Out of the Gate, Catching the Reader Quickly

As an editor, I am constantly amazed at how many stories come across my desk that fail to catch my eye early. For those writers who are already well established, this is not such a great problem, though I can tell you that they generally do not have an issue with this (hence the reason they are well established). But for new, and maybe even not so new, writers who are submitting to the dreaded slush pile, this can be particularly problematic.

Allow me to explain how the slush pile works. The slush pile is the general unsolicited submission queue that continually builds up over time. There is no end to this heap of stories, as most pro or semi pro market will get hundreds of submissions each month. It is up to the slush editors to review this pile and forward those stories that are crafted especially well to their senior editors, who then, while considering their small space for publication, choose from the shortlisted stories. The slush editors will most likely only read a paragraph or two from a short story and a page or two from a novel manuscript, and if the piece of fiction does not grab their attention, then they will reject it, most often with a form letter rejection note.

It’s a harsh reality, but the truth, nonetheless.

So, as a writer whose work goes into the slush pile, we all have to ask ourselves what it is about our particular story that makes it stand out against the endless hordes of other works already awaiting review, especially when the editor is only going to look at such a small portion. I can personally tell you that the concept of your story is not that original; someone has already written a story similar sometime in the past. So, it is all about presentation.

I will paste some examples below of first paragraphs from stories; some are classics and some are from Aberrant Dreams:

• I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer; and shall cast myself from this garret window into the squalid street below. Do not think from my slavery to morphine that I am a weakling or a degenerate. When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess, though never fully realise, why it is that I must have forgetfulness or death (Lovecraft, 1919).

• Tucker Juergenson woke up screaming, hands clutching spasmodically at clinging, salty sheets, just as he did every morning (Sutter, 2007).

• ...A young woman in a shapeless overcoat, clutching a brown paper bag of little red caplets, stuck in the revolving door of a tall glass building: Miranda Martineau suddenly found herself on the street with no home and no memory (Somtow, 2007).

• Over shadowy spires and gleaming towers lay the ghostly darkness and silence that runs before dawn. Into a dim alley, one of a veritable labyrinth of mysterious winding ways, four masked figures came hurriedly from a door which a dusky hand furtively opened. They spoke not but went swiftly into the gloom, cloaks wrapped closely about them; as silently as the ghosts of murdered men they disappeared in the darkness. Behind them a sardonic countenance was framed in the partly opened door; a pair of evil eyes glittered malevolently in the gloom (Howard, 1932).

As you can see from the above examples, each of these writers adds enough mystery and intrigue to force a reader to read further. We know from the text that something is going on, and that mystery will be revealed if we continue reading. Though this does not guarantee a sale, in and of itself, it is by doing such as this that we catch the slush editor’s eye.

That is perhaps the first and most important step, in the end.

Sincerely,

Joe :-)

Sources
H. P. Lovecraft, "Dagon", The Vagrant, 1919
James Lafond Sutter, “Dreamcatching”, Aberrant Dreams, 2007
S. P. Somtow, “Little Red Caplets, Aberrant Dreams, 2007
Robert E. Howard, “The Phoenix on the Sword”, Weird Tales, 1932