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koechophe

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Everything posted by koechophe

  1. koechophe
    Good luck! I'd say it's a hair too early to give up hope ?
  2. koechophe
    I definitely get why people don't like it, but idk, I enjoy the vibe. There's a lot of congratulations for people, and also a lot of people who go there to gripe and lay off steam, and it seems fairly supportive from what I've seen. Mostly just saying this for anyone who's thinking about joining it, not the best for everyone, but I've had a positive experience with it *Shrug.
  3. koechophe
    ASU hasn't emailed yet, but if you check the portal you should see your status (Rejected for me, btw, not surprised since they've already sent out waitlists and acceptences)
  4. koechophe
    @questioningquestions @palaver I appreciate the support, but it's best not to respond to this person. They are a known troll who makes a string of new accounts every time their current one gets banned, and they've been coming to this site for ages. Around this time (when they start getting rejections) they get extremely bitter, and it's best not to feed that by replying.
  5. koechophe
    Also rejected from Michigan. Is it telling that I actually forgot I'd applied there until I got the rejection letter? Anyway, glad I've had at least one school talk to me lol.
  6. koechophe
    Honestly would love to keep in touch with a few people here who want to workshop things. My undergraduate was great for a lot of things, but I didn't get that much good quality feedback on my writing, nor did I have the chance of working with people who were that serious about it (TBF I was English with an emphasis in CW, not creative writing, and my academic writing did improve tremendously). Workshopping really helps, especially when it's not incredibly basic (which is what I spent most of my undergraduate giving advice on). Idk, let's see where the chips fall for all of us, but either way, I'm always down for some workshop buddies ?
  7. koechophe
    I'm fiction. I know enough about poetry that I "could" be helpful (took some classes in it, write it occasionally) but am not an expert.
  8. koechophe
    I also have slow days at work often too, so if anyone wants to send me things, feel free to shoot me a DM
  9. koechophe
    Happy Valentine's Day everyone! (Here's hoping there won't be rejections again this year lol)
  10. koechophe
    -People SOMETIMES notify on different days, but usually it's like late one day and early the next. They send out notifications in batches, so if it's been 24 hours, it's usually safe to assume no notification = you weren't in the "notified" group (acceptance). you MIGHT still be on a waitlist, but the longer it goes without you being notified, the less likely that is. It's not strange that no one else posted an acceptance, since schools often only take like 5 people per genre, it's totally normal for only 1 of those people to be in draft/gradcafe. Also email and then call is a bit out of the ordinary, but makes sense, likely they don't have time to call for whatever reason, or they don't have enough specifics to be able to answer questions. If you haven't been informed, you can likely assume it's a rejection, but I guess hold out as much hope as you'd like *shrug.
  11. koechophe
    Also, I can vouch that @MDP is a great workshop partner, gave some fabulous critique on one of my pieces. I also want to say, setting the goal of writing and polishing a piece to submit for publication has been really good. It's made me feel a lot better as a writer, and it worked better than me just aimlessly sitting down to write to try and make myself feel better. I'd highly recommend setting some sort of writing goal like that, even if it's just that you'll write a piece and share it with a friend. Giving an "I'm going to show this to other people" I think really helps make the goal feel more concrete and less like this annoying "I'm just here to make myself feel better."
  12. koechophe
    Huge congrats! Really glad it worked out for you!
  13. koechophe
    At least I'm in the happy boat of having researched all my programs, and knowing that I will take an offer from ANY of them if it comes in. I didn't have that last year, and there was one program in particular that, even if I got in, I wasn't sure I'd say yes to.
  14. koechophe
    Likely, but not necessarily. Waitlists often go out later than acceptances, but "usually" not a lot later.
  15. koechophe
    Saw notification for Arizona State in Fiction, so guessing those ones went out.
  16. koechophe
    So true. Volume is legit everything. I also SUPER recommend keeping just a basic spreadsheet of all the places you submit to. It really helps make sure you don't accidentally, I don't know, submit the same piece to the same place twice.
