Wrong Ingredients: A New Pub (Guidelines, How to Write for Us)
Amassing the world’s largest archive of misshapen, broken, twisted, and cursed things
Update (2/17/24): All new published stories will also be shared on our growing Instagram account.
Take a shortcut to the publication by using this link. It’s still in prenatal care, but with tenderness, I think it’ll grow.
Comment to get added as a pub writer.
I used Medium a few times back in 2013 and forgot about the platform until recently. I’m not used to these extra platform features and product additions (e.g., publications), but I quickly realized they have a certain magnetic power over attention. Shout out to Short. Sweet. Valuable.
I returned to the Mediumscape with rules and policies partially, if not fully, calcified. The dust seems nearly settled now.
How does it look with the caution tape removed — with the plastic protective film peeled off?
To be quite honest, it looks like the imagination of a compliance officer and a computer scientist fused together. Fiction isn’t made to protect a company from liability or to "streamline" an editorial process. It doesn’t care about getting 50 claps. It’s rogue — scampering in the dark and gently gliding in the light. Immortal. Infinite.
Enter: Wrong Ingredients
I think there’s an underappreciation for wrong, broke-ass things in fiction. Alien things. Elements like sudden twists, brutal endings, languages that seem to come from nowhere in particular, and forms of chaos that seem unimaginable — like they would break our world if a mad scientist was clever enough to bring those erratic words to life.
Wrong ingredients are plot destroyers. Cantankerous during the corporate function. Failing the SATs by using a 16-bit computer built in Minecraft to complete questions.
Only Two Rules
- Follow Medium policy. This includes adding a disclaimer for AI-generated content or assistance at the top.
- Write in a fictional or creative nonfiction format with (at least) one wrong ingredient.
How to Get Added to the Publication
Follow ‘Wrong Ingredients’ and add a comment to this story.
That’s it. Simple.
Made for people who sometimes get it wrong or skip over the rules. We welcome you. We also welcome high-quality stories that don’t quite fit anywhere else.