Write for Us
We love having contributors here at Present Tense. Interested in writing something for us? Here’s what we’re looking for:
We’re particularly interested in the suspense genre, but, that genre is about as wide as genres get, and you could probably define it ten ways. (Someone please write that piece!)
We want pieces on writing AND reading. You could talk about your own experience writing a book, but we’d also dig a piece on your experience reading someone else’s.
We love investigatory pieces, like a writing conference report or a behind-the-scenes look at some aspect of the publishing experience.
You do NOT need to be an author to write for us. Prolific readers, publishing professionals, and story nerds of all kinds are welcome here.
Still interested? Feel free to reach out by email and pitch us something you’d like to write. We’re at presenttensesubstack [at] gmail [dot] com.
Or, if you’ve got a completed piece, here are some basic things we look for:
No shorter than 800 words. Probably no more than 2000, but we’re more flexible on the upper limit.
All past pieces by contributors here.
What Your Characters Don’t Know...Could Kill Them
Jen Waite’s debut novel, Survival Instincts, is my go-to example of how an author can use dramatic irony to build suspense for the reader. Dramatic irony is nerdspeak for when the reader knows something the character doesn’t. I emailed Jen and asked if she’d write a piece about this device that belongs in every suspense writer’s toolkit.