How to Submit to the Fascinating Fiction Publication
Writing tips and more for getting accepted into this unique publication.
Writing fiction seems a lot easier before you try doing it. It’s only once you attempt to assign printed words to your big ideas that you realize: not only is it hard, it’s damn near impossible.
That’s why I commend you for having the bravery and wherewithal to even give it a go.
Fascinating Fiction is a totally different kind of Medium publication. It’s a place where writers who want to work closely with an editor (me!) to develop their stories can submit. If you want to publish your fiction without input from an editor, there are plenty of great publications where you can do that. Not here, though. I will work very closely with you through multiple rounds of edits.
You may ask yourself, why? Why would I spend my time this way? I have a few reasons:
- I enjoy it.
- I think I can make most people’s stories way better.
- I have the idea in the back of my head that someday I may charge people for this service, so I’m developing a portfolio of sorts. You can get this service completely free right now, so take advantage!
Ideally, Fascinating Fiction will be an internet space where people can visit to remember why they love to read. A place where the only kind of stories you’ll find are ones that inspire you to greater heights in your own writing. Where you’ll start a story and finish it through to the end. When I say “fascinating,” I mean that it holds a reader’s attention from start to finish.
If that’s something you want for your stories, let’s work together to achieve it.
Everything submitted will not necessarily be accepted. While this publication is still small, I will try to work on any stories I have ideas for improving, but there may be stories I’m not confident I can improve. That doesn’t mean they’re bad or cannot be improved, it only means that, for whatever reason, I doubt MY OWN ability to improve it.
Obviously, if you submit, I’m asking you to consider the suggestions I make, but you are not required to adopt any of them and I encourage you to stick to your guns when you feel strongly. I do not know everything! I am only one person with one opinion.
The purpose of my edits is never to diminish or insult you. We both want something here — you want people to love your story, and I want a publication filled with stories people love. Let’s make it happen together.
If you follow the tips in this style guide for Fascinating Fiction, you’ll be well on your way to getting your story published here and, I’d argue, anywhere!
Fascinating Fiction’s Basic Style Guide
- Make sure your story has a point or theme. Think about what the theme of your story is. What is the BIG IDEA you’re trying to express in this story?
This is not a plot summary. A theme should be a sentence that unifies the major point of your story.
For instance, the theme of Tobias Wolf’s flash fiction story Bullet in the Brain might be written as: “The beauty of simple, honest, unpretentious language is among life’s most valuable experiences.” The theme of The Wizard of Oz might be written as, “The answers you seek have been within you all along.” Or maybe it’s, “There’s no place like home.” The theme of the Harry Potter books might be written as, “The bonds we form with each other are what most protects us” or, “When we hide from our fears, we only empower them.”
There may be more than one theme in any given story, and people will likely disagree about what the major themes are, but if you cannot come up with at least one for your story, it may not be ready for publication yet.
- Avoid filtering your story through the narration.
It makes for a far less enjoyable reading experience. Don’t tell me that a character saw a mouse scurry across the room. Simply say that a mouse scurried across the room. We’ll know he saw it, because he asks his daughter, “What exactly does that damn cat do all day long?”
- Avoid going into detail about what people’s eyes, hands, and mouths do.
Many writers try to avoid “telling” emotions by describing facial and bodily movements. But it can be tiresome to read. Trust your readers to derive the emotional state of your characters in other ways. You can reveal it through their dialogue, or often because it’s obvious.
When a character gets dumped by his boyfriend of a year, you probably don’t need to describe the tears welling in his eyes to tell us he’s sad. He’s better off doing something that’s particular to his character to display his sadness. Is he a fitness buff? Maybe he stays in bed for days and eats Oreos. Maybe he takes a long bicycle rides to be alone with himself. Maybe he listens to “This Used to be my Playground” by Madonna on repeat. Almost anything is more interesting and character-specific than crying.
- Cut as many unnecessary words as possible.
I’ll keep this short: Is nothing lost when you remove something? Then don’t have it in there. Be ruthless. Cut.
- Avoid clichés, and not just the obvious ones.
Sometimes when I read my own stories, a line from it niggles at me. I know, deep down, that hundreds of thousands of authors before me have used this exact combination of words. It feels tired in a way I can’t quite explain.
When you find a line like that, see if you can’t give it a dash of smoked paprika. See what I did there? Instead of saying “give it a little spice,” which feels tired, I figured out a way to make it a tiny bit surprising. Try it!
- Don’t forget to zero into a striking detail or two or ten.
Be like the image under the headline— magnify details to give readers greater specific understanding.
When you write that a kid was bored at school, we don’t really remember that sensation. But when you write that a kid stuffed her sharpened pencil into the small crater that countless children before her dug out of the desk with their own writing utensils, we can experience that boredom with her. Greater universality can be achieved, paradoxically, by giving characters more focused details to set them apart.
- Tell the story out loud to yourself before submitting it.
If the plot of your story is, say, “A woman wakes up, goes about her day, remembers a relationship that went bad, and then she goes to work,” that may not be a story yet. But if the plot of your story is, “A woman wakes from a coma and her husband takes hours to get to the hospital to see her, then behaves coldly toward her, so she contacts her ex on Facebook,” you might have yourself a story there.
- When you write in first person, give your narration voice.
What’s the point of a first-person story if they don’t sound like themselves? There is so much character that can be expressed through voice. Know your character well enough to write their words the way they’d put them. We can instantly tell the difference between something narrated by Holden Caulfield and something narrated by Stephanie Plum. Why? Because their first person narration is told in their unique voices.
How to Submit
Are you still here? Still interested in submitting? I’m so glad to hear it! Now, for the nitty gritty.
Email a story draft to [email protected] with the subject heading: “Fascinating Fiction.” In the body of the email, link your draft on Medium. You also MUST type out AT LEAST ONE theme sentence (see #1 above), unless you have been told you don’t have to by an editor. Don’t panic about it, but I want to know for sure that you have given thought to focusing your story.
Please, try to make it shorter than 3000 words. Exceptions might be made. Your story can be as short as 25 words, if you like.
If I decide to work on your story with you, I will ask you to please put the story into a Google doc and grant me access. If you do not have a Gmail address, this may cause a problem, so keep that in mind.
I look forward to working with you all. Together, we’ll create a place for the most fascinating fiction on Medium!
To read my own fiction, click the article below.
