Flash Fiction Chronicles

I am an unpaid writer.  Recently on the Everydayfiction.com forum someone asked the question ‘When do we get our stripes?’ wondering when a writer can considered themselves a Writer (note the capital or this could get messy).

The old standby answer is fairly well known. If you haven’t read Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke then you have probably heard Whoopi Goldberg quote her in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit:

A fellow used to write to him and say:

“I want to be a writer, please read my stuff.”

And Rilke says to this guy:

“Don’t ask me about being a writer. If, when you wake up in the morning you can think of nothing but writing…then you’re a writer.”

A writer is a person who ‘has’ to write. That’s seems to satisfy me and I think most people would agree. But what about the social status? What about the great status of ‘Writer’ that all us ‘young’ aspiring writers wish to own?

I tried to answer this question by saying a writer is someone who is published regularly, and paid for it. I honestly think this fits with what most people assume about a Writer. However I think that the fairly recent increase in non-paying, easily accessed markets in the form of non-paying eZines (web based magazines) has changed how important this is.

But I think I need to add a few points onto my definition before I say why.

1. Regular might be irregular

The nature of the publishing and writing game is that a lot of people don’t get a story out every 2 weeks, some only manage a small one every 2 years, others write books every month or so.

2. You have to find the right pair of eyes, at the right time.

Getting published isn’t just a matter of getting the thing written. In fact I’ve heard it said that publishing is a numbers game. The more you send, and the more people you send them to, the better your chances.

It might seem like a spaghetti approach (throw it and see what sticks to the wall) and that’s because it is.

I don’t mean that artistic struggle or passion isn’t alive and well, but no mater how artistic we all still are in the modern world if you’re not wiling to throw you best work around like soggy pasta then you’re going to struggle. Unless you’re really good, or lucky, or both.

3. Oh and it also has to be good.

Yes, this comes third; you wouldn’t think so would you.  Good is obviously a subjective thing. But that’s a whole different can of worms I might open another time, but not now.

As I said at the beginning, I am an unpaid author. But that doesn’t make me an unpublished one.

I have had three acceptances recently, the first from Yellow Mama (long dark horror fiction), the second from The Short Humor Site (not surprisingly a short humor piece) and the third, (another short humor piece to be published on January the 8th) by The Dew on the Kudzu.

I am grateful and happy to have been published, and accepted, by all three.

I think this type of market gives us ‘mere’ unpaid writers a chance to test ourselves against paid Writers. Salt our wounds, grow some confidence and know that here, at least, the same pair of eyes thought our story was, (heck I’ll say it), as good as a Writers. But it’s important to see the number of writers with paying credits on these sites.

In all the debate about online publishing I think this is the point that I like the most: the story is more important than the name under it.

Because these new, early, non-paying and easy to submit to eZines exist people who may not have ‘earned their stripes’ are putting stories next to ones written by those who have. If it’s a good enough story, it can stand a chance!

Does that make me a Writer? Probably not, ask me when I know what getting paid feels like I guess. But I think it suggests that the question, in terms of getting published has changed direction. In other words the question now seems to be not ‘are you a Writer?’ but ‘is it a Story.’

While my story sitting next to these Writers’ stories on a web page might not make me a Writer, anymore then sitting next to an fruit tree holding a Granny Smith makes me an apple tree, it does make me feel hopeful. After all, if you pick an apple off the ground, it’s still an apple.

A Version of this article was original posted on my personal blog: Mostly Unsure

Sources:

Quote from Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit taken from http://www.script-o-rama.com .

Peter Howard lives in Kentucky, USA. He divides his time between writing a lot and bugging the hell out of his wife and son. He has a story due to appear at The Dew on the Kudzu on January 8th. He is originally from England.

I would like to register a complaint. No, it’s not about this parrot what I purchased a half hour ago, he’s obviously just pining for the fjords. My complaint is about a lie.

