The Dark Crooked Alley of Literary Fiction
If mainstream writing is a high-speed, six-lane highway of action, multiple plot lines and a mass of characters with the potential for collisions, literary fiction is a dark, crooked alley where time slows and visions burst in the mind to create powerful emotions--because anything can happen, anything can appear from behind domestic devices as discarded jewels in the everyday bins of humanity.
I decided a couple of weeks ago to take the turn-off from mainstream writing for a time and return to writing short stories and submit them for publication.
Twenty-some years ago, I regularly submitted short stories to all the literary magazines--The Paris Review, Fiction, The Kenyon Review, The Sun and ZYZZAVA. One-hundred percent of the time I was rejected. I looked back to find out why I was rejected by re-reading those stories that received lovely, concise notes from the publishers that began with, "Thank you for your submission, but...."
When last I wandered down that winding alley, I was too eager to find the next cross street and spent little time discovering the depth of style needed to write literary fiction. I was rejected because I didn't study the magazines. I read a few issues, but I failed to find magazines that fit my style, genre and level of literary function. I sent funny stories to serious, literary magazines--the kind of magazines that avoid too much dialogue because--I don't know--quotation marks just aren't literary, I suppose. Some of them can be a bit hoity-toity; not everyone likes to read literary fiction. I find literary fiction to be descriptive, expressive, emotional, intuitive, picturesque, flavored with depth but too often striven to chauvinism in its quest for an esoteric readership. Most of my writing does not fit the literary paradigm. But for training my brain to write with emotional thoughtfulness and to create complex characters that I can plant into a narrower storyline, it's a rewarding process.
So I'm approaching this journey with a new perspective and vision. Alleys are narrow, but I'm envisioning them now with multi-story apartments rising on each side, filled with every stripe and color of person, each with their own space and slice of life.
I began by researching what was being published and I discovered that there are still a host of print literary magazines as well as several online magazines.
I discovered a list of literary magazines at:
http://www.everywritersresource.com/topliterarymagazines.html
I also discovered online literary magazines that pay; here are just three of my favorites:
The Pedestal Magazine - http://www.thepedestalmagazine.com/ - This bi-monthly, free-subscription magazine started publishing in 2000 and is funded by the North Carolina Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts. They publish poetry, fiction, reviews and interviews; pays $40 per poem and $.08 a word for fiction, but, accept in rare instances, they publish only previously unpublished works. The editors informed me that the stories I posted here in The American Writer are considered published works and would not be considered for publication in their magazine. So I have to write something new to submit. I guess that's a good thing!
Carve Magazine - http://www.carvezine.com/ - This no-subscription, quarterly, Dallas, Texas-based lit-mag is rated No. 11 on EveryWritersResource.com's Top 20 Online Lit Mags and was named in honor of the short story writer, Raymond Carver, the master of the "minimalist" form. Carve publishes short stories and photography. Their Submissions page reads: "We want emotional jeopardy, soul, and honesty. Craft and control are tantamount to our connection to the characters." They are not accepting submissions at this time, but will resume in January, 2011. Carve pays contributors "as funds allow." Compensation varies between $20-$50 for a story. All authors are paid the same rate per story within a single issue. I like that I can submit my story online, too; in January, they will use a new submission service called Submishmash that allows authors to track their submissions online.
Wag's Revue - http://www.wagsrevue.com/ - This free quarterly started in 2009 and publishes poetry, short fiction, essays and interviews. They are not accepting submissions for the magazine at this time; instead, Wag’s Revue invites writers to enter its Winter 2011 Contest in fiction, poetry, and essays. Submissions of electronic writing are encouraged in any of their listed genres. First prize receives $1,000 and publication in Wag’s Revue; second prize is $500, third is $100, and all submissions are considered for publication. The contest deadline is January 15, and winners will be announced with the publication of Issue 9 in April 2011. There is no limit to the number of entries an author may submit, but each entry must be accompanied with its own submission fee of $20. I don't know what they ordinarily pay, since their guidelines only addresses the contest at this time. However, I read several of their published stories and was quite impressed with the quality. All their issues may be accessed by clicking on the cover of the issue and are available all the time online free of charge.
So. I have my work cut out for me. Between re-formatting my play American Right for submission for publication at the two top play publishers, editing my novel The Plunge, marketing and seeking an agent for my self-published novel Worlds Apart, restraining my eagerness to begin work again on my newest novel Cherry Road, I am writing and submitting short stories. I'm getting practically nothing done, of course, because I'm torn between too many lovers.
But I'm most excited right now about writing the short story; its slower, narrower style beckons me from the wide stretch of lengthy, faster-paced mainstream writing. But the detour from the six-lane race down the freeway to the dark alley of literary fiction is a welcome reminder that writing at 15 miles per hour will be a good way to hone my skills of conciseness, fluidity and style when I return to writing at 65-miles-an-hour.
Posted by Tom Eubanks at 11/29/2010 11:34 AM 
Categories: Short Fiction, On Writing
Tags: Essay Less is More Storytelling Working It
Categories: Short Fiction, On Writing
Tags: Essay Less is More Storytelling Working It
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