the coffee writer

Tor, cream of the crop. 25 cents a word. Stories can be read for free (YES). Slowish response time at ~3 months. Prefer under 12k, absolute maximum is 17.5k. Don’t bother if it’s not highly professional quality. SFWA qualifying.

Crossed Genres. 6 cents a word. Different theme each month (this month’s is “failure”). Submissions must combine either sci-fi or fantasy with the theme. Response time 1 month. 1k-6k, no exceptions. SFWA qualifying.

Long Hidden, anthology from CG. 6 cents a word. 2k-8k, no exceptions. Must take place before 1935. Protagonist(s) must be under 18 and marginalized in their time and place. Must be sci-fi/fantasy/horror. Deadline 30 April. Response by 1 October.

Queers Destroy Science Fiction. Sci-fi only right now, author must identify as queer (gay, lesbian, bi, ace, pan, trans, genderfluid, etc, just not cishet). 7.5k max. Deadline 15 February. Responses by 1 March. You can submit one flash fiction and one short story at the same time. (My network blocks the Lightspeed site for some reason, so I can’t get all the submission details. >_>) Probably SFWA qualifying?

Women in Practical Armor. 6 cents a word. 2k-5k. Must be about 1) a female warrior who 2) is already empowered and 3) wears sensible armour. Deadline 1 April. Response within three months.

Fiction Vortex. $10 per story, with $20 and $30 for editor’s and readers’ choice stories (hoping to improve). Speculative fiction only. Imaginative but non-florid stories. 7.5k maximum, preference for 5k and under. (I kind of want to support them on general principle.)

Urban Fantasy Magazine. 6 cents a word. 8k max, under 4k preferred. Must be urban fantasy (aka, the modern world, doesn’t need to be a literal city). 

Nightmare. 6 cents a word. 1.5-7.5k, preference for under 5k. Horror and dark fantasy. Response time up to two weeks. SFWA and HWA qualifying.

Apex Magazine. 6 cents a word. 7.5k max, no exceptions. Dark sci-fi/fantasy/horror. SFWA qualifying.

Asimov’s Science Fiction. 8-10 cents a word. 20k max, 1k minimum. Sci-fi; borderline fantasy is ok, but not S&S. Prefer character focused. Response time 5 weeks; query at 3 months. SFWA qualifying, ofc.

Buzzy Mag. 10 cents a word. 10k max. Should be acceptable for anyone 15+. Response time 6-8 weeks. SFWA qualifying.

Strange Horizons. 8 cents a word. Speculative fiction. 10k max, prefers under 5k. Response time 40 days. Particularly interested in diverse perspectives, nuanced approahces to political issues, and hypertexts. SFWA qualifying. 

Fantasy and Science Fiction. 7-12 cents a word. Speculative fiction, preference for character focus, would like more science-fiction or humour. 25k maximum. Prefers Courier. Response time 15 days.

Scigentasy. 3 cents a word. .5-5k. Science-fiction and fantasy, progressive/feminist emphasis. Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. 15 cents a word. 3k maximum. Any sci-fi/fantasy, they like a literary bent. (psst, steinbecks!) They also like to see both traditional and experimental approaches. Response time two weeks. 

Beneath Ceaseless Skies. 6 cents a word. 10k maximum. Fantasy in secondary worlds only (it can be Earth, but drastically different—alternate history or whatever). Character focus, prefer styles that are lush yet clear, limited first or third person narration. Response time usually 2-4 weeks, can be 5-7 weeks. SFWA qualifying.

Clarkesworld. 10 cents a word up to 4000, 7 afterwards. 1-8k, preferred is 4k. Science-fiction and fantasy. Needs to be well-written and convenient to read on-screen. Appreciates rigour. No talking cats. Response time 2 days. SFWA qualifying.

Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show. 6 cents a word. Any length. Science-fiction and fantasy (along with fantastic horror). Good world-building and characterization. Clear straightforward prose. Response time three months. Yes, OSC is editor-in-chief. SFWA qualifying.

The most obnoxious thing my writing teacher taught me every story needed, that I absolutely loathed studying in the moment and that only later, after months of resisting and fighting realized she was right, was something called the causal chain.

Simply put, the causal chain is the linked cause-and-effect that must logically connect every event, reaction, and beat that takes place in your story to the ones before and after.

The Causal Chain is exhausting to go through. It is infuriating when someone points out that an event or a character beat comes out of nowhere, unmoored from events around it.

It is profoundly necessary to learn and include because a cause-and-effect chain is what allows readers to follow your story logically which means they can start anticipating what happens next, which is what is required for a writer to be able to build suspense and cognitively engage the audience, to surprise them, and to not infuriate them with random coincidences that hurt or help the characters in order to clumsily advance the author's goals.

1. Most people that submit to literary journals are cis white men. We know this because our journal has an anonymous survey about demographics for people that submit.