Writing, according to what I was told growing up, is not a team sport. It requires only imagination, talent, and a willingness to practice and continue learning. I was given visions of an ivory tower somewhere, full of inspiration, where a writer could create masterpiece after masterpiece, uninterrupted by the concerns of “real” life. There would be no tests of strength or speed or agility, no performances, and certainly no public speaking. A writer was as invisible as the idea he/she cajoled out of the ether and set to blossoming on paper, which meant said writer did not need to be pretty or thin or athletic or sociable. A writer was judged on the characters he/she created, and their story – and not on how personable said writer was or wasn’t.

I believed it, with every fiber of my not-pretty not-thin not-athletic not-sociable being. I bought the whole sales pitch, and signed right up. I invested everything I had into that lie. It only took thirty years for me to figure out the painful truth, and don’t I feel dumb for not catching on sooner? A lot of time can be saved by reading the fine print.

The Ivory Tower Committee never said anything about a writer needing to have a “platform.” Not only does the writer have to craft the work and painstakingly shape it into the best representation of his/her vision, he/she must also be a public presence with a carefully cultivated fan base / network to have the best chance at publication. That was NOT in the brochure. No one said anything about Facebook or Twitter or being a teacher or a public speaker.

I am reading things now about needing a “niche,” a “body of expertise,” and an “ongoing relationship with a target audience.” (A Platform Boot Camp, article by Christina Katz, found in Writer’s Digest: Writer’s Yearbook 2010.) What fresh hell is this? I didn’t sign up for that – I would have remembered. (I would also have signed up for something like animal husbandry or forensic handwriting analysis instead of writing.)

I dug through my files, and scrounged up the deed for that Ivory Tower I bought when I was seven. Oh, oh cute, I signed it in crayon. And there is was, down at the very bottom, in letters so tiny they might have been mistaken for a decorative line: *life depicted applies to unpublished writers only.*

Of course. I can have my ivory tower, but I can’t expect anyone to know my name if I never step out the door. I can hide away and write masterpiece after masterpiece, but the stories are just going to sit in the corner and gather dust if I don’t send them into the world – that’s why I became a writer in the first place, because I wanted to share my stories – but without contacts and relationships, where will I send them?

Fair or not, in today’s industry almost no one in the book publishing business is willing to take a chance on a name no one has heard of, the name of some grown-up kid with a deed to an ivory tower and a head full of stories and a heart full of fear. Agents or publishers want much, much more than a story to sell.

So now I must set still more time aside to research and build my presence, to add to my embarrassingly small list of credentials. I’m too invested in the writing to back down now, the only thing I can do is step down out of my Ivory Tower and step up to the challenge of self-marketing and self-promotion. Which I dread.

(Writing in a Vacuum was previously posted at Blogging in the Dark on November 25th, 2009.)

At first I was happy to just get the story down on paper! After a career writing for other people—brochures, radio spots, press releases—early retirement offered the time to indulge in personal writing. Non-fiction was fun, seeing my byline in a magazine or newspaper article was an ego boost, but after that first fiction class, I was hooked.

 Writing a novel is hard enough, but without an MFA or long list of big name publishing credits, finding an agent to take on a literary novel from a first-time author, in this wobbly publishing market, is even harder. As I polished the manuscript, I focused on getting more short stories published, and started blogging. The goal was to create an online presence, and generate website traffic to read posted stories and excerpts from published work.

 When I accepted the offer to guest post on If You Give A Girl A Pen, I hoped to share a writer’s block process that had worked for me, and in return, increase visibility for my blog and website. Read the post here.

 There was a noticeable response . . . a marked increase of hits on the website, new Twitter followers, (quality contacts worth following back) and a handful of invitations to connect on LinkedIn.

 But, there’s more . . .

 Karina Fabian, a LinkedIn contact and fellow writer, shared ideas on ways to maximize the guest blog exposure. Other LinkedIn writers steered me toward sites they frequent, connecting me to a new batch of writing communities like PerpetualProse &  SheWrites.

