Short story tips
Short Story Elements
• A strong narrative voice. Doesn’t matter if it’s first or third person, the narrator needs to be strong, consistent and distinctive.
• An intriguing opening. Ideally the opening will set up the short story and intrigue the reader to keep reading.
• Red herrings. I’m a big fan of inserting red herrings in order to keep the reader interested. While red herrings are mostly used in mystery or crime fiction I also think they have a purpose in any type of genre. The purpose of a red herring is to make the reader think that the action and story is going in one direction and then deliver something unexpected.
• Changes. If it’s a long story it needs to go through different moods and shifts. While it is the one story it needs to grow.
• Characterisation. While it is a short story and therefore a snapshot of a moment in time it is still important to have consistent characterisation. This means your characters need to act in a plausible manner and the reader needs to be able to believe in what the character is doing.
• Tension. The tension should escalate throughout the story as the reader tries to keep pace with the action. To do this you need to foreshadow action and then deliver the goods, and keep doing this throughout the story so that on the one hand you are satisfying the reader, you are also keeping them hanging.
• An ending that resonates. The ending should paint an image that stays with the reader. While it can be a happy, sad or open-ended ending, the reader needs to have an image that stays with them.
Finding markets for short stories
There are numerous ways you can find markets for your writing.
1. Join a Writing Centre or Writing organisation in your state. You will receive a monthly newsletter that will list submission opportunities and guidelines.
2. Go on-line and research submission opportunities by googling short story competitions or going to websites that list this information.
3. Buy books like the Writer’s Marketplace or a directory listing writing opportunities. The downfall with this is that the information will become outdated.
4. Do a writing course through a TAFE or university where you will be introduced to market opportunities and taught professional practices.
5. Submit to short story competitions. Once you are on their mailing list they will send you entry forms to future competitions.
Submitting on-line
If submitting for on-line publications the above information applies but also attempt to format your story according to the publication formatting. This will make it easier for the publication to publish your work.
Short Story Competitions
Short story publication opportunities in Australia are shrinking and short story competitions are the way to gain exposure. There are numerous short story competitions sponsored by local councils, universities, publishing companies, journals, bookshops and writing organisations.
Submitting to short story competitions is good practice. You learn how to professionally prepare submissions, it motivates you to write, and you have more opportunity of placing in a competition and thus including a line on your bio.
Some of the short story competitions have an entry fee, some don’t. In some instances you will need to weigh up whether the entry fee is worthwhile compared to the prize involved.
To maximise your chances when submitting to short story competitions you need to do some basic research. Read previous winning entries. These days you might be able to do this on-online. Some competition organisers sell anthologies with the winning stories that includes the judges report. Wherever you can buy these anthologies and examine them.
Research the judges. Read their work and find out what their writing style is and what type of themes they explore in their own writing. Submit a short story that you feel best matches their personal style to maximise your chances of winning or being shortlisted.
In most instances organisers will only inform entrant winners. Track the date that the winners will be announced so that you know whether you have won or not. If there is an awards ceremony set aside your sour grapes and attend. You will find out what the judges were looking for and hopefully hear the winning entries. This is part of the learning process.
Some short story competitions have opportunity for publication attached to them. If not, don’t despair. It is much easier to gain the interest of a magazine or journal editor by submitting a story that has won, been placed or shortlisted in a short story competition, than one that is not.
If your short story does not succeed at a short story competition, re-read it, revise and re-submit. If you have submitted the same short story 5, 10, 15 times and each time you have revised it, applying crafting techniques you have learnt through time, then this story and the submission process have served their process.
Short story competition formatting guidelines
Basics to adhere to are:
• 1 inch margins,
• 12 point Arial or Times New Roman Font,
• double spaced,
• indent first line of paragraph or a hard return at the end of a paragraph,
• cover sheet,
• use paper clip to hold the story together or rubber band for a manuscript,
• list short story title in the header,
• page number and number of total pages in the footer,
• indicate the beginning of story by making the first three words capped,
• include a hash at the end of the story to indicate the end.
