• Write your best story.
• Revise it.
• Make sure you're happy with every word.
• Show it to someone who knows what they're doing, and who isn't related to you.
• Revise your story again.
• Email us at polyphonyhs@latinschool.org . In the subject line of the email, write your last name and the title of your story.
• In the text of your email include the following:

  full name
  title of your story or poem
  home address
  home phone
  email address
  name of school
  school address

• copy and paste your story or poem (3,500 words or less with a 250-word cushion) in the text of your email, AND attach it as a WORD Document.
• Make certain it's postmarked by the third Saturday in February.

Please Note: All stories submitted will be considered for the fiction contest. Currently, there is no contest for poetry. 1st through 3rd Place Contest winners will receive: $100, $75, and $50, respectively. Authors of accepted or winning fiction will be paid in 2 contributor's copies. Additional copies will be provided at a 50% discount ($3.50). Fiction accepted for the general issue will be subject to in-house edit, and will be returned to authors for final approval.

Tips for Writers

• Send us your best work. We appreciate careful work. If you're not happy with every word, fix it, and send it to us when you're happy with it.
• Start reading as writers. As you read, ask yourself questions such as: What does the author accomplish with this dialogue? shift in p.o.v.? action? movement in plot? etc.
• Keep it clean. No erotica. Please. We won't be horrified, appalled, shocked, or offended by profanity (neither will we be particularly interested in it). Understand that in fiction, a little profanity goes a long way. We will ask ourselves: What does the author lose or gain with this language? If your point is to create despicable characters, there are more clever ways to manage this.
• Regarding First Drafts: Please don't send us your first draft. Read over your work very carefully after you've written the first draft. We all know how great that draft feels, the best stories ever written began with one. But it's not as good as the second draft, and it's certainly not as good as the tenth.
• Detail: Don't be afraid of that great sensory detail, but don't fall prey to over-specificity.
• Be wary of adverbs when you mean for them to describe human emotions. Instead of telling the reader that Joey Lessner looked excitedly at Tina Koumas from across the dance floor, tell us he put his hand on his pounding heart for fear that it would burst through his rib cage if he didn't hold it back. Or whatever.
• Showing vs. Telling. First of all, it's okay to tell sometimes, but don't tell us "it was a real struggle for Alfonso to ride his bicycle through the mud." Show us the tires grappling for purchase in the mud, but slipping, let Alfonso scream at the gods for throwing yet another obstacle in his path.
• Read your work aloud and edit it for sound and rhythm and variation in sentence length.
• Know something about the rules of fiction, but don't obey them slavishly.