Fish Tank Story Guidelines

We have a rule that authors critique at least five stories before they can submit their own story for review. We’ve also found that the review process works better if you only post about one story per week, especially for new members. So try to temper your initial enthusiasm and spread your stories out a little.

We prefer stories to be less than 5000 words, but we will accept stories up to 10,000 words. The purpose of The Fish Tank is to help the author improve his or her story, so we insist that the poster be the original author of the piece.

We do not require final draft quality writing here, but we recommend that you make the effort to fix your spelling and grammar errors before you submit. Use your spell-checker. Proofread your work, or (better yet) find someone to proof for you. Otherwise your feedback may be nothing more than a long list of grammar mistakes.

If you post a less-than-final draft, be sure to say so in your notes to reviewers. This will stop reviewers from wasting a lot of time pointing out grammar nits. Be specific about what you are looking for. We’ve found that the best feedback for rough drafts are more “global” issues, like pace, character development, and basic plot line.

On the other hand, if you have a story that you’ve already polished, you think it’s ready for publication, and you just want one last look-over before you put a stamp on the manuscript envelope, it’s OK to ask for reviewers to point out every little mistake.

But do not expect to receive a line-by-line review of a rough draft.

For the first week, you must stay out of the discussion on your own story. We do this so that your knowledge of your intentions does not influence the readers. If you tell the readers what you were trying to do, it will skew how they read the story. Treat the reviewer’s feedback as the opinion of an actual reader.

When the first week is over, jump on in to the fray! Be sure to thank everyone for taking the time to help, even on the off chance you didn’t find anything in the feedback that you can use.

Note that some people who comment on your story will be inexperienced at critiquing fiction. The reviewers are learning, too. If something is unclear, wait until you are allowed to respond and ask a follow-up.

By all means, you do not need to take every suggestion offered. Suggestions late in the week may be so trivial that they aren’t worth following. Others may come from readers who aren’t in your target audience. Use the suggestions that seem useful to you and skip the rest.

The Fish Tank can be a good teacher. Even the most experienced of us have developed a few bad habits over the years, and all of us have blind spots. If you take the effort to improve, your writing will become more professional, your reviews will focus on smaller issues, and your stories will get better. Keep an open mind and take suggestions seriously. Try not to submit stories over and over again with the same mistakes.

Needless to say, authors retain the copyrights to their own work. Our web provider does not permit child pornography, so please, no underage sex. Otherwise, The Fish Tank does not censor stories for content. You are responsible for everything you submit.

Further Reading

• Fish Tank Member Guidelines
• Fish Tank Story Comment Guidelines
• Terms of Service
• Privacy Policy