Finish your novel to spite the robots
Spite may not be the most complex of human emotions, but it does make for one hell of a motivator.
And just like that, Keep Writing is six months old! Our little newsletter is already sitting upright and eating solid foods, bless its tiny heart. If you’re new here, please accept our sincerest welcomes and help yourself to our celebratory frozen yogurt bar, newly restocked by our newsletter’s resident elephant butler. You may also wish to read our very first edition as you dig in.
I wanted to send you a very different letter than the one I am writing now.
I had hoped to write about the many ways writers can feed our creativity, especially when we feel our inner wells sputtering and threatening to dry, but that seems impossible to send in a world in which some don’t seem to believe writers deserve to be fed at all.
An entire new wave of writers and journalists have been laid off since I last wrote to you. Each month, when I compile these listings, I see a new literary journal has been forced to ban AI-generated content in their submission guidelines. And, of course, the Writers Guild of America is now on strike.
I do not write for television and film, but I support and stand behind those who do. It seems an easy choice to make, to support the minds who craft the plotlines and shape the characters we so love to watch onscreen. If an industry demands its writers work in a given location, its writers deserve to be able to afford to live in that location. They deserve a career in which nearly 50 percent of its workforce is not making the bare-minimum salary.
And yet you have undoubtedly heard the same rumblings of grievances as I have, as friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances fret over what the strike means for their beloved shows and upcoming releases. As if the strike were a massive inconvenience for viewers at best, a selfish power grab by a greedy group of creatives at worst. (As if any sane group of people would take on the Disney corporation unless they were forced into a corner.)
I am weary too of hearing executives talk about AI as if it is the latest technological wonder to replace pesky human thought and labor. Like all of you, writing is my craft, one I have spent many years honing. Not a day goes by in this life in which I do not try to improve it. I have never met a sentence I didn’t take apart to marvel at how it was constructed; I have never written a word I didn’t audition six other candidates to take its place in each draft. I labor over my sentences, and at the end of each day I swell with pride to see them all neatly standing at attention on the page. They will never be perfect – no mortal work can be – but they are mine, and they are always crafted with as much care and attention as this writer can muster.
Some days it is difficult to reckon with how many do not consider that care and attention to be real or valid labor. It is discouraging to think about the fleeting paid markets for our work, the shrinking pool of full-time careers centering the written word. Some days it is tiring to consider the future and salability of our stories in a world that does not seem to place value upon them; it is exhausting to consider how many seem more than willing to turn away from the beating heart of human storytelling in favor of AI-generated entertainment.
If perhaps you are feeling similar – if the day this newsletter finds you is one of Those Days for you – I can offer three things that often help soothe the restless discontent in my heart.
The first is resources, having a ready arsenal of tools and advice and guidance at my disposal to take action. For example, if you would like to read more about the writers’ strike and why it is occurring, you can visit the WGA strike website or read striking writer Josh Gondelman’s explanation of why writers across the nation have decided to strike. If you’d like a ready URL to drop in the group chat at a moment’s notice, NPR’s Linda Holmes has written a wonderfully helpful piece on how the strike can benefit viewers in the long run. You can also donate to entertainment resiliency funds (or consider other literary organizations at large to support).
The second is hope. Remember the dazzling things writing has done for you in the past and take comfort in the beautiful new stories waiting to meet their audiences in the future. Reread a work that sparked fire within you. Subscribe to a new-to-you publication and relish the new stories and writers coming your way. Ask your writing friends what they’re working on. Celebrate their successes and joys and commiserate their disappointments.
(And go on, indulge in a 20-minute rant-fest about how many of your friends and family have raved about AI or complained about the strike to your face. Let it out!)
But then, lastly, get to work. None of the world’s greatest works were created without a rumbling of restless discontent in the hearts of their authors, so harness yours for the creative good. Thoughts about future publication should have no bearing on the generative act of creation, so shut them out and enter the cozy cocoon of drafting. Admire your glittering sentences at the end of each day and take comfort that they were all written with your own hand, your own mind, with no algorithms or whirring processors in sight.