 The second post on If You Give A Girl A Pen confirmed the momentum was building, and when an agent requested a synopsis and full copy of my novel, WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW, I was convinced. It’s time to revamp the website home page!

Ginger B. Collins writes short fiction and creative non-fiction. Her work appears online and has been published in Freckles to Wrinkles, Silver Boomers, and the newly released Scratch Anthology of Short Fiction. She recently completed her first novel. Read excerpts at www.gingerbcollins.com.  All writers are invited to follow the blog and share experiences. http://coppertopcollins.blogspot.com.

My short story collection, In an Uncharted Country, will be published by Press 53 in early September. I’m truly excited by the thought of people holding my book in their hands and maybe even reading my stories, now that the book is finding its way into the world. Since I’m a man, I can’t and won’t use the birth metaphor, but it certainly is odd to think of this little part of me existing on its own, having a life that’s separate from mine. (Except, of course, for that mystery known as “marketing” which will keep me tied to the book for months to come, but that’s a whole other subject.)

How did I get to this point?

I wrote a novel. I thought it was great. It wasn’t. It needed and still needs a lot of work.

But in order to feel like a writer, I needed to publish something. I needed to finish things and send them to editors, and I needed to see them in print, and, most of all, I needed other people to see them in print.

So I started writing short stories. I liked the fact that I could be “done” with something. I could submit it—to several journals simultaneously, usually—and editors would read it and a magazine might actually publish it. That happened almost immediately, and continued happening as I kept writing more stories.  

I wasn’t thinking “collection” when I started, but I discovered that my process of writing stories is rather organic. That is, there is usually something in a story that serves as a seed for the next one—a minor character who needs to be explored further in his own story, for example, or a resolution to a story that suggests further conflict and another story or two. I wrote about a couple with marital problems living out in the country, and all I had to do to get the landscape right was look out my window. And all I had to do to get ideas for characters is walk down the street in the small town near where I live.

One thing led to another and I had a pile of stories that felt like a book. Because the stories were linked by overlapping characters, location, and even theme, they fit together nicely. But I thought something was missing, and I came up with the idea of a “cap-story”—a final story for the collection that tied together most of the other stories and suggested a thematic resolution, almost as if it were the end of a novel instead of a book of short stories.

So I had a finished manuscript, but story collections are notoriously hard to publish and, as a result, most agents won’t touch them unless they can be sold as part of a two-book package with a novel. The only novel I had was that manuscript that still needed a lot of work—work that I wasn’t mentally prepared to do yet—and so I didn’t have what agents wanted.

As a result, I turned my attention to small presses. For many emerging writers, small presses are the way to go, especially as the large trade publishers go after bigger and bigger blockbusters in order to maximize profits. The small presses follow a different model and many of them are willing to look at stand-alone story collections. I sent my manuscript out to a few, and Press 53 was interested. They’ve been terrific to work with, allowed me some say in the choice of cover and other design features for the book, and I’m grateful to the publisher, Kevin Watson.

Ironically, though, while I was searching for a publisher, I was working on a new book. I still couldn’t bring myself to work on the old novel, but I felt that I needed a novel to be taken seriously. But I love stories! And so I took a shot at a hybrid form—a novel in stories. Some readers may consider In an Uncharted Country to fall in this category, too, but with the new book that’s what I set out to do. The stories are even more closely linked, and there is a story arch that connects all the twelve pieces together. At this point four of those stories have been published and, somewhat to my surprise, an agent was interested in representing me for that book—I signed with her the same month I signed with Press 53 for the story collection.

I’m now working two projects. One is a novel. A real novel. And the other is a different animal altogether: a novel in flash. It’s a collection of flash fiction pieces that all deal with the same character. Although a number of those have been published, it’s too soon to tell where that one is going. But it’s been a blast to write.

My collection of linked short stories, IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY (Press 53, September 2009), is set in rural Virginia, where I now live. Before turning to writing fiction, I was an international lawyer and spent most of my career in Asia. I have an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. For more info: http://cliffordgarstang.com

The classic image of a writer is of a loner, sitting in an office, pounding away at a keyboard, perhaps growling in dissatisfaction at an unappreciative world. There is likely a half-empty bottle of scotch on the desk.

