Pondering Lit Mags and some Advice from Doug of Pixar's UP

You know when you go to a favorite literary magazine's submissions page and read their guidelines? About two paragraphs in there's a page-long rant about how you NEED, DEAR GOD, NEED to read their magazine at least for a good year so you understand what they like and accept. So you understand what kind of story they'll publish. Then you'll understand that if your story isn't a carbon copy of these previously published stories, you shouldn't waste their time and your own by submitting it to them.

I often find myself turned off by these rants. Even when it's a literary magazine I've subscribed to in the past or one I really look up to. It can sometimes feel that the literary community has turned against us as writers. If they want nothing new and inventive - if they want us to write only what's already been published - then why are we here? What are we striving toward?

This is something I've been grappling with for years. The American culture puts so little value into the arts. If you're a creator or an innovator, whatever you make had better generate its own cash-flow or you're worthless.

However, other cultures, like Japan, can see the value in the arts, and they respect things that are beautiful and innovative not solely from a basis of profit but from the aspect of a cultural advancement.

Because, really, what are we without art? Will we ever grow as a species if no one thinks outside the confines of what we already know and accept? Why do we put so little heft into the words or pictures brought forth by artists that wish to broaden our definition of humanity? Why do we ridicule the artist herself so?

These questions are the ones that boggle me. They are even more boggling when the community that is supposed to be supportive of the artist and his work turn against him.

Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for these questions, or a reason that America seems to dislike those who wish to allow us to grow and see things through new eyes. Perhaps it will not be within my lifetime that our thoughts switch and we value art.

Most humans, after all, dislike change.

But we keep doing it, why? Because we love it, and we can't stop. Even when no one else believes in us or shows us any support.

To keep you rolling with your writing, even when the haters get you down, here's a list of 22 tips on better storytelling from Pixar:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/191403052888669266/