A little slush never hurt anyone

Number of entries received for the 2007 InnermoonLit Award for Best Short-Short Story to date: 41

I guess it’s inevitable that our contests have slush piles: those stacks of submissions that so obviously belong in the ‘no’ pile.

I’ve heard editors and agents complain about the slush pile, and I’m sure you have too. They will do anything to avoid it and usually hire a 22-year-old with a newly minted degree in English to wade through it for them. Kind of like what I do with the InnermoonLit contests, as I serve as the first reader. Except my degree has built up quite a patina over the years.

I don’t know. I kind of like reading the worst of the worst. It takes far less effort on my part. I know it’s a ‘no’ right away without any agonizing or putting it into ‘maybe’ purgatory. Besides, there’s something refreshing about truly bad entries.

See, I am prone to Prufrockian moments of paralyzing self-doubt. I picture our entrants sending their flawed work out, and I have to admire their chutzpah. Are they so new to writing that they are in a world of blissful ignorance where there are no such things as comma splices and faulty parallelism? Or do they think to themselves, This may not be great literature, but what’s the harm in submitting it anyway?

I think most fall into the second category, and those of us who sit on our hands and tell ourselves we should just shut up and stay home because we aren’t good enough should draw inspiration from these brave souls. Like Brian’s grandmother used to tell him, “They can’t knock you down and refuse you too.” Meaning, the worst someone will do is say no, but if you don’t put yourself out there and ask, you’ll definitely never get a yes.

So I say bring on the slush. You just might be in for a surprise—you might think it’s slush, and we might see a winner.