Review Board is now open! Submit your Short Prose, Poetry, and Book today!

Day(s)

:

Hour(s)

:

Minute(s)

:

Second(s)

Deadline: Thursday, February 22nd

Want To Publish Your Short Stories? Be Fresh!

If you write but can’t seem to publish your short stories, it may be time to reevaluate your techniques—especially your voice. Literary journal and magazine editors are looking for stories that are fresh and unique, with unexpected revelations and unusual perspectives. Stories that are clichéd or predictable are likely to end up in the slush pile, so make sure your short stories have a fresh voice. Some tips:

1. Read short stories by successful authors. Study what makes these stories stand out. Try Ernest Hemingway, Junot Diaz, Alice Munro, Anton Chekhov, Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, O. Henry, J.D. Salinger, John Updike, Margaret Atwood, Bharati Mukherjee, Amy Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston, and John Cheever. Anthologies are also a rich source of inspiration. Try The Best American Short Stories of the Century, The Best American Short Stories, and PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories.

2. Offer a unique perspective on something familiar. You might revisit the well-known story of Jack the Ripper using modern-day crime-solving techniques. Perhaps “Jack” was actually a woman with great physical strength; or write from Jack’s point of view and offer creative insight into his twisted motivation for murder.

3. Offer a unique perspective on something not so familiar. For example, 19th-century doctors were forced to moonlight as grave robbers in order to study human anatomy. Develop this lesser-known fact into a unique and shocking story using a sweet, mild-mannered young doctor raiding graveyards in the dead of night.

Submit to Review Board

4. Use evocative sentences to generate an emotional response in your reader. If you’re writing about the death of a parent, don’t tell your reader how the character feels. Instead, encourage your reader to identify with the loss. Describe how your character, who recently lost her mother, happens upon a huge yard sale one morning and instinctively turns to the empty passenger seat in excitement—and is blindsided by memories of weekend bargain hunting with Mom.

5. Use provocative sentences. Editors love edgy writing that keeps the reader wanting more. If your writing isn’t interesting—if it doesn’t express your personality or attitude—find ways to inject a bit of pizzazz, push boundaries, and draw readers in. The first line in William Goldman’s The Princess Bride is a great example of a provocative sentence: “This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.”

To learn more about writing (and publishing) fresh and unique short stories, check out 5 Strategies To Make Your Short Story Stand Out In A Crowd and Short Stories: Start Off With A Bang. At Writer’s Relief, we’ve been developing personal submission plans for writers since 1994, and we’re happy to share what we’ve learned over the years with you!

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Review Board is now open! Submit your Short Prose, Poetry, and Book today!

Day(s)

:

Hour(s)

:

Minute(s)

:

Second(s)

 

 

See ALL the services we offer, from
FREE to Full Service!

Click here for a Writer’s Relief
Full Service Overview

Search

Reviews

“Getting that first poem published was the hardest threshold to cross. My team at Writer’s Relief kept encouraging me…then came the acceptance! We celebrated…then I continued writing, and Writer’s Relief continued doing the wonderful work they do!”

—King Grossman, Writer
(Watch King’s video testimonial here!)

“Every piece I have sent out with their help has been accepted for publication! I am looking forward to working with the team on getting my new novel out into the world.”

Services Catalog

Free Publishing Leads
and Tips!

Featured Articles



Featured Video

Follow us!



YES, IT'S MY LUCKY DAY!
Sign me up for
FREE Publishing Leads & Tips
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

WHY? Because our insider
know-how has helped
writers get over 18,000 acceptances.

FREE Publishing Leads and Tips! Our e-publication, Submit Write Now!, delivered weekly to your inbox.
  • BEST (and proven) submission tips
  • Hot publishing leads
  • Calls to submit
  • Contest alerts
  • Notification of industry changes
  • And much more!
close-link


STOP! BEFORE YOU GO...
Sign me up for
FREE Publishing Leads & Tips
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

WHY? Because our insider
know-how has helped
writers get over 18,000 acceptances.

FREE Publishing Leads and Tips! Our e-publication, Submit Write Now!, delivered weekly to your inbox.
  • BEST (and proven) submission tips
  • Hot publishing leads
  • Calls to submit
  • Contest alerts
  • Notification of industry changes
  • And much more!
close-link

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This