Write, Revise, Submit: Short Stories for Publication

Many wonderful stories don’t find homes because they haven’t been sent to the right neighborhood. This week you’ll explore literary journals that publish what you’re writing. In our Zoom, we’ll share ideas about this as we get to know each other. In a quick writing exercise, we’ll generate a fan list for discussion. Yes, you have fans. Finally, everyone will choose a submission spot for the workshop that begins on the third week of our course.

Assignments

1) Research magazines to find your literary “neighborhoods.” I’ll send you home with a handout to get you started.

2) Write 3000 words of your first story. Messy is fine –– you won’t be submitting this draft, but you’ll need it for our craft lesson. Print this out if you can. Bring highlighters and a pen to class.

Craft Lesson #1: Finding your first paragraph. If you printed out your 3000 words, you’ll have the opportunity to rip some pages, which can be very satisfying. Craft Lesson #2: Power sentences. You’ll choose some sentences in your 3000 words to clarify and tighten.  We’ll finish this class with a discussion about the results of our research on literary magazines.

Assignments:

1) Submit for workshop #1  

2) Write feedback on the first submissions. There’s a handout for this.

3) Do the Eavesdrop Exercise. There’s a handout for this too.

Craft Lesson #3 After we read the eavesdrop assignments aloud, without tag lines, we’ll do a group brainstorm on creating characters from dialogue. I’ll share some of my experience with character creation, including ways to mask characters based on friends and family. The second half of the class is devoted to the workshop.

Assignments:

1) Submit for workshop #2.

2) Write feedback on submissions.

3) In one page, write a scene in which three characters are in a conflict. For this exercise, you can use previous work or create something new.

 For the next two weeks, we’ll be hitting the workshop hard to get our stories ready for to submit for publication. After reading aloud and discussing the homework exercise, we’ll move into the workshop.

Assignments:

1) Submit for workshop #3.

2) Give feedback.

Craft talk: We’ll cover a few important things about revision, including ways to fix an ending that doesn’t quite do its job. Then we’ll jump into the final workshop, #4.

Assignments:

1) I’ll be sending you out today with a list of fiction writing “bloopers.” Self-diagnose your own story to see if you can catch any of these and be prepared to report how you fixed them.

 2) Write tquery letters and bios for the journals you’ve chosen for submission.

3) Submit for Workshop #4.

 4) Give feedback.

After the blooper report, we’ll finish our last workshop. Then we’ll read and discuss tour submission packets and give feedback. We’ll finish the course with a Q & A. Goodbye with a wave to the fans!