Q&A with Christian Barragan

This week we published a story that will likely bring a sense of familiarity (and panic!) to all writers — the soul-baring process of trying to get published. We are very excited to share a Q&A with Christian Barragan and one of our editors, Sophia Blush, that dives into this up-close, witty, and honest peak behind the curtain

You chose to write this piece in second person, a narrative point of view that is notoriously tough to pull off (but you did it!). Why did you choose to use second person?

I took a class during my undergraduate studies that introduced me to the concept of a pseudo-essay, where a fiction piece is disguised as a nonfiction piece such as a how-to manual. I grew intrigued with the concept and I wrote a few pseudo-essays based on topics that particularly interested me. In my experience, these stories make the most sense when presented in second person since it replicates the dictation of a guide, but in a more personal form. The most difficult aspect of these stories, for me, is balancing the general instruction of the narrator with the specificity of the characters and the scenario they inhabit.

There is a great balance of tension and humor in this piece. How did you go about finding humor for this story, and how did you know you had struck the right balance?

Most of the tension appeared in later drafts when the characters were closer to being finalized. When I started the first draft, I tried forming the humor around the specifics of the submission process since it was what I had the most experience with. Over time, I realized the submission process itself wouldn’t offer enough tension on its own. Because of this, I spent more time developing tension with the personal circumstances of the protagonist. I also found that I could give the story more structure by interweaving the personal barriers with the barriers faced in the submission process. I knew I had struck the right balance when I could read through the story without losing track of the protagonist’s circumstances as they scramble to make their first submission.

On a similar note, introducing the characters of Jared and the parents was a wise one – it ramped up the tension and kept the reader hooked. How did you land on these characters? What was the process of developing them like?

I had previously submitted an earlier draft of this story, one with a less clearly defined personal scenario, to another magazine. In the rejection email, the magazine suggested I try including other characters close to the protagonist to build more tension. I wanted the other characters to be similarly ridiculous to the instructions given by the narrator so the tone of the story would be consistent. I chose to keep the cast small, relevant, and with some kind of ticking clock. The protagonist still lives with their parents, who are on the verge of splitting up. Jared, the drunk neighbor, has his laptop “borrowed” by the protagonist and slowly stumbles in the background on his way to retrieve it. In this way, the mounting distractions in the protagonist’s personal life mirror the piling information from the narrator.

While this is a fiction piece, many parts of it rang very true. Tell me about your inspiration for this story. Why write about literary magazine submissions, and why now?

I wanted to write about literary magazines since I’ve seen the process from both sides. I made my first submissions in 2018 and first edited for a journal the following year. Since then, I’ve been a part of three more journals and have been habitually submitting my stories. In that time, I’ve come across several unique situations that encouraged me to reevaluate my approach both as a writer and as an editor. I believe literary magazines are an excellent resource to become acquainted with publishing and to showcase your creative work, as well as expose yourself to the work of others. By writing this story, I was hoping to make the submission process seem less intimidating. Even though the story ends with the protagonist imagining upcoming rejections, they accept this reality. Rejection is a natural part of the process that every writer will have to face before receiving an acceptance.