Write for Us!

VC thrives on guest posts! The contributors are few and busy, and sometimes coming up with a post a week can be a bit overwhelming. Do you think you have an idea that will knock our socks off? Send us a message! But first, take a look at what we’re looking for.

1. Something original. Has it been said twenty times before? Unless you have a really wacky unusual take on “Write what you know” then it probably won’t find a home here. We’re interested in the unexpected, the left field, and the overlooked.

2. Something witty. Words are boring. Spice them up! Use unusual terminology, or an unusual format. Write a blog post entirely in pictures, or in rhyme. Start out with a bold statement, and then back it up.

3. Something beautiful. The most amazing thing about people is their capacity to tell stories that hurt our hearts. Point out something staggering about the English language, your favourite author or the universe in general that we haven’t heard before and we’ll probably fall in love with it on the spot.

4. Something unexpected. Does your character want to write a blog post for us? Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

5. Something well-written. Let’s face it, there was a time when even Neil Gaiman couldn’t spell “vaguely” correctly. Not being a very good writer is nothing to be embarrassed about–as long as it stays private. We do try to maintain a standard of quality on Vaguely Circular, and so your guest post may be rejected as not living up to our standards. But don’t let this disappoint you, or prevent you from trying again. We’re here to encourage young authors, and help them become really amazing ones, and so any submission will be returned with an honest and respectful explanation of why it was rejected, with suggestions for improvement and an invitation to try again at a later time. We’re all busy people and starving artists to boot, so we may not be able to be your personal writing coach, but we honestly believe that there is no one who can’t be good enough to submit a guest post without a little practice. Be it ten months or ten years–you’ll get to where you want to be!

6. Something we love. We love square pegs in a board of round holes. We love specfic, and we love writers. We love things that make you sit up and think, and we love things that make you laugh until you cry. We love Joss Whedon, Neil Gaiman, and Cory Doctorow. We love creative commons and free culture. We love people who like what we like. Read our blog, get a feel for what we like, and then write about it. Cookies and punch at the finish line.

There you go. Think you can handle that? Email us at vaguelycircular@gmail.com (or just click the neat little email icon up there in the menu).

What We’re NOT looking for

Here’s an example of the types of blogs posts and content that we’re really not interested in right now. We’re not saying that these things are bad, but they might not be a good fit for Vaguely Circular, or it might be something we’ve seen too much of lately. If you have a great idea that falls into one of these categories there are plenty of other blogs that would probably be interested in seeing your work.

1. Book Reviews. While we love books in general and don’t mind articles about historical authors and other creators, reviewing books is a messy and complicated affair. If you are looking for a review site to read or write for we recommend homeschooledauthors.com or intothebook.net

2. Explicitly Christian Content. While we welcome blog posts from all worldviews and writers of all faiths, we are not a “Christian Writing” blog, and want our content to be accessible by a wide variety of readers. While Christian themes and content are by no means forbidden, subjects like “writing fantasy from a Christian worldview” or “Can a Christian swear?” are probably not posts we’re going to be interested in. If you’d like to read content that’s expressly written for Christians, or looking for a place to contribute your thoughts we recommend holyworlds.org/blog or speculativefaith.com.

3. Film reviews, discussion, inputs, etc. While we’re all about creativity in all of its forms (beyond just writing) filmmaking is its own little can of worms and really needs a website completely devoted to it to be effective. Scriptwriting posts are probably fine, but we’re less about the nuts and bolts and more about ideas and inspiration, so keep that in mind and don’t send us your treatise on the difference between film and digital movie making. Please note it is fine to bring up movies or filmmaking in your post and it’s not a banned topic, but make sure it’s on a more general subject that would be of interest to more than just the filmmaking community.

Need Help?

Sometimes writer’s block strikes the strongest when trying to write blog posts. So here’s a list of subjects that we’d be interested in seeing your take on!

New Year’s Writing Resolutions
The pros and cons of pen names
Writers Block
Favorite writing resources
Planner vs Panster (feel free just to discuss one side!)
Writing tools (pens, notebooks, software, etc)
Finding inspiration in the every day world
Overview or breakdown of classical literature
Discussion of famous authors

What are ideas? Where do they come from?
Drawing inspiration from the world around you—creating the fantastical out of the mundane
Textures—field trips to find your inspiration
I’d love to see a proper treatment of Urban Fantasy
Ditto for Ruritarian
Where ideas come from, and what to do with them.
The writing process
Your personal journey as an author/creator
What you write and why
The superhero or science fiction genre in general
Writing good villains, or any characters really
Anything about writing that you fancy