But I think most of us churning out flash fiction on a regular basis can’t be the grumpy hermit writer (as much as we may or may not want to be). There are reasons for this:

Print is, at least for flash, pretty much dead. I’m not sure anthologies in general sell all that well, and flash anthologies full of unknown writers probably sell even less. And, really, flash is a relatively new form of writing, one that seems tailor-made for the internet, as I believe Every Day Fiction and other sites have demonstrated. It must be noted, however, that creates a situation in which the content absolutely has to be excellent – there’s no such thing as a captive online audience. If readers don’t care for the first few paragraphs of a story, they’ll probably wander away. Two ways to mitigate this potential problem:

• Be really good.
• Make people like you – not just the story, but you - enough that they’ll want to read the whole story, and seek out other stories you’ve written.

No brainers, right? But I think a lot of writers don’t put as much thought into the second scenario as they should. Building a community of readers is, in my opinion, vital to being successful at any writing an author endeavors to sell online. There’s no publishing company pimping our stories out on an endcap at Borders. Sigourney Weaver isn’t going to read your story on Selected Shorts. Creating a community around yourself can make the difference between someone reading a story you’ve written, liking it, and moving on; or reading it, liking it, and thinking, “Oh, hey, this is by that person I read before, and I should check out more.”

The best way to go about this is going to be a website/blog of your own. Post regularly, and try to be entertaining. Remember that as a writer, it is your job to generate content. You should always have something to say about something. Spread word of your blog everywhere you go. Post on message boards. Interact with other writers. Allow the readers a place to easily interact with you, be it comment fields on the blog or through a message board. Take a lesson from the webcomics industry, which has done a great job with this sort of community building.

Some point after that, you can start selling T-shirts! I kid, I kid. Mostly. (Anyone want to help me with a graphic for my “Aftershocks” shirt? The slogan should read, “I lived through the earthquake and all I got was this stupid knife in my back!”)

Alexander Burns lives in Fort Worth, Texas. He writes because he doesn’t have a basement in which to build robots or time machines. His work has appeared at Every Day Fiction, A Thousand Faces, 10Flash, and is forthcoming from The Future Fire and Big Pulp.

A recent contributor to the Flash Fiction Chronicles, Syrie James, has a new book coming out June 30.  The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë is a bio-novel  about the author of the beloved 19th century masterpiece, Jane Eyre.

Charlotte Bronte is Syrie’s exciting follow up to her best-selling novel The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen which was named Best First Novel of 2008 by Library Journal.  Here’s what Syrie has to say about her new endeavor.

Inspired by Charlotte’s correspondence, and based almost entirely on fact, Secret Diaries exposes Charlotte’s innermost thoughts, feelings, and desires, the inspiration behind her novels, her scandalous, secret passion for the man she can never have. . . and her intense, dramatic relationship with the man she comes to love.  Although I used my imagination to fill in gaps, I believe this is Charlotte’s story just as she might have written it herself.

For more about Syrie James and The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë, check out her website www.syriejames.com.

LATELY, I’VE BEEN FIGHTING THE EXCUSE MONSTER— that insidious little voice inside my head that whispers excuses for not writing. I’m too tired. I’m too busy. I have no ideas. The list goes on and on.

Now, there is a difference between a reason and an excuse. Sometimes, you really do have writer’s block or you just worked a ton of overtime and are brain-fried. But, other times, you’re just giving into the excuse monster.

I guess it’s the same for any aspect of your life. You have to put time into something to get something out of it or to get to the next level. If I don’t spend time writing stories and honing my craft, I’m won’t have stories to submit or ever improve in my craft. Both of those mean that this writing thing is never going to be any more than a hobby for me.

