Frequently Asked Questions

What is The Zen Pen?
What are your qualifications as an editor/critic/story doctor?
Do you accept multiple submissions?
In what order will you process submissions?
How will I know that you received my story?
Are you going to have a list of stories on your site that were published after being workshopped at The Zen Pen?
How much of my story will you read?
I know I submitted my story first, yet another was critiqued before me. I know they did not request rush service to meet a deadline. Why did this happen?
When do you critique?
Can I replace my story? Since I submitted, I've rewritten it, and you haven't gotten to it yet.
What if I have technical difficulties with the site, or have questions about the site?
Why The Zen Pen?

What is The Zen Pen?

The Zen Pen is a site for writers who are looking for a detailed critique of their writing. All critiques are done by Carina Gonzalez. More information is available on my services page.

What are your qualifications as an editor/critic/story doctor?

The answer to this question is in the About Carina section of my site.

Do you accept multiple submissions?

The technical answer is yes, but you should read the entire answer to learn the pros and cons of such a decision.

If you are emailing your submission, you may submit one story PER EMAIL. This is for organizational purposes. Critiques will be emailed back to the author, and I don’t want to put multiple crits in the same email. It’s confusing. If you are submitting via snail mail, you can have more than one story in your submission envelope. I’ll just answer with the one SASE you provide. Other than that, while I don’t mind if an author wants to send several stories in quick succession, I have learned that it tends to work against the author for 3 main reasons:

The first is because some authors get inspired and then write 3 or 4 stories revolving around the same idea. Reading the same type of material over and over again makes it difficult to remain consistently objective. It’s a waste of both our times to critique the same general thing. It would benefit you more to send one type of story, wait to hear what I have to say, and see if you can apply it to your other stories.
The second reason why multiple subbing probably isn’t a good idea is because most problems exist within the author’s writing, not with their story idea. Therefore, reading multiple stories from the same author could very well produce identical critiques. Analyzing the first story you submit may yield more food for thought than you realized, and you may even be able to apply those same suggestions to your other stories. So think hard before you send me 5 stories in a row. You might end up receiving the same comments 5 times when you could have only read it once for a fraction of the response time.
The third reason is because stories from the same author lead to comparison. Most authors write in a similar style from story to story; often similar enough to remind me of other works by the same author. I personally feel that there is a benefit to comparing works from the same author, as this tactic has uncovered writing problems that would otherwise have remained buried. This is an especially helpful option for those who have been published and are having trouble creating a repeat performance. If you want to know what that story has that this one doesn’t, I might be able to find that for you. I would be happy to do such a critique if it is requested, but if you would rather have each story viewed in its own right, I would suggest keeping submissions from the same author at least a month apart.

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In what order will you process submissions?

I will process stories on a first-come-first-served basis. All emailed submissions are automatically “stamped” with date and time, so if your email gets to me before another’s, yours goes first. There are two exceptions to this rule:

Snail mail submissions are the first exception. I will fit a snail mailed sub into the queue based on the day I receive it, not based on the day it was date stamped. Shifting all of the queue numbers every time a snail mail submission comes in would be time consuming, and unnecessarily confusing to everyone.
The second exception to the first-come-first-served rule would be those who don’t have the time to wait for their turn in the queue. I will rush someone’s story if they have a specific deadline they must meet. This may or may not be an offer in the future because of abuse potential. Please don’t ruin this opportunity for others. Use your judgment. If you need your story by tomorrow, you can’t realistically expect me to get you a critique that quickly. But if you do have a deadline, let me know and I will do my best to read your story next and meet that deadline.

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How will I know that you received my story?

Every time I receive a submission I save the submission according to its queue #, date, and title. I then email the author back telling them that their story arrived safe and sound and what queue # was assigned to that submission. If you do not get such an email, just contact me, and I’ll be happy to help you. If you send a snail mail submission, I will email you when the story arrives. If you do not use email, you can submit a postage paid postcard that I can use to inform you that the story arrived safely. I am unwilling to call people to tell them that their story arrived safely. If you’d like to know what point in the queue I have reached, email me, or just visit the blog section of my site. I have a queue status listed there.

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Are you going to have a list of stories on your site that were published after being workshopped at The Zen Pen?

I would love to do this! But first I need authors who are willing/interested. If you would like one of your stories, that was workshopped at The Zen Pen, to be recognized on the site, just let me know.

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How much of my story will you read?

Most of my training regarding the marketability of stories was as slush editor for Realms of Fantasy. I was only required to read as much as it took to realize whether or not this story was worth paying for. That’s it. While I can of course inform you at which point I was inclined to stop reading, I will read your entire story, unless problems keep popping up that are consistent and inherently destructive. Sometimes a story has a plaguing issue that must be addressed before the story has any hope of cohesion. If you have a story that receives a critique from me wherein I stopped reading half way through, you can most certainly submit a synopsis of the rest of the story so I can comment on your overall idea, or re-submit after you’ve worked on the story.

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I know I submitted my story first, yet another was critiqued before me. I know they did not request rush service to meet a deadline. Why did this happen?

The answer is because of SPAM. Sometimes submissions don’t end up in my inbox where they belong and are funneled as SPAM into another random folder. I don’t always know that they are there, and sometimes assign queue #’s to stories that technically came after. It would be time consuming and inconvenient to contact the other 40 people in the queue and skew their numbers to accommodate the submission that was mistaken for SPAM. I will do my best to usher such lost sheep into the fold as quickly as I can. As usual, if you sent a story and didn’t receive a queue #, don’t hesitate to contact me and figure out what’s going on.

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When do you critique?

The absolute answer to this is “when I can.” In a perfect world, I critique every day. But sometimes months go by without me even checking my email. Whenever there is going to be a significant delay, I indicate why in the blog. The only other answer I can provide is that I don’t read on the weekends or holidays. Therefore, you shouldn’t be worried if you submit a story on a weekend and don’t hear from me for a few days.

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Can I replace my story? Since I submitted, I've rewritten it, and you haven't gotten to it yet.

Of course! It's very easy for me to save over any older version of a story. If I haven't read it yet, you can ask me to swap it. If I have read it, just submit the rewrite and it will be entered in the queue like any other story.

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What if I have technical difficulties with the site, or have questions about the site?

I designed the site myself, so send me an email and I will do my best to help you.

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Why The Zen Pen?

Several reasons. The first is that The Critique Boutique was taken. I know the name seems hideous now, but believe it or not, that was the first name I came up with for this critique service.

The second, and perhaps the silliest, is that I have a standard poodle named Zen. He’s the calmest pup I’ve ever seen!

I also liked how the name The Zen Pen flowed, rhymed, and made a very short URL. I wanted something memorable and catchy.

I also wanted to make my site inviting. I didn’t want it to be a scary place, but a place to give authors hope. Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition. In reality, it may be a difficult notion to apply the concept of Zen to writing, but it is a pleasant thought. It makes me smile and I hope it makes you smile too. True Zen involves an emptying of the mind and a removal from the emotions that usually govern our actions and thoughts. The blood of writing and critiquing are our thoughts and emotions, so excusing them wouldn’t be the best advice I would give to an author. Controlling and channeling them however would certainly make receiving form rejections much more pleasant and may improve your writing. If this is even possible, it is far beyond my abilities and along a difficult path. I am not a Zen editor, but I can try and give you as objective of a critique as I can muster. Excuse me whilst I meditate...*just kidding*