NOTE: DO NOT include your name on your short story. Short story entries should be anonymous and the organisers will track your story through the title and an entry number they will allocate in their internal administration system.
Submission Guidelines:
Always read the submission guidelines and adhere to them.
Make sure you format your work as required. If there are no formatting guidelines the basics to adhere to are:
• 1 inch margins,
• 12 point Arial or Times New Roman Font,
• double spaced,
• indent first line of paragraph or a hard return at the end of a paragraph,
• cover sheet,
• use paper clip to hold the story together or rubber band for a manuscript,
• list your name and title in the header,
• page number and number of total pages in the footer,
• indicate the beginning of story by making the first three words capped,
• include a hash at the end of the story to indicate the end.
Fiction cover sheet:
The basic information listed on your cover sheet should be:
• Title,
• word count,
• name of author,
• copyright to author,
• rights you are offering-Australian First Rights for Australia, World Rights for International markets
• contact details.
Sample cover sheet. (Centre alignment)
Title
Author Name
(Number of words)
First Australian Rights
Address: ??????????????,
Home: ????????????, Mobile: ?????????????,
Email: ???????????????? Web page: ????????????????
Cover letter:
Always include a cover letter with your work. The cover letter should have the following information:
• Contact details: List your contact details in the cover letter.
• Story information: Supply the following pertinent information: title, word count, genre, one-line description.
• Novel information- word count, genre, one or two paragraph pitch.
• Publication credits: Include your publication achievements but keep it brief. One or two should suffice. If you have more than that to choose from pick the achievements that best reflect the genre you are submitting to.
Submission guidelines requirements: If there is special information that needs to be provided as per the submission guidelines such as a bio, declaration or SSAE, mention this.
Sample cover letter
Your Name and Contact Details
Date
Contact Name
Organisation Name
Address
Dear Contact person
RE: Submission of Short Story Name
Please find enclosed my 3,000 word short story “Short story Title” for consideration to be published in Journal/Magazine journal.
I have been published in the (List most relevant credits/or qualifications.)
Thank you for your time and attention. I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Your Name
Enc Short story title
Rejection
Is the nature of the business.
Ten rules to minimise your rejections are:
1. Don’t take it personally.
Some of your stories will suck and no matter how hard you try they won’t get published. Submitting is part of a learning process and eventually you will grow and learn how and why these stories suck, and write better.
Some stories you write will be excellent but they will be rejected because there are only so many short stories that a journal or magazine can publish in a certain issue. Keep submitting. A lot of the times being publication is a numbers game, you have to keep playing the odds.
2. Target your story to the correct publication
Read the publication you want to submit to and get a feeling for their style and the types of stories they publish. Write a story that matches this style.
3. Be professional
Proofread your story and make it as clean as possible. Every publication receives numerous submissions. If you have typos and spelling errors you will be automatically rejected. While it doesn’t matter how much you proofread there will always be something you miss, or that an editor will edit before publication, your responsibility is to send the best possible submission you can.
Follow the submission guidelines and prepare a perfect submission. Anything less is an insult to the publication you are submitting to.
If you get rejected from a publication do not whinge, write a letter of complaint or seek retribution. Move on.
4. Keep writing.
Don’t rest on your laurels when you submit a short story. Keep working on the next one and the one after that.
5. Keep submitting.
The only way you’ll get published is if you keep trying. Each time you re-submit a story proofread it again to check for any typos that might have been missed. Also think about how the story might be strengthened. Does it have all of the elements listed above?
6. Seek out new markets.
In the beginning the most important thing is to write and submit. There are some excellent unpaid opportunities for beginner writers to get their foot in their door. In the beginning any publication credit is the goal, but as you get more prolific you can get pickier and only submit to publications that pay.
7. Try new genres
Don’t close yourself off from trying new genres. You might have undiscovered strengths and talents. Experiment and see where your muse takes you.
