Hello Writers!
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Addam Ledamyen. I am a novelist, playwright, actor, narrative improvisor, editor, story doctor, lover of deep fiction, and now the conductor of The Tall Tales Serialized Fiction Magazine: Big Fiction in Small Cereal-sized Bites (coming soon).
It came to my attention that the
Fiction World was in need of a community meeting place for those who write longer fiction. Being one myself, I certainly agreed, and jumped on the opportunity to bring it into reality. The ultimate form this has taken was developed with much-appreciated community input throughout the following few notes:Now, finally, here it is!
How to Make Use of This Space:
This will be a place for people looking to grow their skills as a narrative artist and with an interest in helping others do the same. Any active participant in the community who would like feedback on their work or advice on a creative issue they are working through can submit whatever they would like posted via the provided form and I will post it on their behalf for the community to respond to, listing the asker as the author of the post. These posts will be private with viewing and commenting only available to members. (More on how to become a member below. Don’t worry, it’s easy and free.)
These posts can be anything, really, as long as they invite deep thought or feedback about your fiction, but I would recommend, as much as possible, submitting a chunk of your work (or a detailed summary of it if you want full plot critique) and asking a few specific questions about it you’d like the readers to consider. Then, just sit back and take in all the wonderous communal wisdom. There is no limit to the number of posts one person can have and the frequency of posts will be adjusted based on the frequency of submission. It’s probably best that longer works be shared in smaller pieces. Posting priority will be given to new voices, but all will be shared in time.
There are so many wonderful minds here. I can’t wait to see what happens when we put them together.
Content for new community posts can be submitted here at the following link. Please take note of the prior requirements you need to fulfill in order to have your work shared. They are listed below the form.
COMMUNITY POST SUBMISSION FORM
The prerequisite for having your post shared is being an active community member. This is defined (for the sake of objectivity) by you having commented thoughtful and constructive feedback on at least 4 prior community posts. This will of course only be enforced after there have been 4 posts on which one can comment.
In order to see those posts, you first need to be a regular member…
If you’d like to join us as an official member of this community (Please do! We’d love to have you!), simply Subscribe to The Tall Tales Fiction Critique Community and fill out the membership application form which asks a couple get-to-know-you questions and requires you to agree to the community guidelines. If you want to be in, and you agree to the guidelines, you’re in. Once you submit that form, I’ll gift you a paid subscription to get you into the members-only posts. You’ll notice, without genuine membership, the paid subscription price is ridiculously high. Don’t pay for it. That defeats the point.
The Substack AI bot informed me that there is a limit to how many gift subscriptions I can give out, but it wasn’t able to tell me what that limit is. I should soon be getting an email from a real Substack human that can offer some clarity, but that hasn’t shown up yet. Hopefully the limit is so high it won’t matter, but if not I’m thinking there may come a time when there are multiple Tall Tales publications on here, separated by genre, and then we can keep growing while each publication stays under the limit. Or maybe we can just make a big enough fuss that
will add a free members-only community option and make this easy. Whatever it is, it’ll be an adventure, but we’ll figure it out.I’d like to emphasize: The guidelines are really important. They are how we’ll make sure to maintain a creatively safe place that’s both helpful and enjoyable for all. The only way an approved membership will ever be revoked is if you violate the guidelines, and while I will be reasonable and understanding of innocent error, I will also be very strict about upholding the standards of our space. As writers, our best work often comes from a very deep part of us which can be scary to share. The only way this community will mean anything is if everyone feels safe to be vulnerable within it.
These are the guidelines:
RESPECT - Treat people as you'd want to be treated; If you can't say something nicely, don't say it... etc etc. The cliches are easy to remember. Don't mess them up.
RESPECT PART 2 - Any clear or implied disparagement of a person or group based on any aspect of their identity will not be tolerated. Anything that has the potential to result in real world hatred or violence will especially not be tolerated. This applies both to feedback given and the content of our work. If a piece of work walks the line on this, I'll still share it and the community can note on what side of the line they think it falls (while still being respectful of the author’s point of view). The fiction community is very wide ranging. Let's all learn to work with each other while making the world a kinder place.
