Authors! Submitting your story to an open call? As someone reading through 400+ submissions for an anthology, some tips:
Opening paragraph/sentence: I can tell within the first few sentences if a story is a 'no.'
'Maybes' turn to 'no's' by the end of the first paragraph. Brutal, but it's true.
Opening paragraph/sentence: I can tell within the first few sentences if a story is a 'no.'
'Maybes' turn to 'no's' by the end of the first paragraph. Brutal, but it's true.
Comments
And it’s a different kind of rush when you get another spousal murder story and the dead wife’s blood gets described as “the raspberry syrup of liberation.”
If the narrative doesn't live up to the hook it will get dumped but modern books with poor openings don't sell, doesn't matter how good the rest is
‘No grasp of how people think/talk’ is another.
I can’t stress how important it is for writers to read the guidelines and make sure their submissions are in strict adherence to the guidelines.
My job has me looking at demo reels and the sentiment is similar. You know within the first 2-5 seconds if you’re going to continue with that artist.
I'm about 4 weeks in to the submission process, and while I feel I've got something incredible, so do a thousand others so..
But good to know they won't think it's off putting that I can try something else.
Bc I have 10. I gave myself multiple options just in case. 😂
This is the opposite of the truth, though. Editors *are* readers and they're delighted when they hit a story that makes them say yes!
Again, not true.
That's good news for all writers and readers. Something for everyone. 😂
Editors are just different from each other. That's an opportunity.
If in a 20 lap race the racers who weren't in the top 4 were eliminated entirely after the first lap...
You’re spot on. Word count isn’t a suggestion.
Instead, pick a random paragraph in the middle, and read that. Gives you a much better sense of that this writer really makes.
It's the writer's job to make ppl want to read more from the beginning. Trust ppl to know how to do their job
I just find that beginning lines tend not to be great indicators whether anything of value will be found after, that's all.
It's badly overemphasized already. Please don't make the problem worse
“I woke abruptly when my alarm went off and then slumped back into my pillow. I didn’t want to get up. It was Monday and I’d had an awful weekend.”
vs
“The alarm woke me. I got up. I brushed my teeth. I got dressed. Ugh. I went to work. The drive sucked.
Story beginnings (and just stories in general) are so much more about style and tone and such, rather than specifics of content or structure.
Basically 2 things: you’re in safe hands ability-wise, and there’s a reason to be curious what’s in the second sentence. 🙂
I don’t expect perfection. As an editor, I expect to have edits for an author to do. But if the submission looks like the writer completely ignored spellcheck, that’s a big turnoff.
A story either grabs you or it doesn’t. There’s no magic answer for this.
Remember, your story is competing against many others. Could be your story is similar to something the editor has already chosen.
You may recognize some of the commenter names...
https://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html
2: put it in standard manuscript formatting. (Any deviations from this formatting a particular place asks for will be covered in step 4).
3: read the guidelines of the anthology.
4: follow those guidelines when submitting. All of them.
https://meanjin.com.au/memoir/9-7-milligrams-of-heaven/
I tell people they need to start the story with someone thinking, speaking, or taking some other action
2: not 2025.
I’m non fiction myself so I already know where it’s going to go but I still read it.
There are no masterpieces that appeal only to the patient reader with an excellent attention span. There is usually only one doting mother per writer.
The first paragraph, if it’s badly misspelled, awful grammar/punctuation, fails to follow guidelines, is the wrong theme, is an obvious ripoff of another piece of fiction, is riddled with clichés, etc., it’s going to get rejected.
Got about 900 shorts for the award, 150 novels left, and another magazine period coming soon with 800 expected shorts. Deadline for everything is two months. Happy to include you.
But she's right, you can tell as soon as the first paragraph whether a story is right for your publication.
I enjoyed Noah Lukeman’s “The First Five Pages” on a similar theme (the audiobook version of it is free). https://lukeman.com/the-first-five-pages/
“By its end, you'll come to see why this book should not have been titled The First Five Pages but The First Five Sentences.”
Readers pick up a novel having seen the jacket copy. Short story readers go in blind. The opening is all the information they get.
Start WRITING however works for you; the best opening is something to think about when you edit/redraft. If anything you’ll be better placed to see the right beginning once you’ve written the end.
Also study authors you enjoy. Stop after the 1st sentence and ask what it does well. Sometimes they surprise you. What do you feel? What questions does it make you ask?
If this approach were applied as a universal law, many Bests sellers wouldn't have ever been published. Perfect example; Jurassic Park. The first three chapters are boring exposition dumps about medtech and bioengineering.
Go back to the classics Dickens, Austen, Hemmingway, Faulker, Melville, Jules Vern, etc etc.
Cold openings used to be the default.
It got published was because Crichton was an established Bestseller, his name, not the quality of the book earned it sales.
On the other hand guys like Patterson use their name brand to cash in on other people's work by trading their guaranteed bestseller status for a cut of the profits and credit.
If you handed JP to readers today, a lot of them wouldn't make it past chapter one.
This is the whole crux of the "XXX couldn't get published today", times have changed
concur with every point
if you know, you know
thank you for this thread
maybe it will help a few people 💙
So I tell writers to paint the the image in the reader's mind using the least amount of words so it moves fluidly.
- Gemma Amor, probably