In the last couple of years, literary journals have been saying that submissions have never been higher. I have seen many journals in both Canada and the US close off submissions indefinitely to deal with the backlog. The competition is very daunting, but do not give up. I recently placed a short story after nearly two years of trying. I had been given excellent feedback but often told the piece did not fit in with the issue they were preparing. Finally, persistence paid off.

@ShaelinWrites

Жыл бұрын

This is very true! I even find for myself, I’m publishing work way less frequently and I have several friends who’ve had huge drops in their acceptance rates as well.

This is a helpful video. I wrote a short story and looking to make it better. I'm more used to writing a full length novel though. Thanks Shaelin.

Invaluable. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Thanks for this! Very helpful. I've been getting back into short/flash/micro fiction and it's nice to get some really good practical advice.

Congratulations on becoming a slush reader! I wrote a ton of short stories or flash fiction last year and finally a few of my flash pieces are being published this year. I’ve been submitting short stories/flash fiction since 2019 (I think?) and it’s so interesting because sometimes a piece will get a ton of rejections and then it will finally get an acceptance, so it’s hard to know what magazines are looking for. I’ve also written a few of my flash pieces in second person (something I wouldn’t do in longer stories) and not everyone likes second person. Anyway, this video was so insightful! Thank you! 💜💕

Thank you for this video! It's very useful! 🙂

I really liked this video! This really helped me to add some important questions to my edit list. Like, is my story starting at the right spot? Is the tone undermining my story? Is my POV close enough while still keeping in touch with the world? Thanks Shaelin, as always!

i read for a litmag for a while and could seriously have made a drinking game out of stories written by cishet men with unnecessary/anatomically dubious descriptions of women’s bodies

@ShaelinWrites

Жыл бұрын

this is so real omfg

could you recommend some of your favourite short stories??

Wonderful advice. Your insights are very valuable. For those of us who do not have access to writers workshops (due to locality), are there spaces for sharing and reviewing each other's short stories you reccomend? Presumably, these would necessitate closed groups since most submissions cannot be published publicly online.

I have been in love with purposefully distant third person ever since reading All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. That said, I know getting distant third person to work (that is, it still reveals the character), is SO hard to do. It doesn't surprise me that the author who first impressed me with it is widely considered the greatest living American novelist.

@Exayevie

Жыл бұрын

@@NousTrapper It may be my favorite book. Actually by page 8, I knew it was going to be at least one of my favorites.

@ye_zus

11 ай бұрын

RIP

Helpful and inspirational. Thank you.

Ya, "Write what you want to read" screwed me over long before I even thought I'd like to write. Too bad I like reading ERB and REH

The inciting incident and the climax getting mixed up?? Now THAT is interesting ....

Hi Shaelin, long time viewer here. I absolutely love all your content. I have a request for a video, if you want to do it of course, because I have been struggling to find books that do something interesting or unique with POV. POV is probably my favorite thing to think about as a writer and reader, and it's what sets the written word apart from other storytelling mediums. But you can't really Google search for POV like you can genre, or at least, I haven't had much success doing that. So, could you recommend some books or short stories that do something fun with POV? Bonus points if they are fantasy or sci fi, but anything would be awesome.

@ShaelinWrites

Жыл бұрын

I have an older video called “unconventional POVs to try” or something along those lines!

Good points overall. I don’t agree with pushing voicey, close Third or First Person, but I’m not surprised by the advice either. It’s a very fashionable trend right now. I used to read slush, too, and I’m over it. Everyone chirps about immersion. I’ve gone the other way, lately, and relish a neutral-sounding Third Person narrator.

Hi Shaelin! Was wondering if you ever submitted to more well-known magazines like The Paris Review, Granta, The Atlantic etc and did you have any luck with those? I heard that those magazines don’t publish unagented writing so I don’t know if I should try to submit to those

@ShaelinWrites

11 ай бұрын

I have a few times, but obviously haven't had any luck being accepted by any of them lmao. I think it's worth throwing your hat in the ring, but managing expectations with magazines of that scale.

👍🏻

OK, KZread is deleting my comments. The story I was referring to in my earlier post was called "Clean, Cleaner, Cleanest", by Sherman Alexie.

