Writing Lessons: Becoming Part of an Anthology
BECOMING PART OF AN ANTHOLOGY is a great achievement for a writer. Along with the obvious joy of allowing you to keep fine company with the authors in the book, some of the other upsides to being in a fine collection might be less apparent. For instance, anthologies can be a home for a piece that simply does not fit anywhere else. For me, the joy is writing to a specific call for submissions. For these and other reasons, being part of an anthology should become one of your goals. To help you, I asked an editor of one of my new favorite anthologies to tell you how to get your pieces in one. Meet Linda Joy Myers, who helped shape and edit Times They Were A-Changing – Women Remember the ’60s & ’70s. You might know her as the founder and president of the National Association of Memoir Writers. Here she is explaining anthologies to you. Read on.
Get Published in an Anthology
by Linda Joy Myers
When the baby boomers of my generation were living through the 60s and 70s, we didn’t have a perspective on our experiences—life-altering events like the death of JFK, the Viet Nam war, the death of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, riots at the Democratic convention, students killed at Kent State, the demonstrations for civil rights, free speech, women’s rights, and mass marches to end the war. We knew we were tuned into something—shocked into growing up and finding our identity as women in the midst of huge social change. As a memoirist, I had to wonder how many people’s stories would illuminate our history and experiences.
The seeds for gathering stories for the anthology The Times They Were A’Changing were sown at the Story Circle Memoir Conference in 2012. My decades long curiosity about how other women lived the 60s and 70s linked with my memoir friends Kate Farrell and Amber Lea Starfire under a 700 year old oak tree in Austin Texas, where the wine, wind, and our reminiscences entwined to create the idea of inviting stories of our sisters from that era to grace the pages of an anthology. Amber, with techie talents, designed and created our website while Kate researched iconic photos of the era, and all of us decided on themes. We created a contest with prizes and invited submissions by advertising in literary magazines and through writing clubs.
With a pile of submissions in our laps, we were looking to be swept into another world and another time, always on the lookout for a magic ingredient that made the stories sing and reach beyond the words into our hearts. We created a rubric that included artistry as well as technique, voice and passion along with the ability to use craft elements of good story telling, grammar, tone, and sensual details. We read and scored the submissions many times, wanting to be fair, aware that besides the techniques of good story writing, there were elements that were harder to define—that je ne sais quoi of a story that made us tingle—and say yes to the story.
If you are considering submitting to an anthology, consider these tips.
- Be sure to follow the instructions about submissions! We felt sad when we had to disqualify someone because they sent too many words or didn’t follow our requirements. These things matter when you are competing with many other good writers who will follow instructions.
- Edit, edit, edit. We gave lower scores immediately when we found more than one typo or grammatical error—and if they were on the first page, we were wary of more. We figured the writer was not serious enough to edit carefully. Share your story with your friends, read your piece aloud, and/or hire a professional editor. You get one shot at being accepted!
- Be sure your piece addresses the theme of the anthology. Work to shape your piece around the theme and word count as you begin writing. Imagine your work divided into three sections—a beginning where the themes are laid out, a middle where your story develops layers of complexity, and an end where there’s the takeaway for the reader and an epiphany for the protagonist. In memoir—that’s you!
- Start with a scene that drops the reader into the world you are creating in your story. Use sensual details—colorful descriptions, textures, sounds, and smells that harken back to that time and place. Clothing styles, language, food, cars, and music all denote a certain era.
- Weave scene and reflection into a skillful rendering of theme and action—show more than tell. Of course, in memoir you do need to “tell” and reflect upon the meaning of the scene.
- Use both direct and indirect dialogue. Dialogue in a story is an approximation of a real conversation with the goal of showing character and action. It’s a real skill. Read great dialogue in fiction and memoir, and try your best.
- Make sure the title and theme of your piece weave threads that continue all the way through.
- What does your reader “take away” or learn from your story? A good story is more than “this happened and then that happened.”
- Know that each story you write offers you a chance to be creative and express yourself. You learn something new about how you think, remember, and write in each piece. Enjoy the process!
Times They Were A-Changing, an excerpt
In the Family Way
by Carol Derfner
At the time of our lunch, neither of the women worked outside the home so I knew they must have cobbled the money together somehow. When I asked why they had such compassion and generosity toward a girl they had never met, the sisters glanced at each other tenderly. First one, then the other, responded, with my aunt speaking first.