2. Most things that get submitted to the creative non fiction section are on the level of middle school "What I did over the summer" essays.

There is so much work from marginalized narratives in litmags these days — people lament there is no representation in media, but that disregards the progress and diversity of the works of editors and writers who help make these litmags possible. 

There is representation, and it is flourishing. They are waiting to be read. 

The Lumiere Review compiles a list of submission opportunities every month, and it are always very useful: 

https://lumierereview.com/sub-sep-oct-2021

List of Litmags that Specifically Look for Work from Marginalized Creators or is Run by Marginalized Creators:

Warning Lines: https://warninglines.com/

With Confetti: https://with-confetti.com/

Giving Room Magazine: http://www.givingroommag.com/

The Bitchin’ Kitsch: https://www.talbot-heindl.com/

Tealight Press: https://www.tealightpress.com/

Tipping the Scales: https://www.tippingthescalesjournal.co.uk/

The Winnow Magazine: https://www.thewinnowmagazine.com/

perhappened: https://www.perhappened.com/

AZE Journal: https://azejournal.com/

Honeyfire Lit: https://honeyfirelit.com/

and so much more!!

(And even if some litmags’ mission statement isn’t specifically for marginalized creators, they will always welcome these narratives.)

Over the last decade, I graduated from high school, got a bachelor’s in writing, earned an MFA in fiction, and started working as a copywriter.

In that time, I grew a lot as a writer — so I thought I’d share the lessons that helped me most along the way!

How does one from each year sound?

2010: Don’t let high expectations be a barrier to good writing

As a teenager, I had unhealthy expectations for my writing. This not only made writing painful, but also held back the quality of my work. Thankfully, in my last year of high school, I had to crank out a short story for a class, with no time to revise as I went. The result? I had fun, and ended up writing a story that was better than anything I’d written before it. That’s when I realized how toxic lofty expectations could become, if left unchecked.

2011: Good stories often depict, or inspire, change

In my first college writing workshop, our professor (of “It’s never about the bread” fame) told us that a good story often does one of two things: it either depicts a change in a character, or inspires a change in the reader. While a bit simplistic, that guidance was invaluable to me at the time. The first option gave me a clear target to aim for in workshop, while option two exposed me to the full, baffling mystery of what makes a story worth telling. 

2012: Clear, specific language brings scenes to life

As a sophomore, I fell in love with Raymond Carver’s minimalism and was particularly struck by the following description from “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”:

Mel handed me the saucer of limes. I took a section, squeezed it over my drink, and stirred the ice cubes with my finger.

The description struck me as remarkably vivid, yet lean — making me realize how a small description could breathe life into a scene when written with clear, specific language.

2013: Personal experiences fuel good writing

After years of avoiding the genre, I took my first poetry workshop as a junior, and SURPRISE. I loved it. It was the first time I’d ever really tried writing about my own experiences, and it brought an invigorating sense of reality to both my poetry and my fiction. It also inspired me to become more observant, which fed back into my writing and made me better appreciate life’s little moments.

2014: Never mow the same grass twice

Throughout college, I had a trumpet instructor who’d often say, “Michael, I hate to mow the same grass twice!” You can find a full explanation here, but long story short, he encouraged me to fix flaws in my performance immediately upon discovering them, because if you repeat mistakes, they become habits. Bad habits that only get harder to break over time.

I didn’t take his advice to heart in my music, but I did apply it to my fiction. In the coming years, it would be instrumental (ha) in honing my craft.

2015: How to tie plot to character growth

In high school, my stories were all plot. In college, my stories were all character. During the first year of my MFA, I learned how to merge the two, by writing narrators with:

Emotions that drive actions,

Actions that trigger consequences, and

Consequences that compel growth.

This structure is simple, but effective, particularly when your character is motivated by a clear emotional struggle. More about this structure here.

2016: Write the stories that excite you

Throughout college, I almost exclusively wrote non-genre stories, because I wanted to pursue particular goals in that space. I learned a lot in the process, but it wasn’t until the second year of my MFA that I realized my stories themselves had lost a certain spark. So I switched back to writing the genre stories I loved. Like an old friend, the spark came back — and the writing got a lot more fun.

2017: Accept that you’ll never catch up to your expectations

The great irony of being a writer is that the more you hone your craft, the further away “perfection” seems. Why? Because as we improve, we not only overcome weaknesses, but also discover the flaws we never knew existed. So we fix those flaws. Discover new ones. Fix them. And so on. It’s a frustrating, never-ending cycle, and it wasn’t until my final year of the MFA that I was able to fully accept it — finding comfort in the fact that my dissatisfaction was a sign of growth.

