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FC Writing Guidelines
THE FRIDAY CHALLENGE is a public, moderated, and edited blog -slash- workshop -slash- writing contest. We post items of interest to writers, those who wish to become writers, and those who really aren't all that serious about their writing but just like to putter around with words and ideas.
We are always open for guest columns and articles by new contributors, and in fact are quite eager to receive them. If you have an idea for a piece you'd like to write, feel free to pitch it to us. Our email address for all editorial purposes is slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com.
What We Are Looking For
We want articles on topics that are of interest to working and aspiring writers. We especially like articles of the "What works for me" and "How I Did It" variety.
We also want reviews of websites that publish original fiction. We are increasingly of the opinion that much as we loved them, print magazines have become tiny cellulose sarcophagi where stories and writer's careers go to be embalmed and forgotten, and all the exciting action now is online. Are there any websites you feel we should be reading or new and emerging writers you think we should be keeping an eye on? Particularly, if you have submitted content to any of these sites, we want to hear about your experience as a writer. Don't keep it a secret; tell us what happened. Share your news.
We do not publish fiction or poetry. Nor will we post "inspirational" or "motivational" pieces that were found floating around out on the Internet somewhere.
If you have a burning desire to write for us but no clear idea of what to write about, here are some ideas:
New Writers: To look at the magazine contents pages and bookstore new releases lists you'd think that no new writers have emerged since the turn of the century. This can't be true. Pick a new, emerging writer that you think we should be paying attention to and tell us what we should read by this writer, and why.
New Markets: Likewise, this is the 21st Century, and all the interesting action is taking place online. Pick a website that publishes new and original fiction online and tell us about it. Particularly if you've submitted a story to this market, tell us about your experience.
alt.markets: Print, magazines, webzines; have you found an alternative way to get your fiction out to the world—say, in spoken word via YouTube? Tell us how you did it and what sort of reaction you got from your readers/listeners/osmotic absorbers.
Self-publishing: It used to be a truism that if you didn't stop it, you'd go blind, but self-publishing is no longer synonymous with self-abuse. If you've self-published something, tell us about your experience. Why did you do it? How did you do it? How did it work for you? Would you do it again?
Profiles: It's easy to overload on this and we don't want to turn this site into one that, like so many other SF sites, has its gaze firmly fixed on the rearview mirror. But we are always open to a good profile of a "forgotten great." For example, right now we'd love to see pieces on once-tremendously influential but now largely ignored writers such as H. Beam Piper, Henry Kuttner, H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, and Rafael Sabatini. Rafael who? If you don't recognize the name, I can almost guarantee that you know the name of at least one movie that was based on one of his novels: Captain Blood, the Star Wars of the 1930s, and the movie that made matinee idols of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.
Five Great Beginnings: Okay, that number is purely arbitrary. Take at least four but no more than six novels that start with an unforgettable beginning, and look at the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first page, and the first scene. What do they have in common?
Muddling Through the Middle: In theater they're called "Third Act" problems, when something goes awry in the middle of the show and you're just hoping to keep it together long enough to get to the final curtain. Have you ever encountered this problem in your writing, and if so, how did you solve it?
Five Great Endings: It's gospel in writing groups that you should put all your energy into the beginning of your novel, because that's what sells the story to the editor. We're of the contrarian opinion that you need to work on the ending, because that's what sells the reader on buying your next novel. Pick at least four but no more than six novels with really great endings that left you counting the days until you could get the writer's next novel, and tell us what those endings have in common.
Payment Rates
Because someone always asks: our base payment rate for articles accepted for posting is nothing. Regular contributors receive twice our base rate, and we are authorized to pay up to ten times our base rate for articles of exceptional merit. For those of you who spent your college years drinking beer, having fun, and debating the merits of depressing existential songwriter-poets in smoky coffeehouses, zero multiplied by anything is still zero, even for exceptionally large values of zero.
Rights, Copyrights, and C.Y.A. Language
We buy no rights, because we don't buy anything. We post articles solely by mutual agreement with the author and with the author's consent, and with the author's implied warranty that the article in question is in fact a work of original authorship to which the author has the unencumbered right to enter into an agreement to have posted. All posted works remain the copyrighted property of their respective authors, and The Friday Challenge and Rampant Loon Media LLC have NO rights, express or implied, to reprint or further re-use said work without the express written permission of the author, nor do we assume legal responsibility for the content, beyond making a reasonable effort to ensure that it contains no actionable content and does not infringe on the copyrights of third parties.
Posting is solely by the author's permission. If an author chooses to rescind permission, we will delete the work in question from our site within 48 hours of our receipt of email notification that said permission to post has been rescinded. Likewise, if a work is discovered to contain potentially actionable content or to incorporate copyrighted material owned by a third party beyond the bounds of "Fair Use" doctrine, it will be deleted from our site within 48 hours of our receipt of email notification to this effect.
NOTICE: Because The Friday Challenge is open to the general public, posting of content on this site may constitute "prior publication" for the purposes of subsequent sales to publishers. While this is not generally a problem in the case of non-fiction—we would hope that you are substantially reworking your piece before submitting it for publication elsewhere, in which case it becomes a work of new authorship—this can be an issue with fiction, where "First Serial Rights" are the most valuable. Particularly in the case of "The Friday Challenge" writing contest: if a challenge causes you to write a work of fiction that you think may be publishable, do not post it on a public site, as doing so may interfere with your ability to sell the work of fiction to a paying market later. Instead, use the members-only file repository. (Currently the Friday Challenge Yahoo! Group.)
Some Notes on Style
As befits a site that pays nothing and acquires no rights, we are pretty relaxed when it comes to questions of style. In fiction all is fair, but when submitting a non-fiction article, beyond making certain that the contents of your post are adequately grammatical, spelled correctly (except where intentionally misspelled), and punctuated sanely, here are a few of the bugbears we look for.
Brevity matters. This is writing for the Internet; literature for the ADHD set. We're not looking for your magnum opus. If you're having trouble keeping it under 1,000 words, consider writing it as a multi-part series.
Support your points. It's okay to have and express strong opinions—in fact, it's far more interesting if you do—but be prepared to present evidence to support the assertions you make.
Think about your byline. Do you want the post to appear under your real name or your blogging handle? This potentially has implications for copyright purposes.
Think about your bio. Give readers a reason to care about what you think; e.g., "[name] is a [something interesting about you that gives your words greater credibility] who writes about [your pet topic] at [your blog]." Yes, of course you can use this site to promote your own blog, website, or latest publication. What other reason is there to write for this site, aside from the sheer unremitting joy of writing for this site?
Any further question?
If you have any further questions about this site or our posting guidelines, either ask your questions in the Comments attached to this post or email them to slushpile@thefridaychallenge.com.
And thanks for thinking about writing for The Friday Challenge!
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