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The city sleeps.

The city is drugged, some say, unable to wake up because someone is holding a vial of something awful to its neck, keeping it sluggish and unable to enter a rightful rage.

The city is quiet, restful, slumbering and ready for a new day, gather energy in the healthiest way to enjoy the world anew in the morning.

The city is fitful, rolling in the sheets of the waves that lap at its shores, restless and filled to the brim with the nightmares that haunt its streets.

The city is exhausted, unconscious from the endless toil, recovering from the harsh work of the day and knowing that tomorrow will be no better.

The city is light and dreaming, snatching creative thoughts from the clouds that roll past and the boats and planes and trains that slide in, a new hope and a new fantasy for every pair of feet that touch down on its surface.

The city sleeps in a million and one ways.

But it does not sleep forever.

(Be wary of when it wakes.)

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Drip drop.

The clock is ticking.

Drip drop.

She’s crying again.

Drop.

The gutter is leaking.

Dr-dr-drip.

They said winning would be this empty.

Knock knock.

That noise has never been a friend.

“Open up.”

Go away.

“We’ve been waiting so long for you.”

No.

“Come out to play.”

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She is born in the depths of the ocean, sewn into being by a witch with too much time on her hands and more power than she knows what to do with. She has a soul built of the ancient chills of the trenches, in those cracks too far from the vents to catch even a flash of their warmth. She has a consciousness knitted from the bones of long-dead giants that once ruled these waters. She has a body that ebbs and flows and changes, water connected to itself and only itself, a shape that is only as she wills it, invisible below the waves and terrifying above them.

She is three inches tall, slipping into anemones to watch the clownfish.

She is hundreds of feet tall, a translucent head and shoulders and arms, too-sharp teeth and too-wide grin, arching over the ship dumping waste into her territory, whispering sweet threats in the voice of millions if they don’t leave and remember what she’ll do to those who poison her.

She is endless and minuscule and everything in between. She is cold and dark and distant and intimidating. She is ancient and brand new. She is the ocean, and she will fight for what it hers.

The sea has ever been a merciless mistress.

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hi bucket! do you have any tips on creating a cover letter when submitting to literary magazines and journals? would they be different from cover letters for novels? thank you!

Hi there! I sure do.

How to Create a Cover Letter for a Literary Magazine or Journal

#1 Follow their guidelines

First and foremost, read the magazine’s submission guidelines. Some of them will have specific instructions for how to do your cover letter. They may want it attached to the submission, or typed into an online form. They may want a short bio. Whatever they ask for, give it to them.

#2 Keep it short

In the absence of guidelines, keep it short and simple. Give the title and word count of your piece, any previous publications or relevant accolades, and maybe a one-sentence personal thing. It should be no longer than a page, and ideally closer to half a page. I’ll give an example for you to use at the end.

#3 Address the editor BY NAME

This is pretty important. Find out the editor’s name and address the cover letter directly to them. In a print publication, the masthead will usually be on the first few pages. Online, you might have to hunt a little more. You can address it to the general editor, OR the genre editor if there is one. For example, if you are submitting a poem, you can address your cover letter to the poetry editor.

#4 Mention if the submission is a simultaneous submission

They will want to know if your piece is under consideration elsewhere. Only do this, of course, if the magazine accepts simultaneous submissions. Some don’t.

#5 If you don’t have previous publications, awards, or any credentials worth mentioning, just skip that part.

You can just write “If accepted, this will be my first publication.”

#6 It can help to say something personal so that the cover letter doesn’t feel like a form letter.

If you know someone at the magazine, mention that. If you read the magazine regularly, say something about it. “I read your magazine regularly, and really enjoyed the flash fiction piece Quail Hunting which appeared in the summer issue.” You could also mention why you chose to submit at their magazine. “I’ve noticed you publish a lot of hard-boiled mysteries, so I thought my piece might be a good fit at Eggsalad Monthly.”

Basically, this tells the editor that you give a shit about their magazine and aren’t just sending the same letter to 10,000 other people because you want to get published. Believe me, as someone who reads a lot of cover letters (I’m a fiction reader for Ploughshares), it makes a difference.

#7 Steal this template (blank)

Dear EDITOR’S NAME,

Please consider my story “TITLE,” XXXX words, for consideration at NAME OF PUBLICATION. [This is where you can include something from #6, if you have anything.]

[Briefly list your previous publications, pending publication, awards, residencies, MFA candidacy or degree, etc. here. Keep it to 5-6 sentences. You’re giving the highlights, not a CV.]

