Interview with Contest Judge C.C. Finlay
How can a beginner learn from writing for a contest and from writing short stories?
Contests for beginning writers can be a good way to gauge where you are in your development. When you submit a story to a magazine, you’re competing for attention with other beginning writers, but you’re also going up against writers with ten, twenty, thirty years of experience. You’re in the same pool with writers who’ve never sold a story and writers who’ve won multiple awards.
It’s important for beginning writers to do that, to get work out there with the big name authors and try to shine. Every writer goes through that, and all of the magazine editors I know are looking for new voices and perspectives. During the five years that I’ve been editor at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, we’ve published a debut story by a first-time author, on average, in every issue. Even our “all-star” issues, like the 70th Anniversary edition out this month, usually include a first pro sale. Almost always, those writers have been working and submitting work for years before that first sale.
Contests are a good way to stay engaged on that journey toward professional status. In addition to the validation you get from winning, or the important things you can learn by getting a professional critique, there’s also the chance to pick up critical skills. When the winning story is announced, it’s something you can look at and say, “Okay, this was written by someone at the exact same spot in their career as I am—what skills do I need to work on to bring my stories up to the same level?”
What do you look for in a short story?
I never know if I’m going to like a story until I read it, so that’s a hard question to answer. I like to be surprised by fiction, whether it’s by the quality of the prose, the voice and perspective, the ideas, the character insights, the narrative arcs, or the plot turns. Or, even better, some combination of all of those things.
Structure is also very important to me. But not structure as in, “Here’s a formula, now you have to follow it.” Every story has to find its own specific structure. But more generally, for me, all stories need a beginning that grabs me and pulls me in. First paragraph. First sentence is even better. Something specific and unique to this particular story and character is almost always going to feel more fresh to me than some common situation or trope. Sometimes small, relatable stakes are more effective at grabbing readers—and me; I’m a reader first—than big life-threatening stakes, especially if we don’t know the characters and don’t care if they live or die. After I’m grabbed, the narrative needs to sustain momentum—every scene or section needs some kind of in-the-moment stakes, something to keep us engaged and to move the story forward, and the pacing needs to keep us reading from one paragraph to the next. Finally, I expect the ending to be satisfying. The biggest piece of the impact of a story is the ending, because it’s the culmination of everything before it and the last thing the reader sees of a story. Something specific and unique to this story and character is almost always more effective as an ending than something familiar.
Beginnings and endings are the places I see most writers resort to cliches and familiar tropes. Too many new writers try to game editors by giving us exactly what they’ve seen be successful in another story by a different writer. “Oh, Charlie bought a story with this kind of beginning—I’m going to do the exact same thing.” I bought that story because I thought it was unique and reflected that specific writer. The best way to simultaneously stand out as a writer and also connect with readers, is to find your own unique stories. The things that only you could write about in that particular way.
What are common pitfalls that new writers can experience when submitting for the first time?
This goes back to the last question. A lot of new writers submit stories too soon, before the stories are ready to leave the outbox. I also see a lot of new writers telling very familiar plots or using very familiar tropes in familiar ways; they’re not finding the new thing they have to offer to the long, ongoing conversation that is genre fiction.
But those are only pitfalls in as much as they’re part of the learning curve for new writers. If you’re finishing stories, submitting them to editors, and working to improve your craft and hone your skills, then you’re on the right track. Not finishing stories, not sending them out into the world, not trying to improve your craft or get better—those are the real pitfalls.
Who are some of your favorite writers? What are some of your favorite short stories of all time?
Different stories and writers resonate for me at different times in my life, and I read old stories over to new effect, simply because I’m always changing, always responding to what’s happening in the moment, and being present and aware while I read fiction opens me to seeing different things. On the whole, I think that’s positive and one of the traits that makes me a good editor.
That said, The Ways of White Folks by Langston Hughes is a story collection that I read when I was young, just starting to write seriously, and it’s one I go back to reread every few years. “Cora, Unashamed,” one of the stories in that collection, is the epitome for me of everything that Hughes does well: the depiction of character and circumstance, the grinding build of tension, the satisfying release at the end. If that story doesn’t make you feel, I’d worry that you’ve closed off your heart. If it doesn’t make you think, I’d worry that you’ve turned off your brain. It’s also such a clear and vivid picture of a specific time and place. When he wrote it, no one else besides Hughes was trying to write about those particular people or tell that particular story. For me, it’s pretty close to perfect.
Within genre, I couldn’t name any living writers without inadvertently leaving others out, and as an editor I don’t particularly want to alienate anyone I might want to buy stories from in the future! If I’m understanding the purpose of this question, living authors are most relevant here if new writers want to get a sense of the authors and stories that I love. The best way to do that is to look at issues of F&SF from the past two years or so. I’ve been really excited about the work we’ve been publishing lately, which I think are the best issues of my turn at the helm so far, and especially excited about some of the young, new writers who have been appearing in our pages with multiple stories.
Why do you think a contest like this is important in terms of supporting the growth and community of beginning writers?
Becoming a writer is frequently a long and often a disheartening apprenticeship, involving persistent hard work and so much delayed gratification. For beginning writers, this is a chance to take stock, to shine, to get some immediate gratification. From an editor’s point-of-view—and, I suspect, an agent’s, but you’ll have to ask Lisa—it’s really important to encourage new writers and help them develop. As the world changes rapidly around us, perhaps more so now than any other time in recent history, we need new voices, new perspectives, and new stories to join the existing voices, perspectives, and stories. New writers are essential to the community of readers, and they’ll be the people who’ll tell the essential stories in the decades ahead. A contest like this one, that helps beginning writers move toward becoming professional writers, has the chance to be an important part of the process that helps those writers develop, gain recognition, and have success.
C.C. Finlay
C.C. Finlay is the current editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which is celebrating its 70th Anniversary in 2019, and the author of four novels and a story collection. His work has been translated into more than fifteen languages and has made him a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and other awards. He was an instructor at Clarion in 2005 and again as part of the anchor team in 2017 with his wife, novelist Rae Carson. He manages F&SF's editorial offices from the city of Surprise, Arizona, because he likes surprises.