Short fiction is in trouble

If you’ve been running around in the short fiction writing community for any length of time, you know that there has been a lot of upheaval and uncertainty. The onslaught of AI-generated story submissions, an increase in scams and predatory publishing “services”, and the closure of Amazon’s newspaper and magazine subscription service, Newsstand, have all made it increasingly difficult for publishers of short fiction to stay in business.

There’s a rumor going around that the only people who read short stories are short story writers – but according to Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld Magazine, that’s just not true. There are more than enough short story readers out there to keep these important venues afloat; we just need to make it convenient to do so. And so, with the holiday season coming up, I’m asking everyone I know to support online magazines and short fiction publishers by purchasing (or gifting) a subscription. Here are a couple of places you can find them:

• Weightless Books – an online shop for e-books and magazine subscriptions
• Speculative Fiction Magazine Subscriptions – a searchable database that links to subscription options for every (SFF) taste and budget

If you know of others, please drop a link in the comments!

Why the focus on short fiction? Short stories – including drabbles, flash, novelettes, novellas, and everything in between – allow writers to experiment with form, to develop their own voice, and to get their work in front of people more quickly than the novel publishing process can. They also allow writers to explore current topics of social importance*, and to give readers a quick escape without committing to 400+ pages of a sweeping epic. And for many of us writers, short stories are where we got our start. Let’s keep as many of these opportunities as possible available for writers and readers alike.

~Christine

* For a powerful example, I highly recommend Samantha Mills’ award-winning short story “Rabbit Test” (Uncanny Magazine). CW: Sexual Assault, abuse, traumatic miscarriage, psych ward treatment, and suicide.

Welcome to Week #658

Here’s where you’ll find everything you need to get yourself ready to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)! Use our prompts—or don’t—and share links to your essays, stories, and poems in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook or Discord.

This Week’s Writing Prompt is:

This week, your job, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story, essay, or poem incorporating the following prompt:

Trope: Power at a Price

We’re taking a cue from this year’s Scarlet Quill Society and getting some practice incorporating – or subverting – popular tropes. This week, we’re all about POWER: who gets it, and at what cost. This could be as mundane as a promotion that forces your character to choose between a happy home life and a successful career, or as fantastical as a superpower that takes a toll on your character’s body or psyche. It’s a common theme in speculative fiction, but also in litfic and other genres – even memoir and creative nonfiction. If you need more information on the prompt, click the link and check out the description. What will your take be on this trope?

Play with the prompt, and when you’ve got your story down, share your response in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook and Discord, by linking your blog post, Google Doc, or other file. Bonus points if you do it on WIP Wednesday! Stuck? Check out last year’s — no, year before last! — series on responding to prompts. While you’re at it, make sure to check out your fellow YeahWriters’ responses, and don’t forget to leave them some love in the comments!

Looking for our weekly grids? After nearly ten years, they’ve been retired. Read more about the latest changes to YeahWrite in the #500 Weekly Writing Challenge Kickoff Post.

The Schedule

We will release a new prompt on our blog every Friday at 12pm Eastern. Then it’s up to you! Write your response to the prompt on your own blog or website and share the link in the Coffeehouse, located both on Facebook or Discord. If you prefer to keep your work under wraps (and away from the eyes of potential publishers), you can still ask for beta readers in the Coffeehouse and share your work privately! Every Monday, we’ll check in to see how you’re doing and what your writing goals are for the week. Wednesdays are “Work-in-Progress Wednesdays.” Share a few sentences or even a paragraph or two in the Coffeehouse (no more than 250 words, please). Even if you’re not done writing, this could be the boost you need to stay motivated. Did you publish a book? Do you have a story in a magazine? The First Friday of every month is for self-promotion, where you can share commercial links to your work for purchase. (You can always share the news that you’ve been accepted for publication, though!) And of course, the entire community is here 24-7 to share your victories and setbacks, challenges and accomplishments. So come on in, pull up a chair, and say hello. We’re all writers here.

Upcoming and Ongoing

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