Writing in the science fiction or fantasy genre offers a unique opportunity to explore our reality...
In our November competition, teen writers have just 400-1000 words to impress and influence their readers. "The short story is a hit-and-run," says Guest Judge & author Jamie Quatro. "Bam, one sitting, and you’re knocked sideways, gasping for breath."
Read on to learn more about Jamie Quatro and her advice for winning the Short Story Competition!
When sitting down to write a story, where do you start? With a character? Or a plot point? An image, a message, a real-life memory?
My stories almost always begin with an image, something tactile and tinged with strangeness or mystery. My latest novel began with the image of a girl with zip-tied wrists in the backseat of a car. Who is the girl? Why the zip ties? What kind of car, and why is she in the back seat? I begin to write into the image to discover the story. I don’t come up with a story first, and then use images to tell it—that’s the surefire way to write a boring, predictable story. You want to be surprised by what you’re writing. If you’re not surprised, your reader won’t be either.
You’ve written both short stories and novels. What are the peculiarities of each genre?
“A novel wants to befriend you; a short story, almost never.” That’s a quote from Joy Williams, one of our greatest living short story writers. I think this is true. The short story is a hit-and-run: bam, one sitting, and you’re knocked sideways, gasping for breath. The novel beckons and cajoles. It also wants to knock you sideways, but it’s going to take its time doing it.
Now you’re working on a short story collection! How is it going? Can you tell us about your writing process?
The new collection is set in Tucson, where I grew up—the material is pretty close to the bone. As far as my process, I wish I had a good answer! I’m in and out of town, on tour with Two-Step Devil, so right now I’m writing in the interstices. (At the moment I’m sitting in the waiting room while my youngest son gets his wisdom teeth out!) My advice to young writers is: forget whatever ideas you have about ‘the writing process.’ Write whenever and wherever you can. And remember that revision is where the real writing work begins.
For this competition, young writers will produce a piece of short fiction. Do you have any suggestions for writers who would like to submit this piece or future writing to literary journals?
First piece of advice is to read the journals you’re submitting to. It’s important to know what kinds of things they publish. Otherwise you’re wasting your time, and the editorial staff’s time. For example, The Yale Review is one of the best literary journals in the country, but they publish very little fiction. I wouldn’t know that if I hadn’t read multiple issues.
I would also say, make sure your story is airtight. Has it been through multiple revisions? Have you shown it to your trusted readers? Once you’re sure it’s as polished and perfect as you can make it (and of course every story will feel like a failure to capture your original vision; all you can do is make sure you’ve failed as best you can), then submit it widely. Don’t be shy about simultaneous submissions! Just put a note in your cover letter that you’re submitting to multiple journals, and that you will withdraw the piece immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere.
What are you looking for in a winning entry? Any other advice for the writers, especially those who are new to the genre?
A lot of young writers try to sound like the writers they admire, but I always tell my students: don’t be afraid to write in your own voice! I’m a sucker for voice-driven stories. I’m also looking for fresh use of language at the sentence level. If a story has a wild and intricate plot but the sentences are leaden or filled with clichés, I won’t keep reading. Same with character: some stories are conceptually great, but the characters are stereotypes. People in real life are always surprisingly complex if you get to know them. Give your “evil” character an altruistic moment in which he does something selfless; give your “good” character a vice that keeps getting in her way. That’ll catch my attention.
About the Guest Judge: Jamie Quatro is the author of I Want to Show You More, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award and the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize, and Fire Sermon, a Book of the Year for The Economist, San Francisco Chronicle, LitHub, Bloomberg, and the Times Literary Supplement. Her most recent novel, Two-Step Devil, was named a Most Anticipated Book of the Fall by Vulture, LitHub, and Goodreads, and was Editor’s Choice in The New York Times Book Review. A contributing editor at Oxford American, Quatro’s fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s and Ploughshares. She is the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo and teaches in the Sewanee School of Letters MFA program. Quatro lives with her family in Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Photo credit: Stephen Alvarez)
