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Consider how many close acquaintances you can manage. What, six, twelve? Magic numbers, by the way, Seven Samurai, thirteen diners at the Last Supper. Seven also happens to be the usual number for an ensemble cast of main characters. Anyway, more than seven or so personal relationships causes shortf...

A central question, also known as dramatic question, as I learned, is what will happen, sort of plot, though other transformations, too. For example, mystery's conventional dramatic question is who done it. Thriller, why who done it. Romance, will they or won't they . . . Western, will the rugged in...

Publisher submission guidelines occasion whether a given publication considers self-published stories posted on a personal website first publication rights expended. Some say yes, some say nothing, a very few say no. Too many publications to sort those and links out from among the fray. Everyday Fic...

Reading and study of writing overall, plus motion picture narratives, and other arts that inform writing growth, editor work, etc., for me, consume a hundred times more time than narrative creation.

Don't know of any real-world analogues for evolution to adapt to a foreign object. An opposite example might be a hand that evolved a strap for a sling, an atlatl, a hammer, a lance, a lasso, etc., and never did despite eons of such tool and weapons' uses. Instead, opposable thumbs evolved beforehan...

Wrestled with myself about whether I'm still eligible, whether to submit, whether I even had anything to submit. Portal is still open and I'm so, so tempted. This contest meant a lot to me. And I really wanted to do 4 in 35. But at this point, sitting on five pro-paying publications with another to...

When I studied astrophysics, course materials included companion application and software discs that were bundled with textbooks, websites for exercises and assignments, too. The courses explored the cosmos, and the apps and such did pieces of what you want -- way back in unstable hand-me-down stepc...

My way to cope, transcend even, is to ask why did this perform below wanted level and -- and -- the way of dramatic movement incitement, follow-thru, and satisfaction -- plot, that is -- strong motivation to answer why and don't do and do do whatever why. Emotions channeled into growth.

My top hurricane motif chuckle is that weather-news bureaus send out storm-naive correspondents to cover on-scene events. Send those who don't know so their emotions are genuine and high strength, so the public gets the message that hurricanes are not to be taken lightly. Been through dozens of hurr...

. . . I feel drained after writing my Q4 story. I took it easy the middle 2 quarters of this year but Q4 I went all in. Usually I finish a story bored and ready to move onto something more exciting but this time I am not sure what comes next. I need some time. I am in a weird transitional stage whe...

Celestia is a 3-D animated celestial freeware program that offers viewable results from user developed scenarios, objects, models, and scripts. Steep learning curve and no fact checks, though. A planet and three moons, probably other planets, maybe many moons and planetesimals, comet clouds, asteroi...

To declare a military space mission gives away extant strategies and installations, methods and sources, too. Plus, once realized, adversaries of less rocket science competence join extant multidimensional battle theater competitors, learn force multiplication's true methods and advantages, and affo...

Facets of a story that distinguish an automatic decline due to utter guideline noncompliance (recipe, joke, prank, whim, non-fantastic, non-prose content), to also-ran to honorable mention to finalist, etc., to quarter win, place, or show, to annual grand winner? Relevant, timely, timeless, lively h...

Consider the reverse? Excerpts from novels that stand alone and hold up to scrutiny and appeal are few and far between though exquisite. Ralph Ellison's " Battle Royal " excerpted from The Invisible Man is an example of excellence (Houston Community College hosted PDF). How does the excerp...

Word's overall issue is appearance and intent for user friendliness and consequent less accessibility and control. WordPerfect's Reveal Codes feature outstrips all others for ease and function access to format codes. WordPerfect is lean and clean for format codes. Word, in terms of format and style,...

I got an email that concerns me. I entered for the 3rd quarter but the email I got was titled: Congrats - Your story received Honorable Mention 2nd Quarter Then it opened up as: Dear Entrant, Your story has been judged and is an Honorable Mention for the 3rd quarter . Congratulations!!! Has there b...

I'm in. Not sure if it is sci fi (Wikipedia's attempt to define "sci fi" wasn't much help), but I'm in. A workable definition for science fiction is most anything not real-world extant of a scientific or technological nature. "Hard" science fiction is especially about probable, ...

Freelance editor: up to five dollars per proofread SMF page, more for heavier edits, is my bread-and-butter income for eighteen years now, about $30 average net per work hour. The field's pay, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, ranges from $15 to $50 per hour, $25 mean, a few $100-plus out...

A writing teacher specifically? A curriculum vitae for a writing teacher would include teaching credits, education credits, and publication credits. For one-on-one in-person, mail or email, or all, teacher-pupil correspondence, time exclusive to the correspondence would be billed at at least $40 per...

The WotF contest, science fiction and fantasy, fiction overall favor classic comedy's "happy endings" to a factor of about six out of ten; conflict resolution, about nine of ten. Farland has noted he loathes downbeat stories and outcomes fraught with ennui and angst for the sake of downbea...

So... Do writers normally get these notifications or is this something new? Either way, can one speculate that receiving this notification means they have achieved at least HM? Submission progress notifications throughout WotF contest history have been episodic and erratic. Submission management so...

So... Do writers normally get these notifications or is this something new? Either way, can one speculate that receiving this notification means they have achieved at least HM? Submission progress notifications throughout WotF contest history have been episodic and erratic. Submission management so...

SMF originated from typewriter standards, one monospaced typeface of one type size and no format decorations, like bold and italics, etc., only capital case and lowercase roman type. Back when, a typewriter companion template's edges included a straight edge and a scalloped edge. The straight edge f...

I no longer participate in any surveys. Recent and current events have shown those are motivated by malign agendas and for abuses. Even otherwise benevolent surveys presuppose wanted results: petitio principii , "begs the question," circular logic that assumes the conclusion at the outset ...

For general information, anymore, many publishers prefer SMF typescripts' main typeface be Times New Roman. New Courier is the traditional SMF typeface circa twentieth century up through 1990. Typeface preference and mandate varies among the Big Four fantastic fiction novel publishers and the many s...

Author Services switched submission management software to WizeHive's Zengine for volume 35 2018, as late as for the fourth quarter. New login criteria though old logins could be entered as if for the first time. New software, expanded submission management plugins, ostensibly, more economical, effe...

Other word processor software also includes text-to-speech applications, includes WordPerfect and Acrobat distiller apps, the Dragon, of course, supported by several browsers, too.

For the record, I submitted on June 21st and received my first pass email on Sept. 4 at 2 AM. (Joni never sleeps apparently.) Time sent or time received? Detroit, Universal Time Code Minus Four (EDST, Greenwich Mean Time, and DST impact, too) Hollywood, UTC-7 2 a.m. Detroit local time, Hollywood lo...

Hi all, I'm new here, so still feeling my way through the forum. I've written for years, but only in the last few have I tried to do anything with my scribblings. At the moment I have a handful of short stories, three of which have been published online. One is still out, one is on the revision tab...

Grammar principles about proper noun and common noun, respectively, initial capital case, lower case all; and title of an overall facet or subfacet, respectively, italics, quote mark brackets. jDoeDD214.pdf, unique file name and extension folder, common noun. Tent Junk Folder, proper noun. Away Docu...