Some Girls Like. Get to know our new Fiction Editor.

Most days, when a girl is hankering for some words on a page, she wants to read something fast-paced and lively. Some days, she wants to luxuriate in words and their meanings, and take a great amount of time to understand what, exactly, the author wants her to take away once she’s turned the last page of a submission.

All days, a girl wants to read something that makes her want to know more about a character. A girl wants to be able to hear the characters rattling around in her own brain as they speak and do things and, in general, live out their lives, long after a manuscript’s been printed and bound.

In general, a girl pays attention to voice. A strong voice makes a girl happy, the better to hear the characters rattling around in her head, my dear.

Even better, a girl likes to see what some in the biz like to call a “strong plot line.” By this she does not mean that she wants to see only the plot line. By no means. She most definitely wants to see something happen, but that doesn’t mean that what happens should be all that goes on in a good story.

Likewise, a girl is fully aware that some writers may use words in inventive ways. But she is most drawn to words that are used sparsely, and she finds herself curiously drawn to great dialogue.

Some days a girl goes to the bookstore. She finds herself stuck in the mystery aisle, or sometimes, shamefully, in the thriller aisle, but these seem to be the places to which she gravitates most. She also is sometimes found lurking in the nature aisle, staring at animal photographs. You may find her lingering near Annie Proulx, or Raymond Chandler, or Dashiell Hammett. Predictably, you will also find her in the Alice Munro section, and even in the Sandra Cisernos and Sherman Alexie.

You will NOT find her in the section of authors that write purely for their own gratification.

Sometimes a girl gets lonely, you see, and wants to know that the writer is also writing for the reader.

Perhaps that, then, is the thing you most need to know.

Yi Shun Lai joins the staff of The Los Angeles Review as our new Fiction Editor this August.