[If unpublished, this is where you can write: If accepted, this will be my first publication.]

[Optional: Add a sentence or two here about yourself personally.]

This is a simultaneous submission. I will inform you promptly if it is accepted elsewhere.

Thank you,

YOUR NAME

#8 Or steal this template (example)

Need more? Here is my very own cover letter from my most recent publication in Bracken Magazine.

Dear Alina,

Please consider my story “Fever,” about 800 words, for publication at Bracken. I love that your magazine is inspired by woods and shadows. Even though my story is not about the forest per se, I think it might be a good fit there.

I hold an MFA from the Rainier Writing Workshop, and have been a Vermont Studio Center Fellow and the recipient of a Fulcrum Fund Award. My work has appeared in The Nervous Breakdown and Storm Cellar, where I won second prize in the 2017 Force Majeure Flash Contest. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, I have lived in New Mexico since 2006.

This is a simultaneous submission. I will inform you promptly if it is accepted elsewhere.

Thank you for your time,

Bucket Siler

Hope this helps, @perringwrites!!

//////////////

The Literary Architect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler. For more writing help, check out my Free Resource Library, peruse my post guide, or hire me to edit your novel or short story. xoxo

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ATTENTION WRITERS

Google BetaBooks. Do it now. It’s the best damn thing EVER.

You just upload your manuscript, write out some questions for your beta readers to answer in each chapter, and invite readers to check out your book!

It’s SO easy!

You can even track your readers! It tells you when they last read, and what chapter they read!

Your beta readers can even highlight and react to the text!!!

There’s also this thing where you can search the website for available readers best suited for YOUR book!

Seriously guys, BetaBooks is the most useful website in the whole world when it comes to beta reading, and… IT’S FREE.

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(via Cedar Tree after a storm in Central Kansas yesterday : pics)

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I have to confess

I love horses

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Overhaul of Patreon Page

In recognition of my own limitations and tendency to write flash fiction that doesn't fit my earlier requirements regarding minimum word counts for a charged post, I've done a complete overhaul. There are no longer tiers, and the charge is now monthly. This system will hopefully allow for me to publish works that you can all enjoy more often than the previous system.

Become a patron here.

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WELL YOU’RE NOT WRONG

(Though at this point I’ve exported that set of OCs to original fiction, so... we’ll see how the girls fare.)

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How Theme and False Theme Affect Your Protagonist

I attended Amanda Rawson Hill’s class on theme several weeks ago and was simply blown away with it and within minutes knew I had to ask her to let me share some of it on my blog. Theme is a topic that’s been on my mind for the last few months, and I touched on it in my last post “Preach vs. Teach.” When I attended Amanda’s class, she put words to many aspects about theme that had been rolling around in my subconscious that I hadn’t yet figured out and she also taught me completely new ideas about it. Lately I’ve been looking at theme from a question and answer standpoint (the story asks us to consider and explore questions about a topic, and the thematic statement gives us the answer–illustrated through the story), which is great but only one way to look at it, and I loved Amanda’s approach. So she’s here today to share a section from her class: how theme and false theme affect the protagonist.

The theme of a novel can feel like a slippery thing. For many authors, it’s more of an afterthought. Once the book is finished and they know plot and setting and character, then maybe they’ll ask themselves what the theme is. But theme is key to creating an emotionally powerful and coherent novel, one that leaves an impression on the reader’s heart. One of the ways an author can be more intentional about theme is by considering how it impacts their main character. We do that, first, by being able to verbalize what our theme is. Remember that the theme of a novel is a COMPLETE SENTENCE. It’s the message of your book. Some examples of theme are Moana: You know who you are when you know where/who you come from. Hamilton: You have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story. Zootopia: Change begins with me. Harry Potter: Love is the most powerful force on earth. Now, if the theme is the message of the book, then it should be what you are leaving your reader with. It’s the truth that your main character finally understands at THE END of the story. But that means they can’t understand or believe the truth of the theme at the beginning of the story. If they do, then there is no growth or change in the character and you have a boring book. So at the beginning of the book, your main character either doesn’t believe or misunderstands the theme in some way. I call this the FALSE THEME STATEMENT. K.M. Weiland refers to it as “The Lie Your Character Believes.” For example: At the beginning of Moana, her family and everyone on the island keep telling Moana that she is just who she is right now, that everything is about the island and where they are right now.

