SUBMIT

At Chronycles, we publish three types of contributions.

Snippets: Short, first-person narratives — usually averaging 500 words (sometimes considerably longer). These can be submitted by the person who experienced the event or by someone curating another person’s story with their permission. We may publish snippets individually or as part of a themed series.

Memoirs: Like snippets, but deeper, longer, and written by the narrators. These pieces give room to explore more complex or layered experiences.

Features: Journalism-style essays driven by curiosity. They aim to answer oddly specific questions, blending personal insight with research and reporting. They typically ask why and how questions.

Note that we do not accept fiction, poetry, or general opinion articles that aren’t rooted in personal experiences. If your article has been published elsewhere, that’s not a problem; still send it. We especially welcome stories from Black and African people.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

• For memoirs and features, please email editor@chronycles.com (and cc adekunlebaj@gmail.com)
  
• For snippets, fill out:
  • This form (chronycles.com/narrate) — if you are sharing your own experience
  • This form (chronycles.com/curate) — if you are curating someone else’s story (with their permission)

If you are a photographer, journalist, or researcher with access to a community (students, pensioners, war veterans, displaced people, commuters, gig workers, diasporans, civil servants, etc., etc.) and you would like to curate a series of snippets about them, please send us an email. If we like your proposal, we will be happy to discuss compensation for your work. We expect that each series will feature between 10 and 25 experiences.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Contributions can be in text or audio format.
• No need to polish; we’ll help with editing and refinement.
• You may choose to publish under your full name, a nickname, your first name, your initials, or even a pseudonym.
• Please share at least 2–3 relevant (and original) pictures with your submission:
  • These can include objects, places, or moments referenced in your story.
  • If you wish to remain anonymous, avoid photos showing your face.
  • Creative alternatives (e.g., masks, cropped details, pictures of other body parts or relevant objects) are welcome.

If you’d prefer to chat or talk things through, feel free to email or send us a WhatsApp message to arrange a call.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

Something authentically you. If you feel a strong urge to share it with the world, chances are it’s exactly what we’d like to publish.

We’re interested in:

• Rants, raves, and reflections.
• Lingering personal experiences.
• Shocking events you’ve been part of.
• Anecdotes, life lessons, struggles, and small triumphs.

If you keep a journal, you can send us excerpts from your diary that you don’t mind sharing with others. If you are a journalist, here’s your chance to publish those interview parts that didn’t make it into your final report or the ones you entirely discarded because of that pesky little thing called word limit. This applies to other professionals, such as humanitarian and civil society workers, who often speak to ordinary people as well.

We’re especially eager to hear from people in underrepresented places and communities. If you’re a sentient robot, visiting alien, or talking animal, you’re more than welcome too.

We typically publish new stories every weekend and will notify you when yours is live.

CURATING FOR CHRONYCLES

We’re trying to improve the quality of our storytelling and would very much like to publish only the best materials. So, if you’re thinking of curating a snippet or a collection of experiences for us, please go through the following recommendations.

• Don’t run interviews through large language models, except to check for basic grammar. They should feel as natural as possible. Preserve the space fillers and pidgin, if possible. We’re stating this first because it is very important to us. We want to see the contours in how each person speaks and writes. We want those linguistic signatures preserved and not flattened out by artificial intelligence tools.
• Pictures are half the story. The ideal thing is to have multiple high-quality pictures of the person and of what they’re describing. See the interviewee as a model and yourself as a photographer. Take pictures from different angles and distances (distant and awkwardly close). Take your time. If the interview is virtual, don’t hesitate to ask for several pictures or be specific about the kind of picture you’d like.
• The transcript should feel conversational, like the reader is there with the interview subject. The sentences should be a window into this person’s life. Don’t dwell so much on abstract, loose constructs that don’t say anything about the person speaking. Put differently, 100% Chronycles = 70% experience + 30% opinion/reflection/advice. Not the other way round.
• Unique experiences are the highlight of the ideal of Chroncycles narrative. If anyone reads it, will they find any aspect of it memorable? Will they learn a new thing about what it’s like to be in someone else’s shoes? Interviewing is not an art of ticking predetermined boxes and concluding as soon as you’ve scratched out what you want. It is an art of building a connection, such that it should be a cathartic experience for everyone involved. Because they’re so comfortable, the person interviewed should be able to pull out thoughts and experiences they have hardly shared with anyone else. Find a way to build that connection.
• Feel free to make the interview as long as necessary. Yes, it can make transcribing more difficult, but you don’t have to write out the whole session. You can also just share the recording with us. The required word count is only there to ensure decorum; it is not a mandatory north star. After all, we can have a lengthy story on the website and only share an excerpt on social media.
• Accuracy is important. This means accurately transcribing what the person has said even when you move words around for clarity and coherence and succinctness. It means making sure the interview is in a place that is quiet enough to allow for hitch-free recording. It also means double-checking hard-to-believe or unclear claims during the interview in case errors were made, whether intended or not.
• Make sure to ask at the end of the interview if there is any part they would rather not see published or ascribed to them. This is because they might not get to see the final draft before it is published to make any redactions.
• Be curious. Ask follow-up questions that can help fill crucial gaps and provide context. Oh, so you spend this much on so and so; what percentage of your salary is that? Ask for details like you are trying to reconstruct the events for a painting, a film, or to solve a crime. It is easy for people to say things that intrigue you (for example, complaining about how tough their work is), while it is all still surface-level information. Ask the 5Ws and H questions, especially the why and the how.

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At present, Chronycles does not offer financial compensation for unsolicited submissions.

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