Top Four Reasons a Story is Rejected

Top Four Reasons a Story is Rejected by Jim Harrington
(Editor & Development Coordinator for Flash Me Magazine)

There many reasons why a story might be rejected by the editors of Flash Me Magazine. Here are the top four based on editorial comments.

4. Obvious endings -- The resolution of the problem is telegraphed well in advance. The editors don’t look for, nor necessarily expect, surprise endings, but they don’t want to guess the outcome half way through the prose either.

3. Telling, not showing -- Telling the reader about the characters and events of the story is not only boring, it displays amateurishness on the part of the author.

2. Poor grammar and spelling -- The fastest way to get a story rejected is to submit one that has not been thoroughly edited for spelling and grammar errors. Misplaced commas, missing quotation marks, and using “their” instead of “they’re” are examples of mistakes that jump off the page and take the reader out of the story.

1. It’s not a story -- A story consists of a believable character who has a problem that is resolved by the end of the story in a satisfying manner. Prose that lacks any of these elements is no more than a scene, story snippet, or perhaps a character description. As well written as the text may be, it doesn’t meet the requirements of a story.