  17. koechophe
    Definitely! Here's some you might consider: Tier 4--start by looking for stuff locally here. Does your town have anything? Do your local colleges host contests? If that doesn't work or you'd like to try a more national approach, here's a few good ones: https://glassmountain.submittable.com/submit (University of Houston's, they accept work from emerging artists, so anyone not attending an MFA or PHD. Also try their print magazine, Shards. When I published with them, I was lucky enough to get into both (the Shards folks liked my story and asked if they could publish it too. I obviously said yes)) https://mosaiczine.com/submission-guidelines/ (University of California, Riverside, they accept work from anyone) Tier 3: https://theadroitjournal.org/about/submissions/ (This one is harder to break into, but a bit more known, and they pride themselves on publishing emerging authors.) https://halfwaydownthestairs.net/ (Good middling one to publish in, they seem to like more experimental pieces) https://www.whlreview.com/ (Another good middling one to break into) Tier 2: https://granta.com/ (Bigger name, hard to get into but good) https://www.thesunmagazine.org/ (Also hard) That should be enough to get started on if you want some variety, but here's a pretty good post listing off a bunch of magazines too (without tiering them like I do, but most of these are middling.) http://www.ardorlitmag.com/literary-magazines-for-new-writers.html
  18. koechophe
    I mean, it depends on your goals. So there's four tiers in publishing literary fiction (There's actually way more, but I like to divide it this way mentally: Tier 1: Places you can't publish in unless you're already known/represented. Like, these places theoretically take blind submissions, but in practice, really don't. This is the big, BIG name places, like the New Yorker. There's not a lot of these. Tier 2: Big-name places that actually publish unknown authors. This is places like Granta, The Sun Magazine, etc. They are HARD to publish in, but it's much more of a resume item if you actually pull it off. Tier 3: Middling literary magazines. Boy, there's a lot of these. Literary magazines a lot of people haven't heard of, but they actually have some amount of readers, some amount of notoriety. These are great to publish in: It means something if you do get published here, but it's not an extremely tall barrier like some of the ones in tier 2. Tier 4: Local / University magazines. I say university lightly, because some university magazines are in tier 3, and some even in tier 2 if they're super prestigious. But a lot of the more undergraduate ones that have public submission are here. These ones aren't super hard to publish in, but they don't accept garbage. They are also usually listed as "good places to start with" on websites. My advice if you've never published anything is to start in tier 4. Then, if you have success (and keep in mind, a "good" success rate for getting things published is like 10% of them say yes) then move up to tier 3. Again, if you're doing good there, move up to tier 2. And... then maybe try tier 1? Idk, it's probably more like "maybe try to get a book published" and then tier 1 will give you the time of day lol. This is just my personal system, i'm sure people who are more experienced here could tell you everything that's wrong with it, but it was good for me when I was trying to get things published. If you'd like, I can tell you some of the magazines I found success with, or other ones I've seen recommended, but it'd be helpful to know what you're going for. If you just want to get your feet wet, then I can list off some tier 4 ones, but if you're looking for something more serious, tier 2-3 ones are also an option. Important note: Do not take rejection from any publication as any sort of sign. Like I said earlier, a GOOD acceptance rate for a story is that 10% of people would agree to publish it (Unless you're established, which is a different ballpark.) It's honestly just going to depend on what the magazine is looking for. A lot of magazines like to make each issue feel cohesive around a particular theme. Just be mindful that if you dive in to this field, you can expect a lot of rejection. Try not to let it get you down. If there's something to learn, learn from it, but don't dwell on it.
  19. koechophe
    I legitimately haven't opened that piece(s) (I have a collection of short stories, and I picked 1-3 of them for each submission, depending on how much they asked for. It was crazy how one school wanted 10 pages and another school wanted 40 lol) since I submitted it. I feel like that's been a good decision.
