It seems clear that what you all want to know is, “How do I get published in Ploughshares?” So, lets start at the beginning. Literally.
If you want to get out of the slush pile, one of the worst things you can do is write a lackluster first paragraph. Don’t make the mistake of thinking: the really fine writing starts on page three of my story, and I’m sure they’ll appreciate it when they get there. By page three, I’m frustrated. If you want out of the slush pile, you must prove it from the first paragraph, from the first line.
In Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing, Debra Sparks says, “[A] lot of fine openings…make you think, ‘Wait, that can’t be right.’ They offer a moment of confusion that is interesting rather than discouraging…Often enough, slightly curious sentences deliver an image or line so fantastic that we feel the promise of a good story ahead.”
You can be sure that every manuscript selected for Ploughshares delivers on Sparks’ insight. Look at the first line from Joshua Howes’ story Grace in the latest issue: “It’s been a month now she’s been tutoring a dead girl on Park Avenue.” First sentence, first paragraph. I read hundreds of stories last year and I still remember that opening line.
Ploughshares receives over a thousand manuscripts a month and the reality is you must shine from the get go. It doesn’t have to be a killer first line but something special has to happen in that first paragraph. The 2012 winner of the Emerging Writers’ Fiction contest, Jasmine Sawers’, first line in The Culling was lovely — “The night boasts the first edge of an autumnal chill” — but it was the sum and total of the first paragraph that illustrates exactly what Sparks is talking about. If you haven’t read the story yet, you should.
I’ve read that when she was fifteen or sixteen, Joan Didion used to type out the stories of Ernest Hemingway to learn how the sentences worked. I think that is a helpful exercise. It doesn’t have to be Hemingway, but you should have a go-to author, one who speaks to your sensibilities and whose sentences you admire and aspire to. My go-to author is Flannery O’Connor. Look at your author’s openings; write them out; really get a feel for the sentences, and then go back to your own work. Not with a mind to line-edit but to really get dirty and make global edits. Didion in that same interview says, “What’s so hard about the first sentence is that you’re stuck with it. Everything else is going to flow out of that sentence.” Don’t make that first line and first paragraph a throw away. If your opening does not push your story forward right from the start, get rid of it. If the fine writing starts on page three, then start your story on page three.
Think about it practically. When a reader sits down to read manuscripts they carve out a few hours of their day to read five, maybe ten, manuscripts. That can sometimes be upward of two hundred pages. Your first paragraph is your introduction to this reader, and you must deliver the promise of a good story to get out of their pile. (Of course, you must also keep delivering to ultimately get passed on to the guest editor, but without a strong opening the rest is moot.)
The writing life is one filled with rejections, but those who keep at it succeed. I have written stories thinking finally, my best work, this is it. I send it out, get rejected, get discouraged, and I put it away for a while. Months later, when I approach the story with distance and with an eye for revision, it is often clear where I can make improvements. So keep writing, and send us your best work. Remember, you have to play to win.
Love this! And the best first paragraph begins with the best first line, right? My favorite first line is from Charlotte’s Web. . . “Where’s Papa going with that axe?” Suspense from the get-go.
Ha! That’s funny, Kate. I just started reading Charlotte’s Web to my son two nights ago and I thought the same exact thing. You dive right into it. But it is so rare to see that in the slush pile.
Thanks, Kate. Charlotte’s Webb leads right into my next post which has the absolute best last lines too-It is not often someone comes along that’s a true friend and good writer. Charlotte was both.
Thanks! I knew that! I just needed to hear it again. Ahhh, that’s better. I deleted the first three paragraphs of my novel.
Good job, Phyllis. The chopping isn’t easy but generally the right thing to do.
Obviously, this post doesn’t apply to James Franco’s fiction, right P-shares?
James Franco’s piece didn’t come in through the slush, so no.
You should read our post about how our submissions work: http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/behind-the-scenes-at-ploughshares/ — 50% of the work we publish comes from the slush, and 50% is solicited by the guest editor.
Yeah, I know, but it’s problematic when your guest editors select work that would have no chance of clearing the slush. I read his story, “The Deer,” and it violates much of the advice here.
There needs be a checks-and-balances system that allows you to stand up to guest editors and say “no” in special cases, like, say, if a guest editor selects a Kim Kardishan story to appear in Ploughshares.
It’s hard to take this advice seriously knowing that a celeb dilettante found his way in your journal despite this “advice.” Those of submitting through the slush expect a certain level of competency from the people lucky enough to be solicited, especially considering their privileged status.
Hi Michael — Our perspective is that the guest editor’s criteria isn’t always our criteria. I’m not going to argue the merits of any particular author because no one inherently doesn’t “deserve” to be published by us. After all, would you say these things about an unknown author who wrote a piece you didn’t like? I’m guessing you would just accept that it wasn’t to your liking and move on. Everyone has a different aesthetic: there’s a lot of stuff that one guest editor may love and another would hate. That is the beauty of the guest editor policy, and at the end of the day it means we publish a more diverse selection of work.
(please excuse the typos in the previous post)
“After all, would you say these things about an unknown author who wrote a piece you didn’t like?”–Andrea
Not really comparable, Andrea, since everyone knows the unknown writer has to bring it with her writing, rather than her bio…and everyone knows that this particular writer is only published because he’s a celeb. It’s not a matter of mere taste, and anyone who is being honest with herself knows this, whether she admits it or not.
My final comment on the matter.
With all due respect, I didn’t expect to see a sentence like this on the Pshares blog (bio for Sarah Banse)…”She was named one of Boston’s Top MFA Student’s by Kneerim and Williams Literary Agency.”
Carolyn, you are so right. Mea Culpa. I should have taken that class on copyediting but thank you for taking the time to read my bio so carefully.
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