This week we're sharing some of Weird Lit Mag Senior Editor Fawn's perspectives—on what she's looking for in a fiction submission, how she feels about exclamation points, the dangers of too much self-criticism, and which cryptid team she's on.
What inspired you to become part of a lit journal?
I wanted to do a small act of uplifting the kind of creativity and artistic visions I want to see in the world: direct, off-kilter, weird, and unique. Also many years ago I served as copyeditor on my college creative review and loved it.
What place does weirdness have in your life?
I grew up on a very remote homestead that was only accessible in winter by sled dog or horse (eventually we got a snowmobile) in an area inhabited by rednecks, racists, weed growers, hippies, and an actual cult. Weird has been my backdrop, and as such, directs the intent of my creativity.
What kinds of things are you excited to read in a Weird Lit Mag submission?
Compelling, image-rich prose supporting a storyline that moves me somehow. I’m not attached so strongly to plot, but there still has to be a journey of some kind. I like work that is unafraid of darkness, and isn’t shy about saying hard things that are so often left unsaid.
What kinds of things are you not excited to encounter in a Weird Lit Mag submission?
Overused themes approached in an unoriginal way. Absurdity without a deeper groove. Melodrama without a root. Transgressive plot points used for shock value alone. Retellings of well-known fairy tales. Stodgy dialogue. Hypermasculinity.
What advice do you have for contributors?
Fine-tune your first line. It’s extremely easy to lose a reader’s faith if the first line fails. Avoid similes in your first line. Steer clear of dreams. Exclamation points are almost always unnecessary. Ending a piece with suicide is lazy 95% of the time. Stories about writing are usually boring. Any of these statements could be proven wrong at any time with the right approach, but it has to be done excellently.
Where or how do you think many writers can improve their writing?
More editing. Which does not mean, adding extra explanation or word count. Editing very often means cutting out entire pages or parts that aren’t serving the whole, even if it’s painful to do so. Don’t be too attached to your words. Romanticize them as much as you’d like, but they are merely tools in the toolbox, which still needs to close.
Has being a WLM reader/editor had an impact on your own work?
Absolutely. It’s driven home how challenging it is to make a really great ending.
What is your favorite banned book?
To Kill a Mockingbird would be one. Too many to list, very unfortunately.
What will your biography be titled?
Unpopular Opinions.
Advice on creating that you’ve learned by trial and error?
You are the biggest obstacle to creating beautiful things. Self-criticism is the enemy of art, but the opposite is not the answer—be critical without touching your ego. It’s not about you, it’s about the work. And that work is the act of letting go. You have to make bad art before you make good art.
Unpopular opinion, go:
Most jobs are completely, utterly bullshit and should in no way inform our self-worth.
What’s your favorite cryptid?
Sasquatch and their cousins around the globe—followed by the Ogopogo, the monster said to inhabit Okanagan Lake in British Columbia.
There’s “good” weird…and there’s also “not-so-good” weird. What’s “good” weird to you?
Anything that makes you think deeper, something that disrupts as well as rebuilds. Weird for weird’s sake only disrupts without a path forward. And we need that, a pathway. We desperately need that today.
Fawn Emmalee Ward is an author, editor, and marketing content manager based in the Pacific Northwest. She has written for multiple industries, including food and wine, agriculture, business, craft beer, apparel, and luxury travel. Her poetry and prose have been published in Pinhole Poetry, The Ghastling, The Reed College Creative Review, and elsewhere. She enjoys darkness, one too many adjectives, and vivid settings of the natural world. Find her at fawnward.com.
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