Dear Geist,

Recently the editors of a magazine gave me feedback on a piece of fiction I had submitted. They said my characters were “too distant from each other,” and therefore “too distant from the reader.” The distance was intentional, to portray how distant couples can become. I wrote it in first person, from the female’s perspective, not in third person because I felt it would take away the angst this woman feels. Is there a way to make distance work in a piece of fiction under 1,000 words? Or is this entirely one editor’s subjective opinion?

Dear Luke,

Yes, you can make anything work in 1,000 words—if you want to. And yes, you have one professional editorial opinion. It’s the editors’ job to select, revise and present material that is right for their audience, and they have given you interesting information about why your current draft wasn’t consistent with their mandate. It’s your job to decide whether this advice is right for you, for this piece of writing. If the advice strikes any chord at all, you might experiment with revisions and see what happens. (For ideas, read short-short stories by writers you admire, studying how they achieved a sense of distance and/or intimacy.) If the advice seems off-base, you might submit your current draft to other publications. If you have a trusted writing colleague or group, you might confer with them. Either way, it’s a compliment to your writing that the editors sent an individual response to your work, rather than a simple form rejection.