirm that the words and phrases you’ve chosen have the meaning you intend. Make sure your editor has no reason to quote Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Your editor can tell if you didn’t read your piece out loud. Just saying.
4. Stop Repeating Yourself
Words are a huge part of a writer’s life, so it makes sense that we’re particularly attached to some of them. Sometimes we may not even realize we’re repeating our favorite turns of phrase every time we’re at the keyboard. We’re particularly attached to words. Wait, hang on, that sounds familiar…
When reviewing your own work, keep an eye out for repetition. It could be a word, a phrase, or even a punctuation mark. If you find a phrase in your draft that gives you déjà vu, use the “Find” function and search for it. With “Find,” you can discover if you’ve already written the phrase “beam me up” four times, or if you’re a little too fond of the em dash.
Years ago, one of my beta readers pointed out that I had a semicolon addiction so severe that I was using one in every other sentence. He pulled out a highlighter and began marking them in my document. When he got to 15 in a single page, he asked nicely if I wanted him to continue. I’ve since recovered from my semicolon addiction, but that day I learned the wonders of the Find tool.
A word of caution about the Find tool, however: Be careful about using the “Replace” feature — especially the “Replace All” feature. If you use “Replace All” to change every instance of “ten” to “10”, you’ll end up changing words like “tense” into “10se.” But for hunting down your repetition habits, “Find” can’t be beat.
5. Curb Your Time Traveling
You may be a time traveler without even knowing it, but this type of time-hopping doesn’t involve a TARDIS or Doc Brown’s DeLorean. Take a look at your verb tenses: are you switching back and forth between past and present tense? There’s a simple remedy. Pick a single tense and stay with it unless you have a deliberate, time-based reason to change.
For example, if you are writing a story in the present tense, you should use the past tense when referring to past events: “Wayne shuffles the cards like a Vegas dealer. His dad taught him to deal cards when he was only 8.” But as long as you’re with Wayne in the present, make sure your verbs stay with him.
It’s not always easy to notice all the places you’ve slipped back and forth. For example, try this sentence: It seems grammar was tricky to learn. Sounds sort of okay, but take a closer look. “Seems” is in present tense, while “was” is past tense. Unless you’re set in the present and referring to the past, this could be a mistake. Once this type of error is on your radar, it becomes easier to spot.
If you read your draft with verb tenses in mind, you’ll realize your choice of verb tense is an essential decision. Past tense is a simple and clean default when writing fiction; present tense is often used for nonfiction, but can create an entirely different mood in fiction. Make a note of your choice, and then make sure that you switch only when the narrative calls for it. It’s the accidental switches that cause problems, especially if you’re Marty McFly.
6. Eschew Prolixity
Take one last scan of your draft with an eye toward overabundance. Make a game of it: how many unnecessary words can you trim? Can you say something in five words that you’re currently saying in 10? Cut out wordy phrases until they’re no longer strangling your sentences. Phrases like “The fact that” and “for the purpose of” are red flags. Hopefully, you caught any stray instances of the passive voice in your verb tense scan, but if you didn’t, the wordiness of passive phrasing should set off alarm bells. “An excellent first draft was written by a Shut Up and Write member” becomes “A Shut Up and Write member wrote an excellent first draft.” Because you just did! Congratulations.
This concludes our demonstration of the self-editing procedures that should prepare your draft for another set of eyes. Remember, it’s always important to edit your own work before sending it out into the world. Thanks for helping out your editor, and come back soon — your next draft awaits.
Published by Alison King
Shut Up & Write’s Business & Content Strategist, Alison King, is also the team’s in-house editor. Alison is a writer and lifelong music geek, and can be found in Berkeley, CA, or at @alison_king on Twitter. View more posts
Deadlines are not an issue for most writers. If you write for newspapers, magazines, or other media outlets that set publication times, then you have to deal with deadlines – glorious deadlines!
Consider deadlines as your motivation!
Deadlines can be motivating for procrastinators. I am one of those…which is why I establish and embrace my own deadlines. Contests have deadlines, so if you want to submit your work to the competition, meeting the deadline is your goal.
Self-imposed deadlines hold you accountable…to yourself! If you have several projects in the works, setting deadlines for each of them gets you to prioritize where you spend your time. Which one is closest to being finished? If you are committed to finishing it and getting it published–and really like what you have written–set a close deadline.
Remember, if you have to do editing, you will need to incorporate that time into finishing your work.
