Newsletter
November in the Den
Grab a cup of tea and see what’s new in TFWD!
Dear writers and readers,
We here at the Den can’t believe the holidays are creeping up on us once again! For our American editors and writers, Thanksgiving is next week, which means Christmas is literally right around the corner. With this busy time of year, it can be hard to keep up with our writing routines. We hope you can still find time to scribble and continue to submit your amazing stories to us. Don’t forget we accept flash fiction with as few as 100 words (drabbles), so keep that in mind if you’re strapped for time but still want to write!
Submission Guidelines Review
Speaking of submissions, the Den has some new submission guidelines we would like to reiterate to keep things running smoothly here in our virtual office. Our editors, including myself, are all volunteers with careers, families, and other responsibilities, so it is of the utmost importance to submit PUBLISH READY stories. We are here to give your story a final glance over for any last-minute typos, as we our time with each story is limited. We will not format, give developmental edits, or spend time on stories that are riddled with mistakes. Please respect our time and we respect yours in getting your stories out in a timely fashion.
To sum up some of the newer changes in our guidelines:
1. Content warnings are needed for violent or triggering content; we do not accept NSFW or erotica stories. Not sure? Drop a private note and one of our editors will assist you.
2. Your story MUST be publish-ready. If it is riddled with mistakes, we will reject it. Grammarly is free and very useful.
3. If you are a new writer, we will not accept stories over 7 minutes until you are more established with us.
4. If you are submitting a longer work, please keep it to 7 minutes max. If it goes over this, please break it up into parts.
5. For serial fiction, web novels, or multi-part stories, please email an excerpt to submissions@thefictionwritersden.eu before you submit to see if we are interested in publishing it. Please do not submit until you are approved by one of our editors. Once accepted, you will be assigned a dedicated editor for your series, so both writers and editors will have continuity. However, keep in mind we still reserve the right to reject any later content if it violates Medium’s or the Den’s rules. Because of the rising volume of submissions, we can only publish one or two chapters (max) per week of your ongoing fiction.
6. Besides a headline, you need a kicker and subtitle along with your title. Click here for help creating both.
7. Please make sure you credit the artist, whether it is yourself or someone else. Unsplash automatically credits images for you. Don’t forget to add alt text for accessibility for all readers.
8. We publish four stories daily at specific times (use the link below to view times) but we will try to accommodate specific times for you if possible.
9. Please respect your editor(s). We understand it can be hard to accept feedback at times, but we only want you to be the best writer you can be. Please do not insult your editors by leaving rude replies as this can result in your removal from our publication as a writer.
10. If you begin receiving messages from your editor about changes that need to be made, please wait until your editor is done (they will leave you a note that they are finished). If you try to edit your story while your editor is still working, it will erase all their hard work and they will have to start over.
To see the full submission guidelines, click here.
Website
Did you know The Fiction Writer’s Den now has its own website? To help our readers get even more visibility, we now feature the newest 5 stories each day. Click here to check it out!
Inspiration
Don’t forget our very own JF Danskin publishes amazing prompts to keep you inspired and clacking away at those keys (or scribbling, if that’s your jam). Be sure to tag him in your creations and grab a spot in a round-up article for more visibility for your own stories (while also finding new authors to support at the same time!). Check out our Prompts tab to clear out the cobwebs.
Coffee Break Reads
While chatting and drinking one tea in the Den one chilly afternoon, JF Danskin dreamed up a new Read For Read (R4R) project to make it easier for everyone to participate (both writers and readers!).
We’re not reinventing the wheel…just tweaking it a bit.
For our R4R, we’re putting some *slight* parameters on it to make it more doable for our editors, readers, and writers. Stories you want to enter must be 500 words or less (btw, we LOVE drabbles at the Den!), or 2–3 minutes of reading. Hence…
Coffee Break Reads. Short and sweet to read, quick to comment on. No unwieldy 25-minute chonkers.
After you join the Break, your story will be linked in an article that you can share far and wide with readers and friends. Save the article and read through the included stories, giving follows, claps, and comments. But only join if you are going to give 100% genuine engagement. No bot or AI-generated comments. No clapping and running. Let’s grow a true community!
Not sure what to write? Visit our Prompts section (linked above) for inspo!
Choose Your Own Fiction
Some of you might be familiar with Choose Your Own/Pick Your Path stories. You know the ones! Well, did you know that some authors have been sharing these kinds of stories on Medium? You can find them here. Up until now, these have lived in their own separate publication, with some of the same editors as the Den. However, we have decided to bring them in from out of the cold! Going forward, there will be a ‘CYOA’ (Choose Your Own Adventure) category for our stories. You will still be able to link to those older stories, so if there is an unfinished path that you want to explore, it’s the perfect time to get writing.
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C.S. Lewis
Haven’t joined The Fiction Writer’s Den yet? Click here to apply as a writer!
Happy writing and reading!
If you love what we do here at TFWD, consider helping us on Ko-fi. The money will fund our web domain and other expenses for the pub, like keeping the Den’s cupboards stocked with tea and yummy snacks.
Read some of the amazing TFWD offerings here:
