At the level of concept or idea, far too many published stories seem very proud of having been able to come up with a semi-unique fantastical idea. Period. A kind of brimming with self-congratulatory ardor. “Look at this cool, shiny thing I thought up!” And the story ends with the “look at my originality” when that is often the starting point of a story and all else has been preamble. Nascent is not adult. It is as child is to parent. Often, this coincides with a flattening of characterization, in that the fruition of the idea lies in the fleshing out of the characters as well. I also think this failure is tied to ego.

This is something I’ve definitely noticed in some of the submissions to Kaleidotrope. (Actually, I’ve noticed all of the story weaknesses VanderMeer points out.) Sometimes I’ll read a story and think, “Wow, this was a really cool idea. I wish it had been in a better story.”

Hopefully VanderMeer wasn’t spotting too many of those trends in Kaleidotrope — that is, assuming he’s even received and read the copy I sent him for consideration. I do think editing stories for the zine has helped make me a better writer, or at least made me more cognizant of what doesn’t work and, hopefully, why it doesn’t work. I also hope it’s made me a better editor, and better able to spot good and talented work.

Although it’s surprisingly easy to spot terrible work…