At the beginning of Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton believes he can create and control his legacy by laying hold of every opportunity and not throwing away his shot. 

At the beginning of Zootopia, Officer Hopps sees the bias in everyone around her and is bound and determined to prove them wrong by being the first bunny cop. There is no checking of her own biases. 

At the beginning of Harry Potter, he is just the boy in the cupboard under the stairs. Alone, unloved, and powerless. 

Keep reading

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We writers often categorize ourselves as “plotters” or “pantsers”, based on how much of our story we prefer to outline before we begin writing actual scenes. As I consider my writing process, I’m beginning to think this framework isn’t very useful for describing how I turn my ideas into a full-fledged story. But I think I’ve discovered a more useful way to frame this difference. Instead of “plotter vs. pantser”, consider: are you a deductive storyteller or an inductive storyteller?

Deductive reasoning starts with general premises and draws specific conclusions. In a similar way, deductive storytellers start with general concepts and work their way down to specific details.The Snowflake Method is the purest form of deductive storytelling–you start with the most basic overview, and at each level, you add more details and get more specific, until you wind up with a first draft.

To a deductive storyteller, the overarching framework is necessary in order to develop the small details. For example, if I were writing deductively, I’d decide that Suzie is a brave character, and then write scenes that show Suzie’s bravery. I’d also needs to figure out the steps of the plot before coming up with the details of any specific scene–I’d need to know that Suzie will argue with Dave so I can set up the tension that will lead to that scene. The big picture needs to come first, and any necessary details can be logically drawn from this framework.

In contrast, inductive reasoning starts with specific data and draws general conclusions. Therefore, inductive storytelling starts with specific details of a scene, and from that, draws general conclusions about the characters, plot, and setting. This type of writer aligns more closely with the “pantser” end of the spectrum, and is likely to get more ideas from writing scenes than from writing an outline.

An inductive storyteller needs to write out scenes, and use the small details in the prose to figure out broader facts about the plot, characters, and setting. For example, if I were writing inductively, I might write a scene in which Suzie was the only person in her party to enter a haunted house without hesitation. From this, I’d determine that Suzie was brave, and would use this insight to inform Suzie’s behavior in future scenes.  I’d also use the details of early scenes to figure out the next logical steps of my plot. For example, Suzie and Dave are having tense interactions across multiple scenes, so it’s logical that it will erupt into an argument in the next scene. The small details have to come first, so they can be combined logically to draw larger conclusions about the story.

This framework has given me insight into why I write the way I do. The “plotter vs. pantser” argument is generally framed as “do you get bored if you know the story beforehand”? But the difference goes much deeper than that–it ties into which method of story building feels more logical to you. I find that detailed outlines often destroy my stories. I might have a plot plan and character sheets that work extremely well in summary form, but I find I can’t use those big pictures to extrapolate the small details I need for a scene–the resulting story feels vague and artificial. It works much better if I write at least a few scenes first–see the characters interacting in their environment–and then dig deeper into what those details tell me about my characters, plot, and setting so I can further develop the story. Other people might find that they can’t come up with useful details unless they know the larger picture. Neither way is better–it just depends on your preferred storytelling strategy.

Obviously, writers will fall on a spectrum somewhere between these two extremes. But I feel that the “inductive vs. deductive” terminology is a more useful distinction than plain old “plotter vs. pantser”. The important thing isn’t whether you outline, but why an outline may or may not help you create the story you want to tell.

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7 Tips to Build an Audience for Your Writing

I got a great Ask about this a little bit ago about how to establish an audience for your writing. Here’s my answer!

(I’m not an expert on building an audience, but I’ll do my best to share advice based on my personal experience, and perhaps a few other writers will chime in, too.)

My situation: I myself have a very small audience for my creative writing, as I tend to focus more on writing than on promoting myself (for the most part). The biggest success I’ve had in this department is with my latest zine Pigtail Girls. I was able to raise $2,000 on Kickstarter to create it, held a local release party that drew a crowd of 70 or so folks and have sold about 150 zines so far (with almost no post-release promotion).

I don’t make my full-time living as a fiction writer, but I have a solid enough audience of readers that it feels satisfying when I come out with something new, and I’ve been traditionally published a few times as well. I have also placed in a few contests and gotten some awards and stuff. But still my audience is very small. That being said, here’s my advice. I hope it helps :)

#1 Start small… with people you already know

When you’re just starting out, many of your fans or supporters will be the people who already know you. Your friends, family, co-workers, peers, acquaintances, etc. Share and talk about your writing with these people, and pluck up the courage to ask for their support! At least a few of them will genuinely like your writing, and you never know who might have a connection that can help get you more exposure.

