WRITERSoftheFUTURE.com

[quote="SwiftPotato"]Results of check-in already here (I'm sharing this one cause I think it's important for y'all to see): got a really, really good personal from Charlie on this one. He gave me a big long thing with paragraphs, character names, examples, and page numbers. Which is TERRIF...

Hey everybody,

Anyone feel like a read through on 5,800 words?

I'm curious about the story's excitability.

Thank you,

My Q4 was submitted a few weeks ago. So I'm good.

Can anyone recommend resources for upskilling my line-by-line prose? I’m not looking for anything on spelling/grammar (that’s a whole other kettle of sardines); rather, I’m looking for strategies to make my prose flow effortlessly, while still retaining a bit of vibrancy. I already read my stories ...

My problem with eloquent writing is when it enters the world of "purple" prose, or the imagery doesn't actually make sense but sounds pretty, or it's a literary attention grab that doesn't actually add anything to the story. Anybody want to post writing snippets as practice towards eloque...

HermioneLee wrote:

Dustin Adams wrote:

HermioneLee wrote:Just got my second R...hope I can finally break my streak of Rs next quarter

That's the spirit! Let's exchange 450's this quarter and see if we can both up our game.

Great idea! But what’s 450?

First 450 words of your story.

Working on my Q4 as we wait in twitchery.

If it were my paragraph, I would start my description with the hills because the rivers run through them. The hills stood against the skyline, blocking out the horizon to the far edges of the world. Through the grassy hillsides ran rivers their water red as blood. Filthy and without compassion for ...

Anybody want to post writing snippets as practice towards eloquence, or whatever you're going for. I really like this idea and would want to start it up again if anyone's interested. Of course, I like all exercises, as seen from the Wulf's exercises thread. (That's because they give good exercise t...

[quote="Corbin Maxwell"][quote="Reuben"]You didn't ask for a critique, but I figure that's the point of the thread, and I would certainly appreciate if someone would critique mine, so here goes.


What did you need critiqued?

You didn't ask for a critique, but I figure that's the point of the thread, and I would certainly appreciate if someone would critique mine, so here goes. My suggestions: Read Syn and Syntax, Cormac McCarthy, and Faulkner. My two paragraphs: John McCarthy stands awash in the finality of sunset, sta...

Post an example so we can see the problem better. This is a particularly bad case: They walked through the town in the dim afternoon light. Grass filled the cracks in the asphalt and spilt into windows and doorways. Old vehicles sank deep between dark nettles, and a bicycle plaited itself into the ...

Heh. I had a long talk with Joni yesterday, and she didn’t drop a clue about Q2 results, alas. I did discover she’s been enjoying pictures of Disgruntledpeony’s baby pictures, so there is that. :) Oh god. wotf019 We talk a bit in post-results e-mails sometimes, and I've been sending her pics of the...

At the moment when I'm telling a story I feel like my sentences are thick bricks I'm chucking against windows, smashing them to get my point across. They aren't beautiful. A brick is a brick, I find myself relying on the same repetitive sentence structures over and over again as I write. Post an ex...

My suggestions: Read Syn and Syntax, Cormac McCarthy, and Faulkner. My two paragraphs: John McCarthy stands awash in the finality of sunset, staring into tinted glass through which a muted sun glows out of the burnt horizon. The day’s final moments spilling forward against the window where his refle...

I'm not greedy. I'll settle for just one spot and leave the others to whomever the judges choose. I have a Q4 ready but not sure I want to submit that one unless I can't push out something I like better.

Submitted my Q-3 today. Another quarter notched into my pistol grip. This is my 13th year of entering the contest and my 17th year of writing. Just before writing this post, I was looking over the list of forum members. It's filled with writers and judges I knew and forumed with since 2007. I've wat...

I was thinking that flow-state should be a compound noun. It seems to read better that way. Personal choice I would imagine.

LDWriter2 wrote:Not sure if I need to say it this late in the quarter-if anyone was keeping tabs on who entered-but I received my usual total rejection.

Sorry to hear that LDWriter. Hang in there.

I just completed this course last week, and managed to pull a story out of it that I’m really happy with and I have put for review in my writer’s group so I can send it in for Q3. I learned so much and now have a more solid grasp on how write more professionally and with greater quality and clarity...

Canvassing the forumites for thoughts on this course, and perhaps to start an ongoing discussion concerning content and output if one has not already been initiated.


Thank you.

Rejected again. I won't be entering in the future. Before you quit, ask yourself why do you write? It’s a question I ask myself everyday. And everyday I feel like quitting but the absolute, addictive need to put words into sentences and paragraphs and to enter another world is what drives me to sit...

Silver HM for me.

Template 3 is the “didn’t win me over” template. Look, you’re probably a pro. This is a good story. You know it’s good. You’re probably going to sell it elsewhere. Maybe I can tell you the idiosyncratic reasons why it didn’t make me all hot and tingly so that I can’t stop thinking about it day and ...

Dear Don, Thank you for giving me a chance to read "Solar Extortion." Unfortunately, this story didn't quite grab me and I'm going to pass on it for Fantasy & Science Fiction. But I wish you best of luck finding the right market for it and hope that you'll keep us in mind in the futur...

I just received a “didn’t win me over,” from F&SF. It’s my first one of those. I always get “didn’t quite grab me,” with one or two comments.

Anyway, on to another day.

My Q-2 is submitted.

Sent my Q-1 off just the other day. I'm very happy with it.

I read Dave’s post above. Personally, I’m addicted to writing the same as if it were heroin. Since I moved out on my own, I rarely take a day off for the addiction must be fed. I may never win the contest or ever get published, but still the needle goes in everyday. I wrote one 15k story in four day...

Completed my rough draft for Q-1 today.