Update on How to Submit to Us, Tips for Writing Plot, and What We Published Last Month
Write or Die Magazine Updates: March 2024
Each month, you will receive this special newsletter with a recap of what our magazine published the month prior and what our editors have been up to. As the Write or Die Mag team, we will share what has been inspiring us, along with craft tips and opportunities to work one-on-one with us! We also created a special space for past contributors to our magazine so they can keep us in the loop and share any writing or publication news. Keep scrolling! <3
Note from the EIC
Hi writers!
We have many new subscribers, so I wanted to say hello and welcome! If you don’t know me, I’m Kailey, the EIC of this magazine. I’m a writer too, currently working on my first novel, and I love being in the presence of all these people who are obsessed with process, craft, and writing just as much as I am. Yay! Thank you for hanging out with us and for subscribing when there are 10108484 other newsletters on here to subscribe to. It means a lot!
We have some news!
We will now be collecting your submissions via Submittable! We have heard your concerns about our current method (Google Forms), and we realized that people missing responses from us, having trouble uploading their pieces, and not receiving a submission confirmation were all pretty big problems that needed to be solved ASAP.
So now we have a Submittable account for easy submitting and tracking! We are still in the middle of making it pretty but you can check it out here:
Note: If you submitted to us recently via Google forms, you do not need to submit again! We are still making our way through our sub piles, so you will hear from us within our 3-6 month response time.
What else is new
In addition to an easy submission system, we have updated our Editorial Feedback options to be more affordable! If you are looking for help with your fiction or creative nonfiction, our editors are excited to work with you!
We have also added an Expedited Fiction Response feature! Even though our fiction submission period is closed, you can submit to us and hear back within one week, all year round! Bonus: all fees go directly to pay our editors, who volunteer their time generously to make this magazine what it is <3
Okay! Well, last month, we published four new author interviews and four powerful creative nonfiction pieces, which you can read for yourself if you missed them, below!
Happy reading and writing!
—Kailey
Am I talking about food and writing again?
Yes. (I am always talking about food).
This time, it comes in the form of a podcast recommendation: KCRW’s Good Food, which accompanies me everywhere: on the hiking trails I traverse with my dog; in the Subaru dotted with mud and fur from said dog; beneath the waterfall of my shower. Each week, this podcast, hosted by LA chef, author, radio host and restaurateur Evan Kleiman, drops a tremendous amount of knowledge about cooking, from the chemistry and science behind a perfect tortilla to the realities of how culture, conservation, climate, location, and history all constantly intersect. This podcast keeps me company and makes me a smarter, more thoughtful human. And, when I’m smarter and more thoughtful, I’m a better writer. I’m a long-time believer in the walking/driving/showering approach, but sometimes I think you need noise to occupy the consciousness so the subconscious can really get to work. Why not make it something that educates you and provides a lesson in the power of description via food?
In my yoga class last week (sorry, annoying), the instructor read from “My Pivot Year” by Brianna Wiest. I’ve since ordered the book and started reading and I’m normally not a self-help-y reader, but it’s the kick in the ass I needed. Dare I say it’s propelled me on a spiritual journey!?
For me, it’s given me ~permission~ to set out on the task of redefining myself after entering motherhood. An excerpt:
“It’s okay to disappear for a while to work on yourself. It is okay to disappear for a while and start over. It is okay to wipe the slate clean and begin again. The world as it is today does not give us the grace for the normal transitions you are meant to go through. You need to create space within your life to signify your internal growth, to mark for yourself the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.”
AMEN.
Over the weekend, Chelsea posted this phenomenal essay that left me feeling so empowered as a writer I thought I was going to jump out of my skin. This piece is a mindset reframe, one that could totally alter, in the best way, how you think about your work and yourself as a writer. Read it.
You can know everything there is about query letter writing and still not have dug deep enough to have written the work your soul yearns to write.
Our assistant fiction editor, Suzanne, is a collector of craft tips. She will share her favorite tidbit of the month with us in each issue!
Here is a tip for thinking about STORY vs PLOT:
When I’m working with new writers who are crafting stories, editing, and receiving feedback for the first time, a handful of the same questions often arise. One of them involves differentiating between story and plot. The dichotomy implied using these two specific words can prove to be tricky because various writers, readers, critics, and editors use these same words to mean different things.
During the course of my own work, I’ve actually discovered I find it helpful to think about these two elements in the way I first heard them framed by a favorite script writer: She discussed plot as the literal action of the story—the beats that carry us from moment to moment—e.g., the inciting incident, the midpoint, the climax, etc.
Meanwhile, the story is the thematic heart of the script: What is this movie actually about? What internal shifts and transformations do the characters experience? The plot usually aligns with the idea of narrative arc (the tangible changes that occur over the course of the story) and the story usually aligns with the character arc (How have these characters changed and grown, if at all? How are their lives different now from the moment the story began? What have they learned about themselves and the world?).
