I had the opportunity to interview Lucy Adams via email, who is the current editor of the writing magazine Voiceworks.

Could you please describe Voiceworks, for people who may not know exactly what it is?

Voiceworks is a national, quarterly literary journal featuring new writing and art by young Australians. It’s a unique opportunity for people under twenty-five to publish their fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art and comics—in print! It’s put together by an editor (that’s me) and a volunteer editorial committee (also under the age of twenty-five) who read submissions, select content and go through a collaborative editing process with writers. We pay published writers and artists for their work and provide individualised feedback on unpublished submissions—so it’s a win-win!

What do you do, as an editor for the magazine?

I wear lots of different hats in my role: production manager, program producer, volunteer coordinater, event manager and marketer. I’m responsible for managing the production cycle from beginning to end, and for deciding the creative direction of the journal—in our most recent issue, for example, we published longform fiction for the very first time. Most of my time is taken up by leading the editorial committee, made up of eighteen people in Melbourne and interstate, through choosing themes, reading submissions, selecting content, editing pieces, proofreading and writing feedback. I also engage in the nitty gritty of editing itself, often going through a few more rounds of editing with each writer before laying out the content for the designer. I collaborate with a designer to decide the look of the journal, liaise with a printer and then arrange launch events, with readings and bands and good times. Then there’s administration—with the help of an intern, I spend a lot of time with spreadsheets, databases, chasing up invoices and so so so many emails. I also act as a general ambassador for young writers, judging prizes, appearing at events and doing interviews like this one.

How did you decide to pursue editing, as opposed to other jobs and even industries?

I’ve always been interested in word stuff, while I never had any ambition to be an editor. In that aimless, abyss-facing period following uni, I stumbled onto the Voiceworks editorial committee and my interest in editing grew from there. It was an unexpected right-place-right-time thing. While I love editing, chances are I’ll end up in a variety of different jobs. Work is pretty thin on the ground in this industry, and I’m lead more by my desire to learn than my desire to work one specific job or in one specific industry.

What suggestions would you have for young people who are interested in pursuing writing, but don’t know where to start?

There’s no one way to go about it—different approaches work for different people. But regardless of whether you’re studying writing or not, the expected advice of ‘read a lot, write a lot’ still applies. There’s no replacement for doing the work, and no way to bypass the time it takes to become good at something. Beyond that, I’d say find a way to get feedback on your work, be that through joining a writers’ group or submitting to Voiceworks, and don’t let the fear of judgement or rejection paralyse you to the point where you do nothing at all.

How do you decide on which pieces to feature? Do you have any criteria that needs to be met?

When we consider submissions we don’t know the writer’s name or age, and everything is read by a number of different people—this is to make sure everyone gets a fair chance and is on equal footing. Each submission has a coversheet, which we fill with comments and scores. Our scores are broken down into three criteria: originality (Have we read this before? Is the subject matter handled in a way that feels fresh?), cohesion (Does it make sense? Are all the necessary parts there and do they work well together?) and expression (Is the writing well crafted? Are the voice and style distinctive and do they suit the purpose of the piece?).

While the scores help us narrow down a shortlist, we don’t just select the highest scoring submissions. Rather, we select pieces through lengthy discussions to make sure the issue includes a wide variety of voices, styles and topics. Nobody wants to read an entire magazine full of realist fiction set in sleepy coastal towns, for example, even if they happen to be the most technically proficient pieces in the submission pile.

Any tips for young people planning on submitting to Voiceworks?

First up, submitting to Voiceworks is good in and of itself. Submitting to literary journals is daunting and it can feel tough to get your work out there. We provide feedback on all submissions, so you’ll get something out of it regardless—there’s nothing to lose. Before submitting, I’d encourage everyone to read our Contribute page, which has our submission guidelines, latest theme, deadlines and information on what we’re looking for.

If you plan on submitting nonfiction, we recommend you pitch your work before sending it to us, especially if you’re not sure if your piece appropriate. We (strongly) urge you to read our handy nonfiction guide on how to construct your pitch and what we look for in nonfiction in general: it needs to have a specific angle and offer some sort of insight, whether that’s a keen interest in researching something, expert knowledge on a topic, a unique experience or perspective, or a combination of these things.

Comics also benefit from the pitching process, which we detail in our comics pitching guide. It’s totally a-okay to send us completed work, but pitching ensures you don’t commit heaps of time to a multipage comic that may end up not suiting Voiceworks. It also provides an opportunity to workshop ideas and approaches that will then result in a more fully developed and refined piece of work. Before you send any art our way, be sure to flip through a copy of the mag to make sure your work is suited to the page dimensions, colour limitations and design specifications of Voiceworks.

If poetry‘s your thing, read our poetry guide to get a better sense of what we look for in poetry submissions, or if you’re keen to improve your poems before sending them to us.

A huge thank you to Lucy for answering my questions!