how! not women?

hello yes, very happy to!

as a caveat I mostly do science fiction & fantasy submissions and the magazine sectors for different genres have different norms.

these days the easiest way to find potential markets is a submission managers such as The Grinder. Submission managers provide both search engine tools for finding markets and a tracker for logging your submissions.

& that's pretty much it!! there used to be a lot more research n stuff involved but these days it's just like. The Grinder has it for you.

some other tips:

the standard advice is to start by submitting to the highest paying/most prestigious relevant market and work your way down. if you are into SFF I can tell you what the prestige markets are. if not i am afraid i don't know BUT i can tell you that it's surprisingly easy to submit to The New Yorker.

magazines generally ask that you read an issue before submitting to get a feel for what they publish; in practice I think only uhh Extremely diligent writers are actually doing this.

most markets will ask for a cover letter. unlike with cover letters for jobs or for literary agents, there is 0 expectation that you will get creative or even really sell yourself. it is just for information.

many markets will ask for a third person bio upfront. you can get creative in your third person bio but you don't have to. this blog post has some info about what cover letters and bios should look like. this one has some more info on bios including an example with no publication credits.

another good thing to do is follow some fiction magazines you like on social media; in addition to making announcements about their own submission calls many magazines will share calls from other similar magazines so you can learn about all sorts of stuff this way.

Botanical Applique Quilt by Chinami Terai (Japan)

I get asks like this every now and then, and they always contain the problem.

Your writing is not shitty. It is not worthless.

Bloggers using these terms to describe early writing are often being either glib or depressing. Ignore their advice if it is making you feel bad.

Do you write for pleasure or for praise/accomplishment? If the latter, then you are simply in the practice stage. Practice is inherently worthwhile and no effort in this regard is a waste.

If you write for pleasure, then everything you create fulfills its purpose by being entertaining to create. A small child does not drop the crayon when it realizes its drawing will never be in the MoMA, does it? No, they don't care they just like drawing stuff. Adopt that mindset. Just write to get words on the page and ideas developed because you want to.

My advice for the insecure writer:

Stop re-reading your own work; you're a very biased critic right now and that in itself is holding you back.

All improvements are for later drafts. Trust me, you'll have whole new ideas by draft three so put off the nitpicking and focus.

Avoid outside opinions, writing advice, and blogs like mine for a while; we tend to inadvertently make you feel like you've done everything wrong and need to start over.

Stop starting over. Stop deleting your early drafts. Save all of it (this was the best advice I ever received).

Read and watch books and movies for motivation, and to analyze their strengths and weaknesses.

Do. Not. Compare. Yourself. To Other. Writers—your art is about you and what concerns you, other creators have nothing to do with it.

Remind yourself dumber people are doing it wrong confidently. Copy their confidence.

When you feel self-doubt creeping in again, tell it to take a hike, you've got a story to write.

Whatever you write, no matter the quality, take pride in being a writer at all. Lazy suckers just use AI.

There's nothing wrong with making a mess. How are you supposed to learn from constant perfection? Scratch out dumb sentences, leave afterthoughts in the margins, and side tangents in brackets. If the writing isn't going well, write ROUGH DRAFT in big letters at the top to remind yourself it's just a sketch of what you had in mind, not the finished product.

"...i’m worried it can never get better" I have great news for you! This fear will only be realized if you quit. Since you feel the pull to write there's clearly no point in quitting, your brain already knows writing is the answer. Ideas don't like to wait, and life will keep trying to interrupt you with bigger things, so there's really no time like the present. Go write!

—

Please review my pinned Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you.

Pylon quilt!