Then allow yourself a heady minute to step back and marvel at the work you’ve done.
What a glorious thing the act of creation is.
What staggering human magic can still be wrought with our own two hands.
What fortune to render such magic for a willing audience.
What luck to rise and do it all over again tomorrow.
Until next month—
Keep writing,
Nicki
June 2023 calls for submissions
This month’s listings in brief
Atomic Carnival: “Mad science” and “open all night” genre submissions
The Markaz Review: Short stories from or about Middle Eastern and South Asian experience
The Massachusetts Review: Submissions reflecting womanhood in the twenty-first century
Atomic Carnival: “Mad science” and “open all night” genre submissions
Spotlight Pick: Special double edition!
No matter if you’re a fiction or nonfiction writer, two anthology calls – well, technically three anthology calls – beckon with payment and fee-free submissions.
Here’s the first:
Chimera Projects: Essays about celebrities’ impact
Editors seek creative nonfiction submissions that examine “how celebrities, public figures and pop culture phenomena inspire us to understand ourselves.” Selected essays will be published in a future anthology, tentatively titled Spark: Celebrities, Representation and Decisive Moments. While we may never really know celebrities, we may feel connections to them based on who or what they represent and how that reflects moments in our own lives,” editors say. “Celebrities may be heroes, villains, sign posts or temporary influences. They may be our crushes, our deities, or who we love to mock.” Celebrities do not need to be contemporary or household names. Send essays between 2,000 and 4,000 words. Payment is $.02 a word along with a contributor’s copy of the anthology. No submission fee that I can find.
Deadline: June 1
And here’s the second:
Atomic Carnival: “Mad science” and “open all night” genre submissions
Atomic Carnival is currently accepting submissions for two anthologies. The first, Greater Than His Nature, is themed around “mad science:” “Cackling Victorian scientists, giant atomic monsters, and Cronenbergian body horror are all fair game.” The editor is particularly interested in stories submitters who are disabled and/or chronically ill: “You don’t need to self-identify if you don’t want to or give me any information you don’t feel comfortable with; just know that, if you’ve got some medical trauma you need to work through with monsters and mayhem, I’m here for you.” Nonfiction submissions will also be considered for this anthology.
The second, Open All Night, will feature horror and fantasy submissions (as well as any sub/cross genres), but no nonfiction. The editor is particularly interested in retail and service industry stories: “Give me graveyard shifts, overnight inventories gone bad, and haunted diners, shit so sordid and spooky that even the most seasoned of waitresses can’t handle what’s happening.”
Stories should be up to 10,000 words, with 2,000 to 6,000 words as the preferred range. Send only one submission per anthology at a time. No submission fee. Payment is $.03 per word, but may increase if the anthologies’ stretch goals on Kickstarter are met.
Deadline: June 30
Other listings
The Heron’s Nest: The Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards
Send up to five haiku to The Heron’s Nest for consideration for this annual haiku prize. The first-place winner will receive $200 and, charmingly, a “miniature crystal turtle.” The second-place winner will receive $100 and the third-place winner will receive $50, along with up to five cashless honorable mentions who will be recognized online and in print. Entry is free, and contest results will be announced on July 31.
Deadline: June 1
The Markaz Review: Short stories from or about Middle Eastern and South Asian experience
The Markaz Review is looking for fictional stories for their “1,001” double summer issue. Submissions should be under 5,000 words and be “from or about Middle Eastern and South Asian experience.” Published stories will receive an honorarium, and some will be chosen to appear in a forthcoming anthology due out in 2024. Send stories to editor@themarkax.org. Note: This call doesn’t appear on the publication’s submissions page just yet, so I’ve linked to its CLMP listing instead.
