Thinking about What Makes a Story

I received a rejection this week telling me that while what I wrote was good it didn’t have a story.

I wasn’t sure how to take this as I felt it had a definite story. It’s never a good thing when I doubt myself and what I create. It made my entire day pretty crap and made me rethink what I was doing in that story in the first place.

I was talking to a friend who also received a rejection in the same vein and we both are wondering what’s wrong with subtlety? What is blatantly obvious to us is being missed in the literary magazine reading process.

I understand that there are hundreds of submissions, and that they only have so much time, and if whatever they are reading doesn’t meet whatever criteria they have set, then your work will get rejected for whatever reason. I don’t get upset about that (I mean entirely - rejections still sting).

What bothers me is the idea of what is a story, especially when a work is less than 500 words. I have actually seen submission guidelines say that even flash must have a beginning, middle and end, which given the compactness of space seems a little ridiculous. I think of the short form like poetry, allusions, metaphors, etc. all saying so much in a tight area. I am always questioning my perception of what constitutes a story. I feel like I should just go with my instincts and trust myself.

All that being said, I will go through that rejected “story” and see if I can make it obvious to a casual reader. I will see which version is better and start submitting it again.

Status update on my daily creative goals:

• I have written flash every day. Even on the days I don’t feel like it.

• I am still drawing, painting, inking every day.

• I am still practicing the ukulele every day. Yesterday was especially painful.