The marathon was today. Sunday. In Pittsburgh. A warm but overcast day. Part of the Pittsburgh Marathon went through Bloomfield, Pittsburgh’s “Little Italy” which is right next door to the neighborhood I live in which is Oakland where the main campus of the University of Pittsburgh is located. So, I decided to go and get myself a 40.oz bottle of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer to wash down my lima beans and ham.
It was around 2:20 pm when I hit Edmond Street and Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield. The runners were still running. Being a flash fiction writer and a blogger I stopped and watched the race for a while. A stage was set up in front of the Starbucks Coffee Shop. A band played a Doobie Brothers song. I forget which one.
I walked across Liberty Avenue to Armand’s and got my 40 of Pabst and walked back to my apartment…
For some reason that little outing brought to mind one of the flash fiction stories that’s in the sidebar on the right. We all know that girlfriends and wives perform head on their men to get them off. That’s what the flash fiction story Nude Conversation is about.
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The Main Reasons For Rejection
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This publication receives a lot of submissions. The Pittsburgh Flash Fiction Gazette is constantly on the look out for flash fiction writing talent. What are the main reasons for rejecting a story for publication in this magazine?
Hello hello hello, my brother and sister bloggers, writers and Flash Fiction Fanatics. The Old Soldier knows the thrill of publication and the agony of rejection. Rejection is one of the reason for publishing this blog. I wanted there to be at least one more publication where a writer had a real chance of being published.
But even with the best of intentions, an editor has to reject some stories for some very basic reasons. Of course, poor writing is one of them. The fact that the writer obviously did not read and follow the submission guidelines is another.
Here at The Gazette, the main reason a story is rejected is because the story reads more like an essay instead of a piece of fiction. In other words, there is too much telling and not enough showing. To put it another way, the author does not let the characters of the story interact with each other enough.
Think of a flash fiction story as a play. When an author does too much telling, it’s as if the playwright walks on stage, sits down and tells the audience about the play. Then the playwright walls off, the curtain comes down and that’s it. The play is over.
In “show don’t tell,” the the playwright comes on stage, makes a few very brief remarks, walks off stage and then the actors come on and they act out the play.
“Show don’t tell” is the kind of stories I want to publish here at The Gazette.
So, when you submit a flash fiction story to this magazine be sure to read and follow the submission guidelines, and be sure to “show don’t tell” your story.
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