Deadline: June 1
The Massachusetts Review: Submissions reflecting womanhood in the twenty-first century
The Massachusetts Review is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of its “WOMAN: AN ISSUE” special edition by seeking submissions that “represent an effort to go beyond the definition of ‘woman’ as framed by the ideologies of the 1970s, to explore and examine new possibilities and horizons for feminist literatures today.” The issue will feature women writers from around the world, including intersex, genderqueer, and trans women writers. Submit prose up to 7,000 words or up to six poems. Payment is $200 and submission is free.
Deadline: June 1
Parabola: “Saints & Sinners” submissions
Parabola, “ a quarterly journal devoted to the exploration of the quest for meaning as it is expressed in the world’s myths, symbols, and religious traditions,” is calling for submissions for its fall issue, which will have a theme of “Saints & Sinners.” Send “well-researched, objective, and unsentimental” articles or translations (1,000 to 3,000 words) or up to five poems. No submission fees.
Deadline: June 1
Superpresent: “Inquiries”-themed submissions
Superpresent, a “quarterly magazine of the arts,” is looking for submissions for its summer 2023 issue, which will have a theme of “Inquiries.” Send essays and short stories between 500 and 2,000 words or up to three poems (one poem per page). No submission fee.
Deadline: June 1
The Fairy Tale Magazine: Love-themed submissions
Send new fairy tales or fresh takes on old ones (including mashups) to The Fairy Tale Magazine. All submitted poems and stories should incorporate this year’s theme of “love” in them somehow, and while romance is preferred, love between friends and family (and furry companions) will also be considered. Editors remind interested contributors that fairy tales should contain “an element of the supernatural – as well as transformation.” Happy endings are preferred but not mandatory. Stories should be PG in rating and suitable for readers aged 15 and up. Poems should be no longer than 500 words, while stories can range from 1,000 to 5,000, although stories less than 3,500 words are preferred. Payment is $50.
Deadline: June 2
And a small bonus for interested readers: The Fairy Tale Magazine is also hosting a flash fiction contest as well as a poetry contest that both end on June 30th. Entries for these contests should be written in the fairy tale or folktale genres. Submissions should be 1,000 words or less for flash fiction and up to 500 words for poetry. $5 to enter each contest, with $100 and digital and print publication for each winner.
Devastation Baby: “Past Regrets” submissions
Send fiction and nonfiction, flash fiction, or poetry dealing with your past regrets to Devastation Baby for its second issue. Fiction and nonfiction should be under 5,000 words, although writers may pitch the publication for works over that length. Flash fiction should range between 100 and 1000 words, while poetry submissions should not exceed 10 pages. No submission fee, no payments.
Deadline: June 15
Nobody’s Home: Modern Southern American folklore
Nobody’s Home: Modern Southern Folklore, “an online anthology of nonfiction works about beliefs, myths, and narratives in Southern culture over the last fifty years,” opens once a year for new creative nonfiction works to add to the collection. Submissions should be 5,000 words or less and be aimed toward a general audience; works that are “intensely academic, highly specialized, or baldly partisan” should seek homes elsewhere. Query the editor via the website contact form before submitting the entire work, including the work’s subject, setting, length, and why it is right for Nobody’s Home.
Deadline: June 15
redrosethorns: “Home/Belonging” submissions
For its second annual magazine, redrosethorns seeks submissions having to do with “Home/Belonging.” All genres are welcome (including fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry), but should be 3,000 words or less. Multiple submissions are fine, but each piece must be submitted individually. Entry is free; submit via online form on the publication’s website.
Deadline: June 30
Well-said, Nicki! I’m forced to use AI at my new job and I can tell you now, it’s a neat tool but it simply is incapable of overtaking the quality of prose written by someone with a true heartbeat. People who wish for AI-driven movies and books make me cringe — more than ever, I appreciate writers who truly put pen to paper.
I’m so glad that you’ve continued with this newsletter and that I am still able to read your advice month-to-month. Please keep it going and I promise to keep on writing!