#2 Don’t feel try to “sell” or “promote” yourself to these folks. Instead, make authentic, person-to-person connections

Sometimes writers fail to create an audience because they have a perception of what it means to “self promote” which leads them to plaster their social media with desperate pleas to buy their book, or feel pressured to “sell themselves” to new friends and contacts. It seems counter-intuitive, but the best thing you can do is to make genuine, authentic connections with people and be open about your writing with them.

That way, when your friend who works at a bookstore needs someone to open for a touring reader… they think of you. Or when you have a release party to celebrate your release, your co-worker will come (and maybe bring their friend who happens to be a newspaper writer… see where I’m going with this?). When you have authentic relationships with people, they will help you grow your base without having to beg or sell to them.

#3 Make friends with readers, other writers, editors, bookstore clerks… basically anyone in the literary world

Truth: There’s a lot of networking, nepotism, and hobnobbing going on in the literary world. Of course, we all know this stuff happens at the super-famous level. People network their way into recognition all the time. Celebrities get book deals. Keanu Reeves is allowed to be an actor. You might not be lucky enough to be bumping elbows with the elite, but your connections can help you no matter how small they are.

Example: As of March 2018, my writing has been traditionally published four times. The first three were open submissions. The other one was because my friend was the editor of a magazine, liked my work, and asked to publish it. At the time I made this friend, she was a writer but not an editor. We connected for other reasons, but by happy coincidence she was able to help promote my work a few years down the line.

#4 Write your social media posts like you’re talking to your friends, not the anonymous masses

This ties into #2. When you use social media to share about your writing, make it personal. A lot of writers feel like they have to sell themselves on social media, so they end up making promotional posts that are basically like “buy my book!” or “read my writing!”

But if you share something real, much like you would if you were talking to a friend, people are much more likely to respond. I know this from personal experience. My highest-performing posts about my writing are always the ones that make a connection and share something personal with my followers.

Additionally, if you’re using certain platforms (Facebook and Instagram for sure do this), your post will get buried by the algorithm if it’s overtly “promotional.” So in certain instances this becomes not just wise but absolutely necessary so that your posts get seen.

#4 Consider trying to get a story traditionally published

This can help in a few ways. First, you’ll have made a connection with the editor of that magazine. (Connections!) Second, your work will be seen by a new audience of readers. Third, it can give you credibility that makes people (editors, readers, etc.) more likely to give your work a second look further down the line.

#5 Get off the internet

My biggest base of supporters are the folks in my town. That’s because they see me and interact with me regularly. It’s way easier to keep the attention of people IRL than it is online, in my experience. Here are some ideas of how to make friends in the real world who can be supporters of your writing:

Attend or give a public reading

Start or join a writing group

Hang out at the bookstore

Go to any and all literary events in your town

Make friends with other creative people: musicians, artists, photographers.

Seek out collaborative projects with other writers and creatives

#6 Accept that, yes, it takes time

Building an audience doesn’t happen overnight. But there can be a cumulative, exponential effect over the long run. Take Tumblr for example. Most people who have a blog can probably remember how it took forever to get those first 10 followers. But once you have the first 10, it’s a little easier to get the second 10, and so on. It’s the same with an audience.

There may be huge surges in your popularity that leave you feeling awesome, then after that you may find your growth starts to lag a bit. That’s totally normal. Which leads me to my last tip:

#7 Remember that it’s quality, not quantity, that counts

Especially in the age of social media, we can get totally hooked on numbers. How many followers, how many email subscribers, how many patrons, etc. But in my experience it’s the quality of your audience, not the quantity, that counts. Focus on building real relationships and delivering something great to just a few loyal readers rather than trying to please everyone. Those people will be the ones to help promote you and have your back when it’s really important.

For example, when I ran my Kickstarter project for my latest zine, about half of the $2,000 I raised came from big donations. That means that just a few of my really loyal readers kicked down most of my goal. As I mentioned earlier, one of my publications came from an editor friend who is a really big fan of my work. Most of my successes have been because of the dedication of a handful of people, not because I have some enormous following. (This phenomenon has actually been studied and officially named. It’s called the Pareto principle or the 80/20 rule. I totally recommend looking it up and reading more about it.)

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now. I hope this helped!

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ATTENTION WRITERS

Google BetaBooks. Do it now. It’s the best damn thing EVER.

