confused about how to write story for intellectuals

[cautiouslyimpulsiveunpredictable]

Hello, I am new. My name is Em. I wrote a story and submitted it, and it was rejected as being - as I took it - not fleshed out enough.

I wrote it on two levels:

1) an invitation, perhaps
2) a mind tease
3) for people who do not need graphic detail - they prefer to embellish in their minds themselves.

Any tips? Should I provide my story here?

Many thanks!

 

[Darkniciad]

A good place to start would be the text of the actual rejection note. They're often quite vague, but once you've seen enough of them in the context of the stories they get attached to, you can sort of pick up what they mean.

 

[sunandshadow]

Could have been rejected for reasons of "this isn't erotica" or reasons of "this is all telling and no showing so it's more like an outline than a story"? This phrase "people who do not need graphic detail" doesn't sound like material that would really fit in with literotica's usual thing.


(I dunno - I usually consider myself an intellectual but I like some juicy detail.)

 

[roomfor1more]

Without the story and the rejection note it is difficult to figure out the reason. My feeling, a story that is not fleshed out enough, implies the story is need of work. Most likely the story is too vague or has a lot of grammatical errors that makes the story difficult to understand. Best advice is if you do not want to post it, seek out an editor to help you.

 

[Firebrain]

I'm "intellectual" and I like detail. It's what I come to Lit for (funnily enough).

I have no idea why your story was rejected, but posting "a story for people who don't like graphic detail" on Lit has given me a good chortle. Merci.

 

[driphoney]

Post a few paragraphs and let us see. Also post the exact working of your rejection. We need for information to help you.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

A bit of Post-Modern minimalism, perhaps? You might try shortening it and posting it in the six-word story thread at the AH. Can't trim it that much? Try the really short story thread in the same forum. Can you make your reader come in 200 words? There's a place for you there as well. Or did you leave out the part about coming so the reader can write it without any interference from the author? Oh my, the possibilities are not quite infinite, but certainly many.

 

[evanslily]

Hello, I am new. My name is Em. I wrote a story and submitted it, and it was rejected as being - as I took it - not fleshed out enough.

I wrote it on two levels:

1) an invitation, perhaps
2) a mind tease
3) for people who do not need graphic detail - they prefer to embellish in their minds themselves.

Any tips? Should I provide my story here?

Many thanks!

It sounds to me as though the story simply wasn't long enough. I doubt that it had anything to do with not being 'fleshed out' (and yup, that made me smile too ) - because that's not a comment that's usually given with a rejection. What did the rejection actually say?

 

[sr71plt]

You could always make a new paragraph with each sentence (or less) and submit it to the poetry section. Free verse is intellectual.

 

[oggbashan]

The only rejection I can think of that fits the original post is 'not enough words'.

The minimum number of words for a submission to be accepted as a story is 750.

I write 50-word stories. I could, and had, submitted them as poetry which has no lower word limit, but now I submit them in sets of 15. 15 x 50 = 750 words. The titles don't count towards the fifty words. Those titles and my copyright statement take the set of 15 stories to well over 800 words.

How many words was the rejected story?

 

[CarlusMagnus]

If you really want to write stories for intellectuals, there's an obvious strategy:

Become an intellectual.

 

[bronzeage]

Hello, I am new. My name is Em. I wrote a story and submitted it, and it was rejected as being - as I took it - not fleshed out enough.

I wrote it on two levels:

1) an invitation, perhaps
2) a mind tease
3) for people who do not need graphic detail - they prefer to embellish in their minds themselves.

Any tips? Should I provide my story here?

Many thanks!

There are many styles of telling a story, but in the end, the story is what matters. If you want to tell a story in stark terms and no ornamentation, it most be a compelling story. Don't expect your readers to do the work for you.