“Because it’s just plain wrong to have a baby when a girl’s too young and silly to take care of it.” She took a drag on her cigarette and blew the white smoke upward. “She’ll just resent it.” Aunt Alene snubbed the cigarette butt out in the half-filled ashtray without looking at us. “And that’s not a good thing for a kid. They can feel that, you know.”
I wasn’t sure what Mom would say. She had a habit of retreating into a well-hewn reticence whenever a conversation verged on something emotional. I half expected her to jump up and begin clearing away the dishes, so I was very surprised when she reached over the maple table and entwined her fingers with those of her older sister. Her voice was hesitant, thin and quiet.
“I think a woman should be able to live a life she really wants. Babies coming too soon and too often make that almost impossible.” She paused for a moment. “I wouldn’t want that for your friend.”
Mom had given birth to seven children by the time she was forty. The hint of dreams long gone from her own life hung in the air for what seemed forever before she twisted in her seat and looked at me with saddened eyes. “And no child should bear the burden of having been born an accident,” she said.
Abruptly Mom turned back to her sister, a flash of anger on her face. There was no mistaking the conviction in her voice as she declared, “Because no one, not a man or a woman—and certainly not a child—should be forced to get married. Or worse yet, have to stay married for years and years to the wrong person.” Mom was on fire!” All because of a tiny moment of wrong timing,” she snorted with derision. “That’s the real crime in my book!”
With that, Aunt Alene slapped the table hard with an open hand. “Damned right, little sister!” she cried out triumphantly. “Damned right!”
The women’s words sent a current of loving kinship through me with stunning force. In one split second, I understood that because believing motherhood and marriage were the forces that dominated their lives, my mother and her sister wanted Linda and me to have something more in ours. In their oblique way, as they handed over the tissue-thin envelope, they were empowering us to be our truest selves.
I can still picture how fierce and proud my mother and her sister looked. Never did I love these two women more than in that moment.
Author bios
Carol Derfner’s writing career began with poetry in the mid-1970’s, but was interrupted by life until she retired in 2006. Currently she is writing full-time, producing short fiction and personal essays, as well as a long-form memoir related to her life in Alaska in the 1960s and 1970s.
Linda Joy Myers is president and founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, and has been a therapist for 33 years in Berkeley, CA. She’s the author of Gold Medal prize winning Don’t Call Me Mother—A Daughter’s Journey from Abandonment to Forgiveness, The Power of Memoir—How to Write Your Healing Story, and Journey of Memoir. Linda co-edited the anthology The Times They Were A-Changing—Women Remember the 60s & 70s. Her first book Becoming Whole—Writing Your Healing Story was a finalist in the ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Award. Her fiction, non-fiction, and memoir pieces have been published in literary journals and online. A blogger at Huffington Post, Linda co-teaches the program Write Your Memoir in Six Months. Linda is a speaker about memoir, healing, and the power of writing the truth, and offers editing, coaching, and manuscript evaluation for memoir, nonfiction, and fiction writers.
AND THE WINNER IS…
I hope you enjoy Writing Lessons. Featuring well-published writers of our favorite genre, each installment of the series will take on one short topic that addresses how to write memoir, and will include a great big book giveaway.
It’s my way of saying thanks for coming by.
The contest for this book is now closed. Please see the next installment of Writing Lessons.
The winner of the book is Judy Freedman. Congratulations, Judy! I’ll be in touch to send your book.
Thanks so much for including a post about Times They Were A-Changing in your blog! It is a powerful book. As one of the co-editors, I was pleased to give a copy to Grace Slick recently, one of the icons of the ’60s. It’s a book that honors the experiences of women during that time–in the counter culture and politics. We hope that many women of all generations will appreciate the breakthrough history of that era in these personal narratives and poems.
Thanks for the tips on writing for an anthology. I have seen some anthologies and calls for submissions, and actually wondered if there was any chance to actually to get accepted. These tips may give me the confidence to try. And, WOW! The excerpt was very powerful. Loved it. Thank you for sharing.