  20. koechophe
    Some days are better than others. Some days, I feel pretty good about the whole thing and have this attitude of "I'm not sure if I'll get in this year, but I know if I keep working, I'll get in eventually, and it'll be fine." Other days, my attitude is more like, "AAAhhHHHH!" (Fun fact, "AAAAAHHHHHHH!" is what I named the spreadsheet where I kept all my grad school information when I applied last year. This year it was much more boring: "Graduate school information") TBH, the worst happened for me last year, and I didn't get into any programs. Not even any waitlists, as far as I could tell. And you know what? Facing down all those rejections was still SO much better than just waiting. So be nice to yourself, and know that this period will come to an end. Waiting really is harder than anything else. Hey, same! I've really struggled with writing. In order to motivate me, I've recently given myself the goal of writing a new literary piece and trying to get it published before I hear back from every school (Not, like have it actually get in a journal by then, but have written, polished, and submitted.) I stopped getting things published a few years ago when I realized that it wasn't going to help me get into a grad program, but it seems like a good, concrete goal to work towards. Honestly, I know this doesn't work for everyone, but with me, sometimes I just need to square my shoulders and grind out new writing when I'm feeling uninspired.
  21. koechophe
    To save yourself unnecessary clicks, I'd recommend bookmarking this specific page: https://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/?per_page=20&q=&institution=&program=creative+writing&degree= This will show you all of the Creative Writing results from any schools.
  22. koechophe
    I'm sure you're right. There's just a frustration when I see new users genuinely considering the troll's "test", but I should just respond to them instead of the troll. EDIT: Also, for anyone who is curious, here's how you ignore users on this forum: Click on your account name in the top right corner, then under settings you should see "Ignored Users." Click there, add the user, profit.
  23. koechophe
    As a reader, I do feel like we lose some aspect of elegance. There's a certain beauty in really nice form, and I guess I find that missing in the overly stream-of-consciousness stories, but I also think that form has been an excuse to reject people, particularly marginalized ones, so I can see the value in really railing against it. But I'm glad we're in a day and age where things are given more room to grow and flourish despite being unconventional.
  24. koechophe
    I agree, not my favorite, but I like the.. I don't know, idea behind it? Like, this is railing against form, which I think is cool, but actually reading it isn't my favorite, so I guess mixed feelings. All four stories were on the front page of their respective literary magazines. I literally pulled the first ones I saw. I guess if you read literary magazines more frequently, you'd know that even the top ones aren't any sort of consistent on style and form. But that makes no difference, you're going to continue to move the goalposts on your argument because you're unwilling to admit that you're wrong. Also, aren't you tired of trying to play some game of "GOTCHA" with my writing--a piece which I legitimately wrote in high school and published back when I was a freshman in college? It was one of three that I submitted to the literary magazine, and they picked it out of a lineup--much to my annoyance, since I thought the others were better, but w/e. Please, feel free to assert your superiority with it. If that's what you need to make yourself feel better, who am I to stand in your way?
  25. koechophe
    Okay, then, show an "illterate" person (as you so kindly phrase it) these four pieces. Don't be shy: https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/7851/this-then-is-a-song-we-are-singing-sterling-holywhitemountain https://www.newyorker.com/books/flash-fiction/gravity https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/7803/mathematics-under-which-is-love-whose-bed-is-language-adania-shibli https://www.theparisreview.org/fiction/7821/we-all-fall-down-mckenzie You can shove any other piece in with these ones, and i'd bet you anything, they'd say the odd man out is piece 1. Or maybe even piece three or four. I also bet if an unknown author sent in piece 1 as their application materials, it would be rejected after the first page by most adcoms too. The "concretion" you love is utterly lacking from pieces 1 and 3. The need to "start in scene" and not confuse readers at the get-go is lost from piece 2. We're in the post-modern age, and form and expression are fluctuating extremely heavily. "Literary conventions" are shifting, inconsistent and malleable. Say whatever you want about the pieces I've gotten published. Keep using me as your example of someone who tragically refuses to acknowledge their failures as a writer. I sincerely don't care. You don't know me, and you don't know my writing. When you do things like say "I'm pretty sure other forum users fail my test" even though you've never seen any of their writing, you show your true colors: You're just here to get a high on putting other people down, because the truth is, you're miserable at the fact that you still can't get in. But maybe, if you actually tried to be a decent human being, you'd have a much more rewarding experience here.
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