Fanstory Wasn’t the Reason Why I Got Published

An author. Resource: ttsmaker.com

I had been practising journalism for about a decade but discovered the beauty of literature after the shortlist for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing came out. I was inspired and started writing short stories and fiction.

However, I couldn’t get published. Each time I tried, I was turned down. Somehow, I discovered Fanstory. It is a rendezvous of authors with a hunger for visibility. At Fanstory, authors share their writings and receive reviews that help them discover loopholes.

When I got published, eventually, it wasn't because of Fanstory. Nevertheless, everyone has a peculiar experience at Fanstory –some people may have become published because of it.

If anything, I suffered racism over there. Each time I think about Fanstory, this is what comes to my mind. The site has a plan that allows members to create contests. One day, I created a contest titled, The House with the Red Roof. I was shocked that most members who wrote had streaks of racism in their stories. I am a black African and, on my profile page, nothing was hidden –there was my picture and nationality.

The most upsetting of the racist entries received the highest votes and won.  This is part of the winning story (not in the exact words of Michael Cahill, the author):

The ship docked. It was quite silent except for faint sounds that came now and then and suggested there were extremely exhausted people, exhausted from hunger, thirst, and immobility in the many months of the voyage. When eventually they disembarked, they appeared withdrawn, cuddled to their dirt as if it were some kind of blanket.

The human cargoes were asked if any of them had a skill. One woman raised her hand, saying she could play the piano. The man wondered if indeed she could be of any use other than for sexual satisfaction. She was given the chance but appeared bamboozled. She was warned sternly that if she continued to waste time, she would regret the dire repercussions of doing so...

The creator of a contest must pay to have his contest displayed so members can see it. The money, together with a fee every contestant must pay, is used to reward the winner of the contest after Fanstory has taken out its charges. In the end, I realized I had rewarded someone for racially abusing me. At least that was how I felt –racially abused. Devastated, I removed my profile photo, also hiding my nationality.  When the renewal of my subscription to Fanstory was due, I declined and opted to leave, considering my devastation. Fanstory kept sending me messages saying, "We miss you at Fanstory,” but my mind was made up.

"Some authors never become authors" goes the saying. It is what every aspiring author dreads. I continued trying to get published. Eventually, the Cecile Writers helped me get published, by telling me precisely my shortcomings.  I had sent a particular story several times; each time addressing what I guessed was the reason it wasn’t published. One day the editor of the publication, based in the Netherlands, found me on LinkedIn.  I told him how humiliated I felt, each time the story was turned down. I also made it known to him that punctuation issues were the bane of my writing, to which he replied with an empathic, "No." He was generous enough to tell me what my challenges were: my stories were mostly plot-driven and archaic, as a result. Modern stories are character-driven, helping readers to emotionally connect with the stories.  He also talked about the technique of showing, rather than telling. So, I knew that I had to learn what these techniques were.

Over a couple of months, I learned them and, together with elements of plot, that I also discovered, I realized that getting published simply requires meeting the right teacher. Today, I am a proud author of six published stories, under the name, Yiro Abari High.

In a short story, there are elements which include:

1.         Characters, which are the people mentioned in the story

2.         A setting, which is the time and the location of the story.

3.         There is a point of view. This is the voice with which the author tells his story – it could be in the first, second or third persons.  In the first person, the author writes as if he is the character in the story and is writing about a story in which he was involved. So, he uses the pronoun,” I.” In the second person point of view, the author is telling another person what happened to that very person. So, in place of the pronoun “he,” he uses “you.” It is awkward and is the reason why many authors don’t like writing in the second person –you can’t be telling someone what happened to him, since he knows it more than you do, except if he had suffered dementia. In the third person, the author tells a story that happened to another person. So, he uses the pronoun, “he.” Here are examples: first person –“I” went to heaven. The second person –“you” went to heaven. Third person –“he” went to heaven.

4.         The fourth element of a short story is the plot. The plot is the events that happened in the story.  The series of events arranged in the order in which they occurred is referred to as a plotline.

5.         The fifth element of a short story is the theme, something I often refer to as the colouration of the story.  It is the aspect of life to which the author intends to draw the attention of the reader. If the author intends to draw the attention of the reader to the eminence of global warming, for instance, the theme is environmental.  Other themes could be romance, war and crime, biographical, historical, etc.

6.         The last element of a short story is the style. The style is responsible for the mood the reader feels while reading the story. It comes from the choice of words the author loves to use, his experience and, sometimes, what the author has been reading just before writing his story.

 If you must get published, you must also understand the elements of plot. The plot has five elements, which include: exposition, conflict, climax, conflict resolution and the conclusion.

The exposition is the beginning of the story, which gives the reader the back story from where the story continues. Conflict is the challenge the main character, also known as the protagonist, faces and which must be solved. An example of a conflict could be a situation where a character is chased by wild carnivorous animals. The climax is where the conflict gets worse. For instance, the character comes across a gorge that is too wide to jump across as the animals get closer while he must find a way of overcoming both adversities within the few minutes he has. The conflict resolution is how he overcomes both situations to emerge victorious. The conclusion is merely the closing events of the story.

Now that you understand the elements of a short story, read several short stories to see how the elements play out and where flexibility is possible.