Be realistic when setting those glorious deadlines. If you have yet to start a project and want to have it completed in a month you might be stretching it and adding stress to your world. You may still be able to achieve it, but better to set a realistic goal and meet it than set an artificial one and be disappointed in failure.
Last, reward yourself when you meet the deadlines. Have a glass of wine. Get away from the keyboard for a few days. Go for a walk. And set new deadlines–glorious deadlines.
To query or not to query? It’s really not a question for those of us who wish to have our stories published through a traditional publisher. It’s one step on a laundry list of things that need to be completed before those precious stories we’ve spent countless nights putting together can see the light of day.
I’m not here to tell you how to query; you can type that into Google. I simply want to share what it’s like to send your precious baby to a complete stranger whose job it is is to play gatekeeper for publishers. Impressing just the right person in only a few short paragraphs is what stands between me and my book ending up on the shelves of my favorite bookshop.
Sending my first query was both frightening and exhilarating. Like every writer, I wrote and rewrote, questioning whether or not my query letter was up to snuff. I sent my first, and eventually would send them in batches, preparing for the 12 week wait, wondering if I would hear back and what they would have to say.
Then, finally, I see it. Maybe this has happened to you. You’re at work or out with friends. Or maybe you just woke up and saw the notification flash on your phone. It’s a response from an agent and you open it…
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to consider your project. I’m sorry to say that I respectfully pass on yours.
Agenting is subjective, and while I couldn’t take on your project, another agent may well feel differently.
Thank you,
[Insert agent name here]
I begin to see this same form letter over and over again. I don’t know if every agent got together to come up with the verbiage for these or what, but they all seem to use it. At first the rejections are disappointing but the knowledge that my other submissions are waiting in agents’ inboxes preparing to wow them brings me hope. After the twentieth rejection it begins to feel personal. Fifty and I’m wondering if I enjoy the rejection, because why else would I keep this up.
And to be clear, I don’t hold a grudge against any agent that passed on my work. Maybe they read my query on a Friday when their thoughts were on the weekend. Maybe they were having a bad day and nothing was going to catch their eye. Maybe they already had a similar book they were representing or just took on a big project. I’ll never know. But that won’t stop me and it shouldn’t stop you.
Querying is both simple to do and emotional weighty. The physical act of sending a query today has never been easier. Finding agencies and their guidelines, understanding the template to follow, it’s all a snap. Preparing to hear that others don’t find my book as interesting as I do, well, that’s not so easy. Giving into the resistance that wants me to give up or back down or hide out would be a lot easier.
So why keep doing it? Why put myself through the emotional roller coaster of rejection after rejection? The answer is simple: I want people to read my book. I want to see it in the hands of teens in coffee shops, I want to share it at book readings, I want the characters to be brought to life in the imaginations of people who connect to them.
And even if I get a hundred rejections, a thousand, all it takes is one yes for a dream to come true. My job is not to judge the work or panic over its future. My job is to write the thing that piques my curiosity and do the legwork to advocate for it. I can do that; and so can you.
When is your best opportunity for writing time? Do you need peace and quiet to think and write? Can you squeeze in a few minutes during your lunch break? Do the kids all have to be in bed before you can sit down at the keyboard?
Knowing your best writing time is an essential element of becoming a professional writer. Let’s consider options. An important aspect of these options is determining how many words you intend to craft in one sitting and how long it takes you to generate that many words. When I gave myself the challenge of writing 1,000 words per day, I learned I could achieve that goal in 40 to 45 minutes…depending on whether my brain was functioning at 25 words per minute.
Pouring and sipping that first cup of coffee in the early morning hours gets some writers started. If you work at 9:00 a.m. and need an hour and one half for feeding and grooming yourself before getting dressed and commuting, you should consider how much you are willing to forego sleep to get in writing time. Could you write 500 words in half an hour? If you can and want to rise with the sun to do that, go for it.
Finding time during the day to write can be a challenge if you are working full-time or in an office environment. More than likely you already spend time in front of the computer screen, but could you sneak in 15 minutes to crank out 400 words? The challenge here is to avoid using the company cloud to save your work…unless you own the company and then it does not matter. Suggestion: Use a flash drive to store your work.
After work, dinner time with the family, and relaxation time can be productive writing time. Many writers work late into the evening or early morning crafting their novel or writing their memoirs because that is when they are inspired to write. Just remember there are also times when your brain is fried by then and what you write may look like rubbish when you read it the next day.
In short, the best time to write is when you are motivated, inspired, and can concentrate on your project. Writing time may also be best devoted to research and making notes. Writing time is your time!