You just upload your manuscript, write out some questions for your beta readers to answer in each chapter, and invite readers to check out your book!

It’s SO easy!

You can even track your readers! It tells you when they last read, and what chapter they read!

Your beta readers can even highlight and react to the text!!!

There’s also this thing where you can search the website for available readers best suited for YOUR book!

Seriously guys, BetaBooks is the most useful website in the whole world when it comes to beta reading, and… IT’S FREE.

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when we were young | Zagreb, Croatia | by @blue.ridinghood

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Helena, Maxine Nguyen, and Caroline Moore from Wend Your Way to the Willow, as drawn by @alexandralumetta​. (I’m very happy with this. Everyone go commission her for cool art. She deserves the best.)

These girls will be returning in future installments of Fae Horizons.

Helena doesn’t have a last name, if you were curious.

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Helena, Maxine Nguyen, and Caroline Moore from Wend Your Way to the Willow, as drawn by @alexandralumetta​. (I’m very happy with this. Everyone go commission her for cool art. She deserves the best.)

These girls will be returning in future installments of Fae Horizons.

Helena doesn't have a last name, if you were curious.

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Someone asked me where I find anthologies to submit to, so I thought I’d make a resource post collecting the various places I check to find cool anthologies, and some advice for how to submit to anthologies in general.

So, I subscribe to a few email blasts, I follow some blogs, and I also use a few different websites.

One of my favourite websites is Horror Tree - most of their stuff is in some way speculative fiction themed, a lot of horror but not JUST horror. I get their email blast, so every Friday I get a list of anthologies that are open for submissions.

Freedom With Writing doesn’t post just anthologies - they post paid writing jobs, including nonfiction articles for magazines, etc. So if you’re just looking for anthologies, it’s a bit more sifting, but there’s a lot of good stuff on there. They’re where I found the call for Behind The Mask, which was the first anthology I was in!

The Submissions Grinder is a handy tool because you can track how long it takes to hear back about a submission, you can search for what markets might be open for your story depending on length, genre, rating, etc. It’s also a good place to track what you’ve submitted where. This is where I go if I wanna browse a bunch of markets and discover totally new ones.

I also pay attention to when things like the recommended reading list for awards come out. Then I go through and write down all the markets that are represented, especially the ones that have multiple stories being considered. The Nebula Recommended Reading List is still up, so I’ll link it here as an example! You can even sort it by Publisher.

And then I have a few small presses that I just routinely check in on to see if they have any anthology calls up. Ninestar Press, Meerkat Press, and Less Than Three are a few that I keep tabs on.

There’s also a lot of anthology zines! A lot of the blogs that collect these are fandom-centric, but you can still find some good original concept ones. @zine-scene, @zinesubmissions, and @zineapps are three blogs that post a lot of zine application info.

Now, that’s a whole lot of links. Here’s the most important thing about submitting short stories - you’re gonna see a lot of calls that seem perfect, right up your alley, totally your speed. And that’s awesome! But if you try to do EVERYTHING you’re going to probably not get a lot done at all. I look through all these things, and then I pick one or two that I’m gonna try to focus on and submit to. After I submit to those, or I miss the submission deadline, then I go back and look through these links again.

I mostly write specific stories for specific calls. Once you have a few stories that are finished and just don’t have a home yet, your strategy might change a bit, because you’re looking for calls that inspire you to write something but also calls that might fit your already finished stuff.

Also, some things might just ask for pitches and writing samples. Those are a little bit easier to submit to (a lot of zines are run this way), but if you submit to a bunch pay attention to timelines - you don’t want to get into three that all have deadlines for the finished pieces in the same week. Or maybe you do! I don’t judge. But definitely keep an eye out for that.

Remember, even if your piece is finished and formatted for a particular market, check the formatting guidelines for the market you’re submitting it to. Everywhere is a little bit different, and a lot of places won’t even look at your piece if it’s not formatted correctly.

My last bit of advice for submitting short stories is be brave. Submit to big markets. The worst thing that could happen is that they say no. And that does feel really scary, yes. I always try for the 100 Rejections challenge - trying to get 100 rejections in one year. It really has nothing to do with hoping for rejections. It’s just supposed to challenge you to put your stuff out there, and to not sweat over every rejection. And yeah, it still happens. I got two rejections in one day a few months ago, and it SUCKED. But viewing rejections as part of the process, rather than anything personal, has really helped me.

Good luck, everyone!