All writers get rejection slips. It’s just part of writing if you submit your work to publishers. But if you’ve been seriously writing fiction for quite a while, yet ALL you’ve received for your work are rejections, then take a closer look at one of your short stories. In fact, do you really have a story – or do you have what editors call “an incident”?
A story has a protagonist who has a big problem to solve. As the plot thickens, this character struggles and struggles to solve the problem. As he does, he encounters obstacles at every turn until, finally, he is able to solve (or at least resolve) the problem. In doing so, this character changes or grows somehow, so he is no longer the same person he was at the start of the story. He may be a little wiser now, or a bit more careful, or maybe he just has a better understanding of what he wanted in the first place.
An incident is simply a series of actions and occurrences in a character’s life. But these things don’t change the character. By the end of the final page, he is exactly the same person he was on page one.
Does your fiction contain all of these story elements? If not, chances are you have written an incident and not a full-fledged story, and that just may be why your work keeps getting rejected.
Give your main character a big problem to solve right at the start. The problem could be something he wants, or somewhere he must go, or someone he must find. As he tries to solve his problem, give him plenty of obstacles to make things get harder and harder for him before he is able to solve the problem.
Finally, before you mail your manuscript off to an editor, ask yourself this question, “How has my main character changed or grown as a result of struggling to solve his problem?” If you can easily answer this question, and your manuscript is well-written, then you probably have a great story. And it should be only a matter of time before you receive your first acceptance letter.
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