By Stephanie Lenz (Baker)
- Simultaneously submit. Even once.
- Assume that your lack of publication credits will mean automatic rejection.
- Assume that your age has any bearing on whether your story is accepted.
- Use your cover letter to talk about how little faith you have in your skill/talent.
- Mention that you have to submit somewhere because of an assignment and you chose Toasted Cheese just because you liked the name.
- Don’t give your story a title.
- Describe your character within the first paragraph by using his full name, height in feet and inches, his weight in pounds, his hair color, and his eye color.
Background Image: Brian Wilkins/Flicker (CC-by-nc)
- If it’s a contest entry, don’t use the genre required.
- Don’t proofread.
- Write inauthentically about a setting I know.
- Use double punctuation on your sentence, like a question mark paired with an exclamation point. One exclamation point pushes it enough.
- Have female characters who serve no purpose other than set dressing, being a trophy for the male main character, or to have conversations about the male main characters.
- Kiss the word count. Then when you get near the end, chop it off and call it finished instead of rewriting.
- Throw in a Shyamalan twist ending.
- Respond to a rejection by saying that TC sucks anyway, submit again.
