Tag: slush pile
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Takeaways from Slushpile Sifting
- Alzheimer’s and parents’ deaths lose their force as plot devices/ emotion tweakers after the 100th read or so;
- Plagiarizing premises’ from famous short stories dilutes their power;
- Using graduate school as a setting or graduate students as characters seems lazy and boring;
- Plot remains paramount – well-written plotless stories dominate slushpiles;
- The ability to convey emotion through words is rare;
- You get one premise free, the others you have to earn;
- After completing a draft, figure out what the story is (the story making machinery) and then write it again;
- Having a PhD in English/CompLit etc. doesn’t mean you can write things people want to read;