Essays
STOP ME IF I’M TALKING TOO MUCH: On Music Criticism by Madison Jamar
Published: March 6
Of course, the Critic is also a creator of some sort. If they’re at all decent they take into painful consideration not only their subject but the form that will contain their subject. No one sets out to publish a bad essay anymore than a person strives to put forth a bad album.
Up in the Air by Molly Wadzeck Kraus
Published: March 13
I wish I could stop complaining, but I don’t like doing hard things. I'm not someone who inspires or possesses great ambition.
So, I Lied: The Chapbook as a Coherent Container by Adrie Rose
Published: March 20
I wanted to tell the stories of what had happened to me, not because they were my special stories, but because they were not that special, actually.
Love, Death, and Quevedo by Nora Carr
Published: March 27
Here’s the problem with “enamored,” though: It’s a mushy word. It falls apart in your mouth when you say it. It doesn’t have the quick, even rhythm of the Spanish “enamorado,” and it doesn’t have the lightness—the lifting trill of the soft “r”—in the middle.
Author Interviews
Mariah Stovall: On Writing the Music Scene She Always Wanted to Read About, Timing and the Publishing Marketplace, and Her Debut Novel, ‘I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both’ by Nirica Srinivasan
Published: March 5
If I wanted to write the most publishable version of this book, I could have tried to do it—and it would've been a very different book, and I don't think I would've been excited about it!
: On the Ancient Problems of Women, Writing Monstrous Men, and Her Novel ‘Fruit of the Dead’ by Ashley Rubell
Published: March 12
I had an early reader, a man, read the book as a draft, and he said something I’ll never forget. He said, “Is it ok that you’re making this man so charming and seductive on the page? Is that unethical as a writer?” Girls do have to be seduced. They’re not dumb. People who find themselves in these scenarios are not stupid.
Sean Enfield: On Not Caring if You’re Relevant, Turning Your Interests Into Art, Teacher Troubles, and His Debut Essay Collection ‘Holy American Burnout!’ by Shelby Hinte
Published: March 21
I feel for teachers working in this current environment where there's so many eyes on what they say and do in the classroom. I think it's valid for those students to come to teachers with those questions. I think it's valid for teachers to be honest and open, but I certainly would be nervous to do so if you're teaching in Florida or Texas or in the American South.
Katie Jean Shinkle and Steven Dunn: On Writing a Novel Together, Challenging Dominant Narratives of Otherness With Pure Joy, and How Writing Is Informed by Place by Elle Nash
Published: March 28
We were thinking about what we want and what we deserve. We deserve to be happy together and treat each other kindly. So the point was for nobody in that community to treat each other badly. That's how a lot of the joy and tenderness and softness came about, because of the things we don't want, that we see ourselves represented in all the time.
We ask our past contributors to keep in touch and let us know if they have writing or publishing news after being featured in Write or Die Magazine! We are so honored to have published these writers and their work. Here is a look at what they've been celebrating since their appearance in our mag!
Barrie Miskin
Last piece published with us: Kate Brody: On Crafting a Literary Thriller, Writing Sex Scenes, LA Versus NY, and Her Debut Novel “Rabbit Hole” on January 4, 2024.
News: Barrie's debut memoir, Hell Gate Bridge: A Memoir of Motherhood, Madness and Hope (Woodhall Press), will be out on 6/4 in paperback and e-book.
Drew Buxton
Author of “A Nasty Habit” published on September 6, 2023
News: My short story collection So Much Heart was recently released by With an X Books. It has gone on to receive praise from Nylon, Southwest Review, Chicago Review of Books, and the Southern Review of Books among other outlets.
Author of the essay “Fear and Loathing in the Hellmouth” published on September 27, 2023
News: I recently wrote about the 2024 Sundance Film Festival for Complex. Later this month, I’ll be releasing a new piece of short fiction on my Substack.
Last piece published with us: Marisa Crawford: On Intuitive Writing, the Sexism of Personal Narrative, Pushing the Boundaries of Genre and Her New Poetry Collection,’ Diary’ published on November 16, 2023
News: I'm the editor+writer for a new recurring profile series entitled "Mid-Week" in Tidal Magazine's online publication CURRENT, where I'll be talking to artists, entrepreneurs and business owners about what it actually takes to pursue and sustain a creative lifestyle. This is based off a story we printed a couple years ago for the magazine (featuring Casey Scieszka, a writer and co-owner of The Spruceton Inn—her debut novel releases in 2026 and as an early reader I have to say, it's so good! I can't wait for you all to read it!), and I was eager to keep the conversation going post-pandemic when so many of us were assessing our life choices. There's one story live now, and a handful of exciting profiles in the pipeline.