Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Thursday, August 13, 2015

You are invited...

Submission Guidelines* for The Path
 
The Path to Publication Group publishes the literary publication – The Path. You are invited to submit short stories, essays, novellas, book reviews and poems for inclusion in the semi-annual issues.
The theme for each issue varies. Please consult our website for the most current information: www.pathtopublication.net and www.thepathmagazine.com. Past contributors will receive a call for submissions by e-mail, automatically.
1) Short stories and essays – over 2500 words
2) Poetry – 1 page
Please polish your manuscripts to the best of your ability and, of course, have someone else edit your work before sending to Path to Publication. Do not format your work: no page numbers, no headers or footers, no footnotes, no paragraph indentations (skip a line for paragraph spacing). Manuscripts must be submitted in Microsoft Word or RTF form. Font: Times New Roman – size 12. All submissions must be submitted electronically, as e-mail attachments, to: mjnickum@thepathmagazine.com.
Deadline for Issue #9 is May 31, 2015
All rights are retained by the author, and there will be no compensation for accepted work at this time*.

*Because we are staffed by volunteers, we can only compensate our writers in exposure to our audience. Our columnists enjoy great publicity for their own blogs, books, websites, and projects. Many find great reward in doing something good for the world of literature and literacy. You may also purchase add space to further promote your work.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Eight rules for writing fiction:




1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them, so the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

- Vonnegut, Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), 9-10.