20 Questions to Ask Before Submitting Your Work

Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut are two writers whose advice I appreciate most. Practical advice as opposed to bombastic pronouncements useful only to famous writers or proscriptive lists that freak me out about speech tags and the quality of my settings.

I've written about keeping Vonnegut's list of advice to writers near my writing space before. In a charming interview Bradbury discussed his early experience submitting his work and its inevitable rejection.  That clip's at the bottom of this post.

I've only recently had short stories published and that after nearly a year of submitting my work. As writers we can be insecure enough about the quality of our work. We can control the quality of our submissions.

Here are some questions I've asked (or wish I had) to keep from sending out unpolished fiction:

1. Did you read this aloud? (You'll sometimes experience what seems like a wholly new work).
2. Did you share this with someone(s) you trust and get their opinions about its content and grammar?
3. If you've ignored reader critiques, do conventions of fiction support that?
4. What's compelling about your title?
5. What's compelling about your first sentences, paragraphs, and page; what questions will the reader want answered?
6. How does your conclusion stray from the questions, issues, conflicts initially introduced? (It probably shouldn't).
7. What story questions are left unanswered? Justify that. 
8. Can you summarize the conflict in a single sentence?
9. Can you summarize what each character wants in a sentence?
10. Do you care about this enough, but not too much? 
11. Do you have something else to work on now?
12. Will this be rejected? Yes (but whatever. Relationships can hurt way more).
13. Can you handle opening your own self-addressed stamp envelope to find a scrap of paper with a form (!!!) rejection slip and discounted subscription offer? (This gets me a little bit. . . but that's why I have liquor & hard drugs something else to work on).
14. Did you put only one space between sentences? (I just learned that the two-space rule only applies to typewritten manuscripts. Remember The Highlander? "There can be only one").  
15. Did you reread the submission guidelines? (I can be careless, so I also read these aloud).
16. Have you read anything from the publication? (Since they suggest you should, you should).
17. Are you familiar with the conventions of how you introduce your story to a total stranger who has a lot to do?
    
18. Can you figure out the name of the relevant editor, so you can address your cover letter to a person other than "Fiction Editor?"
19. Does the recipient on the envelope match your cover letter? (I'm mortified I'll screw this up someday and triple check myself).
20. Did you log where and when you submitted this, so you A) don't resubmit the same work to the same publication and B) know when to follow up if you haven't had a response?

This is the Bradbury interview.  He's got the advantage of reflecting on himself as a young writer, but listen to his voice; its calm determination and faith. 

Think about how many writers never share their work because they let cynicism get the better of confidence. That's why he's a great example and this interview is kickass.

Loads of questions were left out. I hope you help expand this list in the comments!

Did you like this post? I've been writing 20 question lists (on topics like symbolism, heroic and villainous characters, blogging and what defines a writer) for a while now.

Paulo Campos wrote his first novel in high school but didn't return to fiction until well into graduate school.  He's since written three novels and a collection of short fiction.  One of the novels and the collection seem good enough to shop for publication and are being revised.  He was a recipient of Glimmer Train's "Best Start" competition in November 2009.  His first published piece of short fiction will appear in the June 2010 issue of THEMA. 

He lives in New York with his wife and two suspect cats.