Writing as a hobby isn’t a bad thing. Tons of people do it. But I want something more. And if I want that something more, then I have to banish the excuse monster and his whispers about laundry, returning phone calls, and surfing the Internet, and get writing.

Of course, even still, the odds are against me. There are way more aspiring authors/novelists out there than those that get published every year. But, to quote one of my favorite movies, “Your odds go up when you file an application.”

What about you guys? Career or hobby? What do you think? And what do you think will help you achieve your goal?

Erin M. Kinch lives and writes in Fort Worth, Texas. Visit her blog, Living the Fictional Dream at www.erinmkinch.com for links to her published stories and more of her musings on writing. A version of this post was originally posted on her blog on 7/10/08.

YOU WRITE. You have some great ideas for a story, a review, a play, perhaps, even a novel. You have reams of scribbled ideas, short stories, a flash or two. But you want and dream of the satisfaction of getting published, not just a writer, but the right to now call yourself a published author.

Author. Has a nice ring to it, huh? And you don’t have to be famous to write the title of your published story in italics. And when someone asks: “Oh. Anything I’ve heard of?” You don’t have to sheepishly answer that your unpublished. You can proudly tell them where and when. (and hopefully, they’ll go look!)

Writers and actors have much in common. Ask one what they do and you’ll get a list of credits—Jack Nicholson and Stephen King obvious exceptions. But don’t think professors, nurses, firefighters, and sales clerks don’t brag about their achievements too!

But there is a void between the published and unpublished. Once there it might well be easier to attain that next publication. And it is frustrating when an editor requests you put any credits you might have in your cover letter and your stuck admitting you’re unpublished. Not that it matters to most editors, they’ll accept or reject your submission on its own merits. But I know what it feels like to write at some point in that cover letter, “I’m unpublished.” It’s like the job interview where you must admit you have no actual experience in the position for which you are applying.

Actors don’t just show up in Hollywood and land a leading role in the latest blockbuster. Neither should a writer expect to have Stephen King’s Carrie experience. So what to do?

Well, you’ve joined that reading group, have sought advice from them and online at sites such as Flash Fiction Chronicles and others. You’ve made a pact with yourself to hone your skills and write every day. Your group likes what you write. (and hopefully your group isn’t polite and genteel, but brutally honest) Then the next step, intimidating as it might be, is to send that manuscript to a market.

But what market?

If you’re minimally computer literate there are sites which separate the wheat from the chaff for you. Two I would recommend are: Duotrope’s Digest and Ralan’s Webstravaganza.

Read everything on each site they have to offer before you submit a manuscript anywhere. Their advice and instructions on how to navigate their sites will save you time and rejections from markets.

Now comes something very important. Send your story to an appropriate market!
If you send your space opera, no matter how great it is, to a market that specializes in horror, your not only going to get a rejection letter, the editor is going to know you never read their submission guidelines (which many markets direct you to before you submit—and many are very picky about writers who do not bother to read their guidelines) So when you send that nice little horror story in the future, that same editor upon seeing who’s submitting might just delete it unread. Things like that can and do happen. It’s best to keep editors happy, just like traffic court judges! Little things mean a lot. Read The Guidelines!!!

If you still live in an uncomputerized state and write on an old IBM Selectric or some such, fear not. For there is a journal called Writer’s Digest which produces lists of every market imaginable in a large book titled, Writers Markets. And you don’t have to go to Barnes & Noble and plunk down $50. to get it. Just go to your local library, it’s probably right there collecting dust.

Don’t worry if your are computer-less! Many markets, especially professional-rate-paying markets, want hard-copies via Snail-Mail—no e-mails at all! And there are still numerous small and local journals and weekly newspapers just dying to have some local writer send a story be it fiction, non-fiction, or poetry. But you must look for these, they may not be laying about on every newsstand.

And one other point: Your manuscript must appear professional. Many markets, right in their guidelines, will tell you specifically how they want submissions formatted—follow what they suggest exactly—you are, after all, competing with other writers. Never forget that! You might have a nice little fantasy that you’ve sent to the perfect market, but your manuscript is single-spaced, no space between paragraphs, typed in a small font, and, well, not very neat in appearance.

