Today on the blog, I welcome back speculative fiction author and editor at Metastellar Magazine, E. S. Foster, who provides insight on how to impress lit mag editors. Read carefully, my fellow scribes, she is an editor, after all!

3 Ways to Get Editors Invested in Your Story

When writing a short story, you need to make every word count. That means giving your readers the basic pieces of a story, including a character, their conflict, and the setting where everything takes place, right away. Because if editors aren't interested in your story from the first few lines, they're going to pass on it.

I've read for several literary journals, and I've passed on a lot of stories because they made the mistake of misusing their first few lines. They didn't get me invested because they had slow beginnings, or they info-dumped everything onto the first page, or they began with philosophical musings. None of these things work to get editors and readers excited about what your story is about. To keep editors glued to your story and wanting more, check out these three tips below!

Avoid Slow Beginnings

This is the big one.

For starters, editors and readers for lit journals have a lot on their plates. Many big-name journals receive hundreds of submissions throughout the year. They don't have time to read all of them all the way through. Most of the time, they look to see if the piece is written well and if the story interests them. If they don't, they pass.

A good story that gets noticed out of the slush pile does one key thing 99% of the time: it doesn't have a slow beginning. What do I mean by a slow beginning? One that includes the following:

1. A bunch of exposition that lets everyone know what the story is about. (That gives everything away and doesn't allow readers to get invested in what's happening.)

   
   

2. A story that provides a lot of details about who the character is or where the story takes place. Readers can learn throughout the story! (Imagine a story that goes "Bill lived in Denver, where it rained most of the time. He worked for an insurance company, and today in Denver it was raining...." Let readers learn about who the character is and where he is through description and action. Move the story forward at all times!

   
   

3. Philosophical musings. Sometimes, writers start preaching sermons about their work and its importance. (Think lines like "They were in love, but in the end, love was not enough. This is a story of love..." and then the story begins. Readers recognize what a story wants to talk about when they read. Focus on creating a plot, then let everything else unfold.

So if you want to avoid a slow beginning, AVOID ALL OF THESE. Introduce a character, a setting, and a problem in the first paragraph, then build from there.

Make Everything Clear from the First Paragraph

With slow beginnings, this also makes room for murky details. I just mentioned that when you start with a character, a setting, and a conflict, you cover all your bases in the first paragraph. If not, your story suffers. If readers don't know what's happening and who they need to care about from the beginning, they might just put down the story!

To get readers invested from the beginning, make sure it's clear what is what. Introduce your main protagonist, where they are, and what their problem is within the first few sentences. To do so, ask yourself:

1. What is my main character doing at the beginning of the story? How can you exhibit their personality through their actions and dialogue?

   
   

2. Where is your character, and where does your story take place? Are they on a starship, in a dorm room, crossing the desert? Add descriptions that tip your readers off about where everyone is.

   
   

3. What problem needs to be solved? What conflict is the main character facing in their setting? Next, you need to figure out how your character solves their problem, and that's the heart of the story.

Know What the Editors Want Most

I can't stress this last one enough. Every literary journal is different. When you send a piece in, make sure you know what the editor wants in the first place so you aren't sending in something they're likely to pass on. Some journals might include information for each of the major editors who run the journal, detailing what stories they look for, their pet peeves, and more.

So ask yourself before you submit:

1. Does the editor of this journal like my type of story? (If you send in a cozy mystery to an editor who wants epic fantasy, then they'll likely pass on it!)

   
   

2. Does it follow the editor's instructions down to the letter, including the way the story is formatted?

   
   

3. Do the other stories the journal published look like mine? (By this, I mean, does the story handle action, character development, and more in a certain way? Does it "sound" like previously published stories?)

Following these steps will significantly increase your chances of editors noticing your story. So keep writing and don't give up. Happy writing!

Bio: E. S. Foster is a sci-fi and fantasy author, blogger, and editor for Metastellar Magazine. Her work has been published in Alien Dimensions, Sci-fi Shorts, Antipodean SF, and others. You can find her blog at fosteryourwriting.com and her author website at esfosterauthor.wordpress.com.