I've never written a short story. It's not that I think I can't handle the length. I'm pretty sure I can. But I look at what's being published in online zines, which seems to be the way to go these days if you're a science fiction or fantasy writer, and I draw two conclusions.
The first conclusion I draw is that I have to write in a lyrical or slightly obscure style in order to catch an editor's attention. I have a hard time doing so. My natural voice is wry and sarcastic and I'm nearly incapable of writing serious stories. Silliness and laughter kind of creep in and there's not much I can do to stop them, if I want to be true to myself. (Not being true to myself has resulted in Bad Things in the past. I'm not going there again if I can help it.)
The second conclusion I draw is that there's no market for funny fantasy or sci-fi, at least for short stories. Part of me believes that there's no point in writing short stories (which will be funny, because of who I am) and submitting them and continually getting rejected, when I could instead be putting my energy into writing funny novels that have a better chance of publication.
To be fair, I haven't looked at every zine, or every issue of the zines I know of, so there's probably some fiction out there that's more my style. All I know is that the bulk of the web-published fiction I've encountered hasn't grabbed me, doesn't interest me, and seems reasonably alien—and that book-published shorts don't tend to be much better. The best stuff I've encountered have been good stories, but not particularly memorable, and not anything I'd actively make others read. Most of it … I don't even get two paragraphs in, and that's forcing myself.
(To also be fair, I haven't gone looking for zines or anthologies very much, because so much of what I've come across hasn't interested me.)
I know I need to write and publish short stories if I want to increase my chances of getting a book deal. or heck, even an agent. But where to send my writing? Who wants humor, satire, and weird ways of looking at the world? Zines don't seem to want my stuff, if I can go by what they publish, and anthologies … I'm not actually sure if they take unpublished writers or not. I suspect largely not.
So basically, this is a call for help. Does anyone know of places that publish humorous sci-fi or fantasy? Does anyone have good humorous shorts to inspire or encourage me? Does anyone have words of advice for a beginning writer who wants to get published?
1 comments:
I personally don't know any place to submit humorous short stories for sci-fi/fantasy, but I know there must be a market for them somewhere. I'd certainly read them, and I can't be the only one.
Also, although having a platform may help you a little with the query process, I've read with increasing frequency that if your story is compelling enough, you won't need a platform. Many agents love to launch new authors. If you can find a spot to get short stories published, great! But don't get too worked up about it.
(I'm not speaking from experience, since I've neither queried nor submitted stories to magazines yet, but the advice feels sound. And I hope it's the case.)
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