8. Read
Read in different genres, different types of publication (journals, magazines) and different mediums (graphic novels, zines, printed media). New sources of inspiration keep your muse fresh, there is always something to be learnt from different types of writing, and you never know where you can discover the next untapped market for publication.
9. Let stories RIP
If you have attempted flogging a short story on numerous occasions and over a significant length of time, and you have received no nibbles, perhaps it’s time to let that story Rest in Peace. Each story you write leads to a growth experience. There is a certain amount of writing that you have to do just to get the basics down and perhaps that story was a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Sometimes you have to let go of the old to be able to focus on the new. But don’t ever delete or destroy short stories you haven’t placed. You never know when you might have an opportunity to submit a revised version of an old story to a new publication.
10. Keep trying
All it takes is the one publication credit to get confidence in your abilities, confirmation from the Gods that “yes, you can write,” and the attention of the next editor you submit to. Publication credits tend to mutate once you have some behind you and the only way to get one is to KEEP TRYING.
Acceptance
Congratulations. You’ve had a short story accepted. While this means that your writing is of a publishing standard your story will still be subjected to editorial changes. This is the nature of the business. Do yourself a favour and accept the fact that all stories can be improved and that editing comes with publication.
Most magazines will make changes to your story and the only time you’ll see them is when the published version appears. Magazines will not accept stories that they have to do a huge amount of editing on. Your story will be lightly edited with small changes to sentence structure or words. In some instances your story will be edited to meet magazine standards.
Some journals and magazines will provide you with a list of revisions and it’s up to you to make the changes. While you might have the opportunity to negotiate these changes I recommend you don’t. If there is a specific thing you disagree with, raise it but very gently, and be prepared to back off.
If you feel that your writing doesn’t require editing there’s a simple solution. Don’t submit it for publication.
Some magazines and journals will request that you submit a bio for publication with your short story. Read other author biographies and get a feel for what goes. Write something that you feel comfortable. Always err on the side of brevity. While academic qualifications are acceptable inclusions I would recommend using these only when you don’t have any other publication credits. Readers are interested in your writing persona so focus your biography around this information.
You can also use this as an opportunity to promote your unpublished writing. If you are writing novel or have completed a novel, include this in your bio. There have been instances of writers being approached by publishers based on a short story publication. While these instances are rare, and mostly happen to very prolific short story writers, you never know.
Readings
At some point when you begin to get short stories published you will get the opportunity to do public readings. You might be nervous and inclined to reject this opportunity. DO NOT DO IT. In today’s world of publishing writers are expected to be able to promote their work. This means you will be expected to be able to interact with the public, participate in promotional events such as interviews and read in public.
Reading your short story in public is great preparation for becoming a published novelist. Some tips to deal with this experience are:
- Practice reading your short story out loud. I usually read my short story at least 10 times by myself.
- Try to do in a practice run in front of a group of friends. When nervous and reading in public some writers can speed up the reading and become intelligible. You want to read the story with feeling, but still maintain an even tempo so that the audience can keep up.
- Maintain eye contact with the audience. This is why it’s important to practice reading and almost memorise sections so you can look up and make eye contact with the audience. If you need to write cues in the margins as to when you should look up, take a deep breath, or make a brief pause.
- Have fun. Most times as writers we work in isolation and without any opportunity to interact with readers or the wider community. This is your opportunity to be a star for five minutes. Milk it for all its worth because you don’t know when your next chance will arrive.
- Support other writers by attending launches and readings. Firstly, you will learn a lot by observing how others do it. Secondly, you hope to be on the podium one day and what goes around, comes around.
Handy hints thanks.
JP I have submitted 2 short stories to the Age short story comp. I feel I should have read your excellent tips before I sent them as they were my first two attempts. I have since written 2 others but prefer poetry as a genre.
Cheerio John. Prendergast.
Thanks Amra for your generosity and sharing this information with all writers. Some very helpful tips and appreciate the sample cover letters.
Regards,
Kate
P.S. No relation to John…)
Thanks Kate. Glad it was helpful and good luck with your writing.