ENCOURAGE - Truly constructive criticism is the kind that makes the writer excited to dive back into their work. When offering feedback, focus on what the author's goals are with their work. What you would do if you were writing is less helpful than whatever would objectively help the writer achieve their desired effect, whatever it happens to be. Whenever you can, wrap negative critique in a sandwich of positivity.
HUMBLE - Writers: When receiving feedback, receive it with humility. We are going work this like a theatrical notes session after a play rehearsal. Every actor knows that when you get a note, you don't argue with it, you say thank you. If you have clarity questions, by all means ask them, but always assume that there might be some merit to any feedback you receive, even if it contradicts something you previously thought. Remember, just because you thank someone politely for a piece of feedback and give it some genuine thought, doesn't mean you have to ultimately use it. Feedback Givers: Just because you think it's true doesn't mean you're right. Any respectfully critical thought you have about a work is worth sharing, but the author is fully within their right to respectfully disagree with you and not incorporate it.
HAVE FUN - Seriously! I know a lot of people hate the editing process, but it really can be a lot of fun. Some of my favorite times with my creative friends are when we sit around trying to figure out the best way to tell our stories. That's all this is.
When everyone is honestly here to celebrate and support one another, even getting criticism can be a good time. So, let’s have a good time :)
Join us!
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM HERE
About The Tall Tales Magazine:
So many canonically classic authors first published their most famous works as serialized novels. Thanks to places like
, this tradition is being revived. I’d like to take it a step further and return it to the printed page. There will also be an identical e-book version, for those worried about that (*cough* *cough*). In particular, I am modeling the idea for this off of Charles Dickens’ serial journal All the Year Round, a weekly publication in which he published several of his own novels as well as those of authors like Wilke Collins and many more.I want to publish OUR work! I ask only for print exclusivity during the duration of publication (if it’s longer than a single episode), but separate virtual publication is not only totally fine, it’s encouraged. After the full work is completed and fully published in the magazine, authors would be free to submit their work anywhere else they like.
I will publish this through the print-on-demand source Lulu. I’ve been thinking monthly, but then Dickens got me thinking about weekly which would be a lot of work but also really cool. TBD on that. Anyway, when new, these will be priced as low as I can possibly manage it to cover both the printing cost and maybe a dollar for my time. The e-book will of course be even less. Archived editions will cost a bit more after a couple months of being out and, for now, those funds are going to go towards helping me buy groceries. Each writer published within will be encouraged to provide information to a paypal, venmo, buymeacoffe, or whatever they like to point readers towards opportunities to financially support the writers whose work they enjoy. I’d like this to grow into something that can always pay a regular amount to its writers, but unfortunately that’s not feasible to start with.
As the title suggests, the magazine will focus on serial fiction, but I’m interested in potentially including a short story or novella every now and then as well. Magazine submission will be open to all, but work with authors who are active members of this community will be especially highlighted in the publication.
Dickens made a point to publish work which had themes of supporting the lower economic classes. I don’t want to be quite that specific - in fact, I would love a very wide range of genre, tone, and subject - but I will be looking for work that has some sort of deeper philosophical purpose guiding it so that The Tall Tales can not only be something good for us, but something good for the world as well.
I’ll share more details about this as I solidify them, but for now, if you’re interested in having your work included in the first edition, please send me an email at addamledamyen@gmail.com with your name, a description of your project, and the text of the first installment. I’d love to connect about your work and see if it’s a good fit. Before sending it to me directly though, I would encourage you to share it with this community first to get our feedback.
A personal note:
One of my deep joys and passions is helping people bring incredible stories into the world. I have a good deal of experience as a 1-on-1 writing mentor and a story doctor. I would love to do this for anyone and everyone who wanted it. In particular, I’d love to offer it for free, but I also need to buy gas, so instead I’ll be offering these as paid services available on top of the feedback I’ll already be giving as an active member of this community. More details to come about this as I figure out how best to structure it, but if you know you’d be interested in working with me, please send me an email and we’ll work something out. If the idea of payment holds you back due to your financial circumstances, reach out anyway and tell me that. I don’t want money to be barrier.
I’m so excited to follow this community and watch it grow.
You too? Then go ahead, minstrels; spin your tales! And make them tall!
This is such an exciting opportunity!
We do desperately need more visibility for Fiction on here. Well done for putting something like this together. I think it will be really valuable for a lot of people… 😎