Helpful post! Now I’m wondering if you have any tips for people interested in submitting to anthologies but who don’t have the time to search every ad out there to find one to submit to. Is there a master list? Perhaps not, but maybe there are some good sites? I know Creative Nonfiction puts out great anthologies, for example; I’m on that list and get its call for submissions.
Hi Emily, Poets & Writers Classified section is a good source for anthology ads: http://www.pw.org/classifieds. Best of luck, Kate
Simple, but important rules-follow instructions, Edit, Edit, Edit, title related to theme, threaded throughout. Hook reader with scene, different kinds of dialogue, and summary. Have friends or editor read and scan for errors/omissions before submitting.
This is great material. I would love a copy of your book. I’m curator for my class anthology and would love this as a resource, and would promote it to the other 23 students.
Hi Suezy, I hope you win the giveaway copy from this blog! If not, the eBook is sold on a variety of online outlets for a very reasonable price. So glad you find it intriguing. Best, Kate
You are so right. Anthologies provide the perfect venue for that unusual piece that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere else. Winning an anthology contest is invigorating.
I so enjoy all your posts. As one who is new to memoir writing I learned that I really need to feel and describe my story with emotional details to capture my readers as this post demonstrates. I am eager to become a better writer during the second half of my life. Thanks for all your wisdom.
What an excellent post! I won a copy of your anthology elsewhere and it is every bit as interesting and intriguing and timely as you hoped. I love the standards you kept and the instructions you laid out. I published an anthology last March and found myself attracted to certain submissions but intrigued by others that were not entirely in my range of interest. What fascinates me is reader’s responses. Different readers are captivated by different pieces. An anthology has an over arching theme but, I am learning, there is room for variety that allows for a range of readers to be pulled in. I am going to refer to your list for my next anthology. Many thanks for excellent work here all! xo Suzi
How I wish I’d know about this anthology at the time you were looking for submissions. I was in the music business in San Francisco in the late Sixties. What a time it was! I’d love to win a copy of the book, and thank you for the tips on writing for anthologies.
Excellent comments on how to get published in an anthology, and loved the except from the book. I bought the book from Carol Defner at a recent event at the Arts Center of the Capital Region, which is in Troy, NY. The first few stories I’ve read are truly special. Marion Road Smith, thanks for posting these pieces, and thanks to Linda Joy Meyers for her words of wisdom and Carol Defner for a moving story so evocative of the times.
Thanks so much for offering this give away. I am very much taken by this anthology and will love having this chance to win it.
What I learned from this post on anthologies is to follow directions to the letter, edit edit and edit some more, and be sure to follow the theme.
My dream is to be published in a memoir project of some kind, be it an anthology or short story. I am keeping this bookmarked. :)
Marion, this is one of the finest anthologies of women’s stories I have had the honor to review. My only regret is that I was unable to get a submission in due to family crises that picked bad timing.
However, I have had my writing included in several anthologies and appreciate Linda Joy’s post today. It is a help to me and will be to many other writers.
Linda Joy, a great post on how to find yourself published alongside other great writers! As always, you leave no stone unturned.
Thanks so much to Marion Roach Smith for asking the editors of the new anthology, The Times They Were A’ Changing: Women Remember the 60s and 70s, to write about their process.
And thanks to Linda Joy Myers for providing this outline for writers to consider when submitting memoir for publication in an anthology. And, thanks to both for choosing my short memoir from the book to excerpt here.
I totally agree with the comments expressed so far and would like to add a couple of additional reasons writers ought to consider submitting short memoir for potential publication in anthologies.
1. Writing shorter memoir sharpens an author’s storytelling skills. As with short stories, all the action has to take place in a few pages, every sentence must be drive the narrative forward, and the story has to have some degree of transcendent meaning for the reader to relate to and feel satisfied.
2. Anthologies give writers the opportunity to work with professional editors at no extra cost. Amber Lea Starbird was my editor for “In the Family Way” and working with her was wonderfully instructive. Amber’s expert guidance helped me to find the exact words which gave expression to the deeper meaning of the story.
3. Having my work included alongside the work of other writers provided me with a benchmark from which to judge myself as a writer. Being among the 48 memoirists included in The Times, They Are A’ Changing anthology is a very gratifying experience.
Thanks for all the comments.