Pseudo-essays
Recently I sent a short story to a literary magazine and I received a rejection detailing why my story wasn't accepted. My story was a pseudo-essay written in second person, but apparently the fiction editors thought the story was a mislabeled creative nonfiction piece. In case anyone was curious, a pseudo-essay is basically a fiction piece that pretends to be a nonfiction piece. it often takes the form of a how-to guide (like my story), essay, book review, or other. However, its worth noting that a pseudo-essay is distinct from a creative nonfiction piece since the latter is, in essence, a short story depicting true events. A good example of a pseudo-essay is Junot Diaz's short story "How to Date a Brown Girl (Black Girl, White Girl, or Halfie)." Let me know if you would like to know more about this form of writing.
