How do you know whether something is ready to send to an editor or to your teacher? If it’s a short piece, look at the basics. Is it focused clearly on one or two points?

The best order is usually the one that you would use if you were telling the story to someone in person.

How fast or how slowly did the writer get to something we considered crucial?

If it is an anniversary or an event, submit your piece at least two weeks early.

Start out with what you would tell someone at a party. What is the most interesting thing?

Make sure that your story has a central point, sharply rendered.

You learn so much from the process of analyzing the work of others. If you want to improve your own writing, find examples of the form that interests you and immerse yourself in it until something about its structure winds its way into your unconscious. Read writing that is popular, and try to figure out why it works.

We tried to think of perspectives that hadn’t been published and come up with names of likely writers.

So if you are sending out your work and not getting responses, don’t assume the work is hopeless and should be trashed.