“The Beginning: Why Most Stories Get Rejected” by J.F. Benedetto, MWA, from Calliope

I was drawn to this article because it is the only non-fiction piece in the current issue of Calliope (available online at calliopewriters.org). After having read it, it seems that this would be more accurately labeled if it was under the heading of Advice Columns focusing on How to Get Published. In a sentence this piece says, “Make the start of your story interesting or don’t bother,” and while I don’t disagree with the fact that the beginning of a story should be interesting, it sounded in my head like Benedetto was asking his readers to sell out. He made it clear that if a story doesn’t start in medias res it will never be read by publishers.

One example Benedetto used was a story starting with five pages “detailing the ecosystem of uninhabited Planet Zervim III” which he would rather have start with “just five sentences explaining that our protagonist is a used-robot salesman taking passage on a commercial starship and that he’s just been marooned by aliens on an uninhabited plant for reasons he does not understand.” I could not help but think of Hollywood, car chases and explosions. I wondered why the ecosystem of Zervim III couldn’t be the most interesting start to a story. It could be that the differences between that ecosystem and our own make it interesting to read about. Maybe I’m a bit too much of a science nerd, but I’d love to read that.

This being said, it might be that five pages is too long, or that the story stands a better chance of being immediately engaging the way Benedetto wrote it , but I just don’t believe that the only way a story can be worth reading is if it starts in medias res.

-Averill

Canteen - Julie Kelly

The 3rd Issue of Canteen is available in digital form on their website and is essentially the same as viewing a catalog online. One section that I really enjoyed looking at were the photographs by Martijn Van De Griendt titled "Returning Thing." It is a series of pictures that depict different people smoking cigarettes in various places. Some of them are looking at the camera while others are. It is cool how the series of photographs are essentially in the middle of the journal, or at least in between works of prose and poetry.

The first picture is of a group of girls, one with curlers in her hair, who are at a carnival or fair of some sort. The only visible cigarette is in the blond girl with the curlers’ hands and she is also the only one making eye contact with the camera. I’m assuming that the three of them are all smoking together, since that’s usually what smokers do - it is largely a social event for many people. These girls seem to be about 17 but most likely wish to be much older and believe smoking cigarettes is a way to seem more mature. It’s interesting how none of them are making eye contact, except the one girl whose cigarette is visible. I think these photos really make the viewer think and instill different emotions amongst different people, depending on their feelings about smoking. I do like how the photos are placed in between works of prose and poetry and think that it would be fun if we could do that with Popped.