Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Style Over Substance

I'm noticing an interesting trend in some of the submissions I've received for Apollo's Lyre over the past several months. Instead of just worrying about telling a story in 2,000 words or fewer (no easy feat in and of itself), the authors use different stylistic devices. One was formatted like a poem. Another told in one long paragraph (it was not, however, actually only one paragraph).

Where is this coming from? Do they think it gives them an edge? Is there a website out there giving this advice?

To quote my heroine, Miss Snark: "Just follow the damn directions." Read my article on what I'm looking for in a submission. Keep it under 2,000 words. Have a beginning, a middle and an end. Tell an interesting story. Run spell check.

I won't even start about the "Dear editors" I get when my name is right there on the submission page.

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