The power of storytelling is what women and men have used throughout history to help shape their communities and forge their own paths. Fiction can take one away to an imaginary world or cause one to pause and self-reflect. It can make us laugh, cry, and even change our way of life.
This is the type of fiction Mused - the BellaOnline Literary Review seeks to publish: stories that enchant, delight, reflect on womanhood, femininity, men relating to women, families, self-growth, change, or courage. Of course, we remain open to any good fiction, so do not look at these guidelines as all-inclusive.
Exceptional writing filled with clever and artistic use of language, plot and character is what will persuade the Fiction Editorial Board to publish your piece.
BellaOnline is a world wide publication read by people of all ages and all cultural backgrounds. No gratuitous or graphic violence, sexual content, swears, or overly moralistic stories, please. No serialized stories. In addition to the Fiction Guidelines, please be sure to review our Main Submissions Guidelines.
Entry Details
Submissions should be limited to five entries for a given issue. Each submission should not exceed 5,000 words in length.
There should be a full blank line between paragraphs. Please do not use tabs to indicate a new paragraph. Tabs are not understood by browsers and easily get lost.
Be sure to spell check your submission. We expect entries to be polished and in publishable shape - if you have numerous spelling errors in your work, it indicates to us that your work is not yet ready for publication.
Be sure to also check for common typos. If you are writing a contraction of "it is", there is always an apostrophe, "it's". If you are using any other use of "its" there is no apostrophe.
It's misty and tranquil this spring morning; let's go for a stroll along the beach.
Its hue a sickly yellow, the moon faded in and out of view behind a billowing raincloud.
Standard writing format is for a new paragraph to begin any time the person speaking changes. An example of this would be:
John walked through the room with a steady gait. "Where is that varmint?" he shouted irately.
"Here I am," replied Jack with an easy laugh.
Fiction Submission Form
Main Submission Guidelines
By far the best way to get an idea of what our literary review is looking for is to peruse our past issues!
Archive of Past Issues