It will generally take much more memory space, or paper and postage, to format your manuscript as the editors want. But like that traffic court judge, they look at these things all day long! If you care about what you write—make your manuscript look like you do. The editor will pick up on that, appreciate it, in fact. Like many things, it’s easy for the editor to just quit reading a sloppy manuscript and send it to the oblivion of the rejection pile—so make it neat, clear, and follow those writer’s guidelines!!!

I began writing seriously a few years ago. The Rejection-Connection, that was me! And I deserved all the rejections, too! But I wrote every day, worked on my voice and flow. Tinkered with dialogue and genre. Started using prompts. Joined a writing group. And finally have had at least a modicum of success.

That kind ear of your spouse, or sister, or neighbor is not the best one to read to. Get in a group. They’re not emotionally involved, meaning: They’ll most likely speak the truth. If what you wrote stinks, they’ll tell you so.

And lastly, don’t get bottled up by genre. You may do one thing well, but bear in mind the more differing types of writing you do, the more and more markets open up for you—remember that competing with others aspect I mentioned.

There is no race. Take your time. Make it neat. Follow the Guidelines. Write something every day. Join and participate in a writing group. Get feedback. Give feedback. Read books of genres you write. Try to write in some genre you haven’t before—you might surprise yourself. And don’t be shy—write what you love, hone it, perfect it. And when it’s ready, submit it!!!

DJ Barber writes stories, flash, poems, and novels. He was born in the northeast and lives in the northwest. When not writing he has a wife and two dogs that keep him busy.  He has been published online at Every Day Fiction, Moon Drenched Fables, Tales From the Moonlit Path, Big Pulp, Every Day Poets, and Everyday Weirdness.

In print, DJ has been published by Darker Intentions Press, Odyssey Magazine, has a short story in the anthology, Damned in Dixie, and has a flash in the Best of Every Day Fiction 2008.

DJ would like to remind everyone that even a broken clock is right twice a day.  DJ’s website is located at http://canyonsofgray.blogspot.com.

Scott M. Sandridge is the managing editor of Fear and Trembling and the author of over a dozen short stories and 60+ reviews. His work has appeared in Anthology Builder, Every Day Fiction, Mindflights, and Ray Gun Revival as well as two “best of” anthologies (Distant Passages, Volume 1 and The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008), and was a Top Ten Finisher in the 2008 P&E Readers Poll. His podcast novel, The Silverblade Prophecy, was recently nominated for the upcoming 2009 Parsecs award. More information can be found at http://smsand.wordpress.com.

Q & A

Flash Fiction Chronicles: Scott, tell us a little about Fear and Trembling and your own involvement with the horror genre and with the e-zine.

Scott: Fear and Trembling is a magazine of Christian Horror for Double-Edged Publishing. We seek horror that has the classical feel (e.g. the Hammer horror films, Stoker, Poe, and Lovecraft) that is suitable for Christian and non-Christian readers alike.

Ironically enough, I primarily write space opera-style science fiction and heroic fantasy (although I have been told my fantasy can get pretty dark). I’ve only had two Horror flash fictions published. I was reading slush for Ray Gun Revival when John Kuhn asked me if I wanted to join F&T’s editorial team. At first I read slush for both webzines while also helping John Kuhn out with proofreading and promotion. When John Kuhn left his managing editor position, I decided to take up the reigns temporarily until a better managing editor could be found. A year and a half later, I’m still there.

FFC: When was the e-zine founded and what is its mission?

Scott: F&T went live in June of 2007, and its mission is to provide good, spine-tingling Horror that doesn’t blatantly violate Christian principles but can also be enjoyed by everyone. Sometimes, doing so can feel like walking on a razor’s edge, but so far we’ve managed to not cut ourselves too bloody with that razor.

FFC: Where does the title, “Fear and Trembling” come from?