2018: Be willing to let stories go

In my first year as a copywriter, the fast pace of agency life quickly taught me the importance of knowing when to “let go” of my writing. At work, it was because I had deadlines. But in fiction, I realized I couldn’t keep revising the same stories forever, when others were waiting to be written. “Art is never finished, only abandoned,” said Leonardo da Vinci, and it’s true. Our stories will never be perfect, so it’s our responsibility to decide when it’s time to cut the cord.

2019: If you want to write meaningful stories, start with what’s important to you

After my fiction professor gave that brief explanation (back in 2011) of what made a good, meaningful story, I became obsessed with finding a clearer answer. Something to grasp onto to guide my writing.

But this past year, I realized it was a bit of a fool’s errand. The things that make a story worth telling are incredibly subjective and different for everyone — naturally arising from their backgrounds, desires, fears, and more.

You can’t predict it. Or at least, you can’t predict it well.

So you just need to look inward. To find what you think is important.

And then write.

2020: TBD

Cheers to a new decade, everybody! May we keep honing our craft and fill the years to come with incredible stories.

— — —

First, let’s get some definitions out of the way: A twitter pitch party is a scheduled event in which pitching authors post eye-catching summaries of their work and agents ‘like’ the tweets they want to see queries from. It does not take the place of the query - after an agent likes your tweet, use whatever format they prefer to send in your query (and be sure to mention that it is from a tweet they liked, as some agents participate in pitch parties while being closed to regular queries). BEFORE YOU PARTICIPATE, BE SURE TO HAVE:

A polished, ready-to-go manuscript -You want your MS to be as publishable as possible. This does not mean perfect, but it does mean a complete story, preferably one you’ve received feedback on, and line edited. This is your baby, make them shine.

A good query - Queries are hard even for seasoned writers, but you need to try to make it as good as possible. Get feedback from friends and writing groups, use the Luke Skywalker method, test it out on (willing) strangers on Reddit. Your query needs to make sense and be interesting. This will be the hardest thing you’ll have to write, until you write the synopsis.

About that synopsis - You will have to write the synopsis sooner or later. I’m sorry.

An eye-catching twitter pitch - This will be easier to write than the query, it just won’t seem like it. Follow the rule of three - what does your character want, what stands in their way, and what do they need to do to get it. (I’ll get more in the weeds about twitter pitches in Part 2)

Not all pitch parties are made equal! New ones pop up each year, but with more and more pitch parties, most agents stick to the big ones. Some of the most popular are:

#DVpit

#pitmad

#PitDark

#PBPitch

#revpit

This doesn’t mean smaller pitch parties are illegitimate! If you’re writing for a niche genre, they might be just right for you.

All pitch parties run differently, but the best rule of thumb is to pitch as early as you can, pitch as many times as allowed, and pay attention to what pitches seem to be getting the most traction - you can always learn from those. Don’t get discouraged and give up - I didn’t get my agent until my third #pitmad, and I know many who didn’t get any hits for years until they finally found the pitch that worked. Also remember, it’s just another tool to get an agent. It’s not your only option, and you’re not less of a writer for not being able to tweet a pitch right off the bat.

Don’ts

Pitch ‘Jewish girl falls in love with Nazi.’ There were no less than three of these the last year and they were all met with ridicule and scorn. Seriously, don’t.

Pitch your erotic thriller for #FaithPit. Be sure the pitch party you’re participating in is appropriate to your book. At best, it’s an embarrassing mistake, and at worst, agents do talk and people do get blacklisted. Don’t troll pitch parties.

Let the scammers trick you. A lot of unscrupulous folks like to hang around pitch parties and snag hopeful authors. Research every hit you get carefully. If it smells fishy, it probably is fishy.

Reply with critiques to other peoples’ pitches. If you gotta subtweet, subtweet, but best to keep it to your discord.

Break the rules. Some pitch contests allow retweeting, some don’t. Prepare ahead of time.

idk if anyone will find this useful, but this is how i go about planning my stories. i mostly write fantasy, so that’s what this is most applicable to. but it could work with other genres too.

so there’s three major components to a story: the characters, the plot, and the world. creating them individually is the easy part, but they all connect and affect each other in different ways. (like you can’t have a character who loves peaches and eats them every day if they live a peasant in a region that doesn’t grow peaches, for example.)

so i created a cheat sheet to help connect all three components together.

1) the world creates the characters.

this is related to the peach example above. the characters should be a direct result of the environment they grew up in and the environment they currently live in.

2) the characters are limited by the world.

also related to the peaches. characters can’t do anything outside of what the rules of their surroundings and universe allow, such as eating peaches when they’re not available. this also applies for magic users. they can’t have unlimited magic, so keep in mind what you want out of both the characters and the world when creating magic systems.

3) the characters carry the plot.

we’ve all heard it before: “bad characters can’t carry a good plot. good characters can carry a bad plot.” but we all like a good plot anyway. try to make sure you’re not giving your characters too heavy or too light of a plot to carry.

