While I like to call myself a novel writer, I am as much a short story writer as I am a novelist. During the November and December Short Story Challenge in 2018, I wrote fifty stories, and have since written about ten more, some of which were for the Creatures, Crime and Creativity Conference, and others were for other opportunities along the way, including for contests. And one of those stories made it into the Maryland Writers Association’s 30th anniversary anthology. But why would someone want to write for anthologies rather than for other sources?
Why?
As this article by Elynne Chaplik-Aleskow in Writer’s Digest attests, it is a great way to get exposure as a writer. And what writer doesn’t want more exposure for his or her work? At the same time, writing for an anthology requires writers to respond either to specific prompts, or more likely to very clear guidelines from the anthology on theme, length, tone, audience, etc. A major driver for my short story challenge was to learn to write a wider range of pieces in a variety of lengths and genres. As a result, I ended up with fifty stories, sprinkled across fantasy, horror, romance, mystery, science fiction and westerns. Not bad!
What to Remember
I’m sure I’m not the first writer who has looked at a call for submissions for an anthology and thought: I wonder what story I already have that I can submit for this? And why not? We already have plenty of stories that can be submitted in a number of genres. But it doesn’t always work that way. Writing to the requirements of an anthology is actually a very helpful exercise. I would caution writers to avoid the temptation of thinking that their previously-written story is “good enough” for an anthology. The number of submissions for a given anthology is likely to be significant: the editor and evaluators don’t need much of an excuse to refuse yours.
Though I must tell you, when it works out, and you’re one of the few whose work gets into an anthology—it’s sweet!