Scott: The simple answer is I don’t know. F&T is the brainchild of John Kuhn and Taylor Kent, and I have no clue what goes on in their warped psychotic minds….

FFC: Your tagline is “We’ll Scare the Death out of You!” so it’s obvious F & T is an e-zine that focuses on the genres of horror, dark tales, and fantasy. What do you consider the basic conventions of horror fiction? What kind of conventions would separate horror from dark tales or fantasy?

Scott: Anything that scares or shocks you or both is technically horror, so horror is the one genre that can be found in almost every other genre fiction to one extent or another, so there’s really no separation, per se, but a sliding scale of degrees. I think that if the story’s primary purpose is to scare or shock you (e.g. Brian Keene’s City of the Dead) then it is Horror in the genre sense. The primary purpose for dark fantasy is not to scare or shock you; although, such elements will be found in it to one extent or another. No, dark fantasy is the anti-hero version of all the other fantasy subgenres (except perhaps sword & sorcery which is a whole other discussion entirely), for in dark fantasy the main character is often the monster (e.g. White Wolf’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Clan Novel series, or Carrie Vaughn’s Kitty Norville series) and the concept of Good Vs. Evil tends to get blurred a bit—even the usual “good guys” tend to have, well, a few personal problems.

FFC: Speaking of genres and sub-genres, I saw a reference to “splatterpunk” in one of your interviews with Ty Schwamberger, author of the novel Night School. What are “the sub-genres” in horror these days?

Scott: Dark fantasy and dark science fiction (which are more cross-genres than sub-genres), splatterpunk (the gore-fest slasher flick), classic horror (like the old-style Hammer horror films), Christian horror (which often tends to center around faith and the crisis of), zombie fiction and vampire fiction (yes, they’re so prevalent now that they’ve been made into their own subgenres), supernatural horror (e.g. Stephen King novels and movies), supernatural romance (don’t ask), dark erotica (again, don’t ask), torture porn (e.g. Saw), bizarro, and surreal fiction. I think I got it all pretty much covered…for now.

FFC: Any new trends in genre?

Scott: Zombie and vampire fiction has been on the rise again, and Carrie Vaughn has breathed new life into werewolves (and it’s about dang time, too). Surreal and bizarro fiction has been rising up from the underground, and Lovecraftian goodies (or should I say baddies?) abound.

FFC: The guidelines specify, “We want atmosphere. We want hair-raising conflict. We want to get to know characters—real, multi-dimensional people we are able to care about—who just happen to be facing horrifying realities. We want to face those realities with them, to hang on through the twists and frights of the plot and to root for them all the way.” If a writer wants to submit to F & T, is there anything beyond the general guidelines they should know?

Scott: Yeah. Send me a story that features the Dover Demon, and I’ll be your friend for life. Of all the urban myths out there, I’ve yet to see a story about that bizarre little critter. I mean, the Jersey Devil’s getting some attention (thanks to Robert Dunbar), but poor DD just keeps feelin’ left out.

Hmmm…I wonder if there’s a theme-related contest brewing in my mind…we’ll see.

FFC: Let’s talk a little about the “horror” slush pile. At what point in reading through a submission do you realize you might consider that story or not. What are the turn-offs? What makes you sit forward in your chair to read?

And you pay?

Scott: It might be different for the other slush readers (but something tells me otherwise), but for me it’s the first three sentences. If you can’t grab my attention and hold it for at least that long, don’t expect me to read the whole story. I just don’t have the time to waste. Even if my slush readers did, I don’t. Nothing personal. That’s just how picky I am. And my slush readers tend to be even picker than me.

Now, if, by the time I’m halfway through, it feels like you’re not really going anywhere and are just meandering along, you’re going to lose my interest, period. Sorry. But get ready for a rejection.

Usually, if I can manage to read all the way to the end without skipping parts, then you’ve got a very good chance of getting accepted.

And yes, we pay. It’s only $5 for now, alas, but at least it’s not FTLOI (yet).