4) the plot pushes the characters.

if nothing in the plot happens, your characters will remain static forever. if you struggle with plots, try starting with what character development you want to happen, then go from there.

5) the plot depends on the world.

you can’t overthrow the evil government if there isn’t one. think of what your world needs most and what your plot is centered around, and fit those two together.

6) the world is changed by the plot.

even if your plot is centered around something most of your world would call “insignificant”, the world will still experience some change from the plot. either the evil government will be gone, or maybe that one teacher is now way more careful about keeping an eye on the test key. either way, the world will be different from now on.

final note: usually people will be able to write one or two of the components with ease, but don’t know where to go from there. i personally can’t write plots, but thinking this way has really helped me actually make a story out of the world and characters because i looked at what i needed from what i had. i really hope this can help you too! happy writing!

tl;dr this is a cheat sheet to help anyone who struggles with writing one or two of what i consider the three major components to a story.

First take a standard rectangular piece of paper (I used one from a small notebook which I ripped out then cut the holes off)

Then fold in half touching the shorter side to the opposite shorter side.

Fold again making the new shorter side touch the other new shorter side

I did this one more time, but this time I unfolded it right after to get back to where it was only folded twice. It should have left a crease in the paper.

Using this crease, fold the corners up alongside it to look like this

This are also going to be unfolded, but this time you're going to push in alongside the triangular folds you just made and undid.

Doing this once will result in this

Do the other side of you haven't already to get this

You'll open these newly created flap to change which parts are touching

Leaving you with this

Then you start pulling the top "tabs" down

Do both sides to get the final folded form

Decorate as desired.

If any of your asks can be found on this page, I probably won’t answer. (Sorry!)

I also don’t really answer asks that can’t be applied universally to everyone; I can’t tell you how to write your story! Sometimes you have to be able to work out issues in your WIP on your own; it helps you become a better writer!

There’s A LOT more than this, so if you need anything feel free to check out my answering asks tag!

Once Upon A Time (Starting)

How to Outline (For Short Stories and Longer Works!)

How to Get Into Writing Fiction

How to Overcome Writer’s Block

How to Choose Which POV to Use (Source @evans-writing)

How to Write First Person POV

How to Write Certain Tenses

Is Your Story Better as a Fanfic or an Original Work?

Stuff Happens (Plot)

How to Write A Scene (AKA get through the boring parts) (Source: Jerry Jenkins)

How to Write a Fight Scene

How to Write Gangster/Mafia Fiction

How to Make Your Story Longer

How to Make Your Story Less Sad

How to Make Your Story Scarier

How to Write About School

How to Write About Medieval Europe

How to Write an Apocolypse

How to Write Magic

How to Write a Missing Person’s Report

How to Write Pain

How to Write a Sub-Plot

How to Write a Terrorist Attack

How to Write a Villain Redemption Arc

How to Write Switching POVs in Fanfiction

How to End Your Story (Source: Now Novel)

Subverting Common Fanfiction AUs and Plot Ideas

Descriptions + Dialogue

How to Write A Realistic Argument

How to Expand Your Vocabulary and Utilize English Idioms/Figures of Speech

How to Write a Smooth, Rhythmic Narrative

How to Write Dialogue

How to Avoid Purple Prose

How to Balance Description and Dialogue

Prologues and Info Dumping

Master List of Speech Tags

Characters (Who you will inevitably wind up torturing)

Regarding When to Change Your Character’s Name

How to Write Complex Characters

How to Write (Good) Female Characters

How to Write a Villain

Villain Motivations

Ways To Tell if Your Characters are Too Similar (How To Cut Characters)

How to Write Young Children and Babies

How to Write Siblings

Love Stuff

How to Write a Romance

How to Write Falling In Love

How to Write Healthy Relationships

How to Write Makeout Scenes

How to Write Toxic Relationships

How to Write Teasing in a Romantic Relationship

Fantastic Beasts (And How to Write Them)

How to Write Shape-shifters

How to Write Characters With Wings

How to Write Angels (A History of Angelic Lore)

How to Write Characters with Tails

How to Write Zombies

How to Write Gods, Goddesses, and Dieties

How to Write Animals in Battle

How to Write a Hive Mind

Diversity

I am a straight, white, cisgender woman and shouldn’t give you any advice but to DEFINITELY include diversity! Here are some great blogs for you to follow!

@writingwithcolor

@yourbookcouldbegayer

@scriptautistic

@actuallyblind

@cripplecharacters

Writing Deaf of Hard of Hearing Characters

Miscellaneous

My Writing Playlist

How to Become a Writing Advice Blog

How to Write Constructive Criticism

Books You Should Get As a Writer

Writing Memes

Currently I’m getting a lot of asks that can be answered here, and I just wanted to remind everyone that I can’t get around to answering your ask if any of these posts can answer it. I wish I could, and I hope this helps!