At the 6:30 mark you talk about "experimental" writing. I'm curious as to what your magazine considers "experimental" or what definition they use for this. The human brain is wired to understand what a story is, and while there is a small amount of debate as to story structure, (three act, Truby's seven steps/ twenty-two steps from "The Anatomy of Story", "Save the Cat" and others) we all still look for certain elements to understand what the author is saying. Even in film, experimental doesn't always work. One example that comes to mind is the 1999 film "The Limey". I've watched this a couple of times, and the jumpy editing, backwards flow, and choppy narrative is jarring. Perhaps I don't have enough experience with speculative fiction, so I'm wanting to understand exactly what "experimental" would look like or read like. Thank you for your video's, they are very informative.

I found your point about having 'no sense of the protagonist' interesting. I have noticed that younger writers don't have the life experience to know human psychology so focus more on the story. I only started writing as a mature aged person. I know how I write today, the detail and intimacy with the characters, I could not have done in my youth. So perhaps for the younger writers it might be helpful to query some older people. To have them explain how and why a person would behave the way they do in the situation or situations found in the story being written.

Day 1 of asking shaelin to make a video om books about cults

@emmarald975

Жыл бұрын

Terrible writing advice has a video on stories about cults.

@nevisnebis1207

Жыл бұрын

I’d love to see Shaelin just chat about cults. “Cults with Shaelin” sounds like a chill video to sit with :0

To anyone reading this comment, Is it okay to change the pov style of the story (not of the character) midway through a scene, or periodically throughout a book? I'm planning to implement that on my wip though many said that it would be too jarring to read and also confusing.

@ShaelinWrites

Жыл бұрын

You can use multiple POVs in story if it’s done to benefit the story and enhance what you want to accomplish - it isn’t the norm and can be jarring if not done well/intentionally, but ultimately nothing is off limits!

@laurencetescabalx6090

Жыл бұрын

@@ShaelinWrites Wow thanks for the help! Definitely something to consider.

Shaelin - You talk so fast! What was the name of the magazine for which you read?

@ShaelinWrites

Жыл бұрын

PRISM international!

How did you become a slush reader if you don't mind?🥺

@ShaelinWrites

Жыл бұрын

In my case, the magazine posted a call for readers on Instagram and so I emailed them. I’m a previous contributor to the magazine so the fiction editor knew me, so there wasn’t really an application process, but in some cases they want to see a writing sample or something like that.

@blackmist5351

Жыл бұрын

@@ShaelinWrites Thanks so much!! Hugs

A lot of said publishers are phonies---good only at pompous impressions and would not recognize good manuscripts until another (real) publisher has made the story famous with publication . . .

@ShaelinWrites

Жыл бұрын

Literary magazines range from hugely established, to small and niche, and yes, some are scams or don't really know what they're doing. Just because there are some scammy magazines doesn't deride the entire practice of submitting to magazines, and the magazine I mentioned in the video and that I read for is one of the oldest and most established in the country. It's up to the writer to do research and decide which magazines they want to submit to based on their goals.

How is it legal for you to be giving us all this knowledge for free?

Hello, dear. Excuse me, could you please speak a bit more slowly? English is not my first language. 😊Thanks a lot! I love your content.

@oneirowlogist4269

16 күн бұрын

When voices are fast it helps to change the video playback speed to 0.75

@marcobomfoco

16 күн бұрын

@@oneirowlogist4269 ok

Maybe these aspiring writers are trying to write "experimental" fiction without having mastered basic storytelling.

I morso need someone _not me_ to read my story

@rcrockssiva

Жыл бұрын

I would like to volunteer!

@evilgenius97

Жыл бұрын

​@@rcrockssiva my thing is i have a huge paranoia of the internet and sharing online. I want someone irl

@evilgenius97

Жыл бұрын

Here is a teaser of my character and story done by Mavvery kzread.info/dash/bejne/kXadw8-rmdzVlKQ.html

@rcrockssiva

Жыл бұрын

I understand. It can be nerve-wracking even IRL. Well, let me know if you change your mind!