FFC: How many stories might you get in a given month? What percentage is usable? How many do you publish?

Scott: We tend to see about 20-30 stories per month. Of those about 20-25% are good, and of the good ones we might pick half or all of them, depending on whether or not we’re already well-stocked for accepted stories.

FFC: As a lover of horror and its related genres, who do you recommend aspiring horror writers read?

Scott: Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, H.P. Lovecraft, Brian Keene, and Eugie Foster (especially her dark fairy-tale remakes). There are plenty of others, but they’re good to start with.

FFC: Anything else you’d like to add?

Scott: Yes. The Dover Demon rules!

Well, okay, the Jersey Devil is kinda cool, too.

FFC: Thanks, Scott, for taking the time to help writers better understand the horror genre.

Scott: Anytime.

Find Fear and Trembling on the net at http://www.fearandtremblingmag.com/index.html

Guidelines: http://www.fearandtremblingmag.com/guidelines.php

I’ve been thinking about the value of entering writing contests. Is a writer a gullible fool to fork out entry fees and should we eschew contests who charge them? Or is the very process of entering (and losing) contests a necessary part of our craft?

I think a serious writer needs a strategy. I spent my childhood years scribbling snippets of stories for friends and family. Lovely pastime! My readers told me I was brilliant; I basked in their unqualified praise. Then I grew up. I learned there are no short-cuts to getting published. That you have to work damn hard at it, and you have to have a strategy. You have to court criticism, and failure.

Success, I’ve concluded, is measured in your ability to accept failure and keep moving forward. I’d go further, in fact. Failure is your friend. It gives you a line in the sand, a measure against which to work. You might think that a hundred failed entries, or failed submissions, would equate to a feeling that you’re unequal to the task you’ve set yourself. But the writers who give up, in my experience, are not the ones with a hundred rejection slips under their belts. They’re the ones with one or two rejections or maybe none – because they didn’t ever work up the courage to put their writing out there to be judged. Perhaps they told themselves it was pointless because contests are a rip off and a crap shoot. Funnily enough it’s often not a lack of confidence that stops a writer subbing their work. It’s ego: “Of course they’d never award a prize to such innovative writing.”

A serious writer knows the value of failure, is intimately acquainted with its sharp edges and its blunt tone. Remember Peter O’Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, holding that burning match until it’s ash between his fingers? “Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding that it hurts.”

About this strategy business, then.

So few magazines pay money and even fewer have a profile with agents, publishers, editors – all the people you need to get onside if you want to make a living as a writer. Sure there are bound to be contests out there which operate as commercial ventures but these are generally easy to spot. Having been part of the Fish Awards in Bantry last year, I can tell you that it’s a labour of love for the people behind the venture. It cost me about ten pounds to enter but the prize money was close to six hundred pounds – I call that a good return for my investment. More importantly, it got me right in front of readers, learning important lessons about the hard end of the business. I got quizzed at length by a scouting agent, face-to-face. I’m trying hard to think how else I could secure that sort of exposure if I eschewed all contests on the grounds that I was getting ripped off.

I’m under no illusions; I’m a grown up. Fish was a calculated investment. And even had I got nowhere I’d have counted it valuable in the sense that unless we keep putting our heads above the parapet, keep courting the slings and arrows, how will we know we’re getting anywhere? It takes nerves of steel to keep pushing our work out there to be judged, to be rejected. But without that process I think the danger is this becomes an exercise in ego-stroking. There is an acid test in the judgement of peers and professionals. Sure it’s a crap shoot, to an extent. A lot of it comes down to the subjective opinion of an individual or two. And luck. But I’d be interested to hear people’s thoughts on how else we can get ahead, get better, stronger. Persuade me!

Sarah Hilary is a frequent contributor to Every Day Fiction  (Lolita’s Lynch Mob is an all-time favorite) and on other flash sites around the web.  Check out her blog, Crawl Space, where she lists all her online writing and then check out her other brilliant FLASHES of fiction.