Dear writers,
Hello! Thank you for your interest in submitting to Narratively. Our 2025 Memoir Prize has just ended. To all those who submitted, thank you! We can’t wait to read your work. You can expect to hear back from us on or around February 26, 2026 via Submittable and/or email (but please give us a minute if you don’t hear back right away — this is a ballpark). And to everyone else, we’re currently looking for full submissions for The Personals and pitches for epic longform true crime stories. Lastly, we’ve teamed up with ScottsMiracle-Gro to produce a new sponsored series called Stories from the Ground Up—How Green Spaces Shape Our Lives, to which you can pitch reported pieces or submit memoir essays.
Please read on to learn more about what we’re looking for, and please read our site to see the stories we publish before sending us your essays or pitches. Plus, make sure you’re signed up for our email list to read our latest posts and stories from our archive.
Our mission at Narratively is to publish untold human stories that surprise, delight and captivate readers. The true stories we publish are defined not by topic but by style: immersive, cinematic storytelling that takes readers inside another world, another life, through vivid scenes, colorful details and compelling narrative arcs.
So, what are we looking for? The best way to get a clear sense of what makes a Narratively story is to read several pieces on our site, particularly from our Greatest Hits section. And to learn more about what a good pitch looks like, check out our StoryCraft pieces, “The 3 Best Pitches I’ve Ever Received,” which pulls back the curtain on how to get our attention, and, “So, What Is a Narratively Story, Anyway? (Hint: Surprising, Exciting and Delightful, to Start),” in which two Narratively editors break down what defines a feature story for the site, replete with advice on how to do it. Still have questions? Pop over to the How to Pitch Narratively thread and ask us anything!
(NOTE: We’ve refined what types of stories we publish in recent years, so if you’ve submitted to, or even written for, Narratively in the past, we request that you read these full guidelines plus review some of the stories in the link above before submitting.)
There are a few key factors that every Narratively story has:
-It’s untold. The topic is original, fresh and not already covered in other major publications, books or movies. Think offbeat, unusual, beyond the news cycle. It should make the majority of readers say, “Wow, I’ve never heard about this before.”
-It’s human. Every Narratively story follows one central character or a small group of characters. We explore big ideas and topics, but always through the lens of human experience.
-It’s narrative. As you may have guessed from our name, we like stories with a narrative arc. That means that each Narratively story has a concrete beginning, middle and end that unfolds like a movie, taking the readers on a wild ride as they see, feel and hear the events through your writing.
We pay for all stories. In addition to publishing on Narratively.com, we also develop TV, film and podcast projects inspired by the stories that run on our site, generating additional creative and financial opportunities for contributors.
Please note that we only publish narrative nonfiction. We don’t publish fiction, poetry or opinion pieces.
If you’re a fan of Narratively, you know that we are all about the BIG story. We like an epic narrative that unfolds in several acts and consists of vivid, cinematic scenes. But part of what we like, too, is a unique perspective. We want to be surprised and delighted — we want to not see it coming. And sometimes that looks like one delicious slice of pie rather than the whole thing…
Enter The Personals. These first-person pieces still meet two of the main criteria for Narratively stories: They’re about something super unique and interesting, and they’re rooted in detailed and colorful scenes. BUT they instead focus on one moment, one day, one week, one summer, etc. (And consequently, they’re much shorter.) We want your best pieces about a surprising moment, a split-second, life-changing decision, an upside-down view of something that we, as a society, are used to looking at head-on. Send us your story about that time you decided at the last second to leave the altar and make a go of it with your unforbidden love instead, the stranger who gave you advice that changed the trajectory of your life forever, that time you confronted your bully 25 years later only to learn about the hardship they were going through at the time.
What The Personals Is: You can tell us a story on a subject we’ve heard about before, but give us a unique way in.
What The Personals Isn’t: We love a good internal-based story like everyone else, a writer working out their opinion or recent revelation on the page, but that is not what we’re looking for here. We want active, exciting first-person stories that revolve around dramatic scenes and moments.
A few Personals pieces and stories we’ve done in the past that are good examples of what we’re looking for:
A Freak Accident Brought Me Closer to My Domineering Dad (1,695)
The Man Who Betrayed Me Was Also the Man Who Loved Me (1,820)
Unburying My Mother’s Secret (2,185)
I Was Taught to Hate My Lesbian Neighbors. They Took Me In Anyway (1,500 words)
I’m Not an Asian Stereotype, But I Play One on TV (1,400 words)
Why I Apologized to My Rapist (1,500 words)
Details:
Pitches? Drafts? We are only accepting submissions for these at this time.
Word Count: Ideal length for full drafts is between 1,000 and 1,500 words. Please don’t send anything longer than 2,200 words — longer drafts will not be considered.
Deadline: We’re considering stories on a rolling basis.
Rate: $300