We are now accepting short stories as well as quality flash fiction.
Length
The only difference between short stories and flash fiction is the length.
Short stories should be less than 3000 words. Any longer than that and they will be rejected.
Flash fiction needs to be shorter than 1000 words. There is no minimum length. If you can tell a story in very few words, go for it. The shorter your story, if it fulfils the criteria of a story, the better your chance of getting it accepted.
However, the maximum length is fixed. Which means 3000 and 1000 words and below is okay but 3001 or 1001 and above is not. Edit carefully and check word length before sending it in.
A complete story
Within the word length, we are looking for a complete story with a beginning, a middle and an end, at least one character, some action or movement and preferably, some dialogue.
A story can be defined as – a character facing a problem, acting to resolve it and reaching some kind of completion at the end. There must be movement and progress in the story.
The ending can be of any kind – a happy or unhappy ending. A twist or a surprise or even an ambiguous ending provided it seems natural and not contrived.
Any genre is acceptable. The emphasis is on quality and good writing.
What we are looking for
- Well written stories which draw you in and keep you engaged.
- New and fresh ways of looking at familiar subjects.
- Beautiful or lyrical language.
- Original ideas along with easy narrative skills. Originality counts. Make sure your story is not just following the old and trite clichés.
What we do not want
- Long vague wandering pieces in which a character does nothing but drink tea and brood.
- Descriptive pieces in which nothing progresses.
- An endless monologue.
- Philosophy or arguments of any kind are not stories. Promoting a cause is not fiction. Exploring an idea is better suited to an essay rather than a story.
- Jokes which only build up to a pun or a punch line. They are not fiction. Don’t bother to send jokes – we have read them all.
- We want stories with a beginning, a middle and an end. The end does not have to be happy, but it must be a resolution of some kind.
Send one story or up to three flash fiction pieces by email to this address narrowroad.mag@gmail.com
Cut and paste the story into the body of the email. We do not open attachments or pdfs.
The subject line should read – Flash submission/story submission followed by the title of the story. Include a few lines of bio and make sure you include the exact word count, your name as you wish it to appear and your country.
The story must be your own original and unpublished work. We consider it published if it is up on a blog or Facebook page. Do not add long quotes or the lyrics of songs unless you own the copyright to them. Every word in the story must be your own.
Make sure you edit properly. A piece full of spelling and grammatical mistakes is unlikely to be selected.
The editors reserve the right to make minor grammatical and spelling changes as necessary.
The magazine takes first publishing rights which means you must credit this magazine every time you publish the story anywhere else. We also reserve a one-time and non-exclusive right to publish the story in an anthology or book, print or ebook.
The copyright of the story remains with the author and we only ask that you do not publish it anywhere else until it is published and for a period of one month thereafter.