WRITERSoftheFUTURE.com

My buddy's having the same problem—what's the current status? Or does registering via a different browser or something like that help?

I have over forty active stories. Experience has taught me the wisdom of Heinlein's Rule ' Keep it on the market until it sells.' Ah, that'll do it. I probably also need to reduce the turnaround on my demoralized, "nobody will ever love this story" period following a rejection. This is th...

Wow. Finalists announcing early and winners stories being publicly acknowledged. What's next, An eight-way tie for 1st for Q2/33? I could accept that wotf001 . The acknowledgment of the stories was actually a mistake; they've fixed it. Now will everybody who saw the original post please look right ...

Ishmael wrote:I have over forty active stories. Experience has taught me the wisdom of Heinlein's Rule 'Keep it on the market until it sells.'

Ah, that'll do it. I probably also need to reduce the turnaround on my demoralized, "nobody will ever love this story" period following a rejection.

I don't really see it as aiming for rejections; rejections are just an inevitable consequence of voluminous submissions. I've noted this on another thread, but it's relevant here. Last year I made a neat round 300 submissions, garnering 9 acceptances and 267 rejections, of which 48 were personal. I...

Hmm... Hi everybody!

Also:



A little late to the party here, but I'm going to MidAmeriCon next week and super excited! I'm also finishing the first draft of my book within the next week!

Thanks, everybody! Definitely a lot of food for thought. Looking over previous winners already tempered my expectations for the contest, driving me to consider it equivalent to a sale (which after reading the responses here seems to be the right approach). So to sum up the responses: - Continue to w...

[Advice from previous finalists and published authors particularly wanted] After hearing that I was the first-place finalist for Q1, my main thought was: "Well, guess I'd better finish that novel." But there's more to that, isn't there? With three more quarters to go until Volume 33 comes ...

dstein, do you have s Q2 entry? You must be excited by the thought you could get a Q2 winner as well ... wotf015 When you win, you're automatically DQed from subsequent quarters I believe. Fair, I suppose, but disappointing. It takes away the chance for a certain kind of glory. And let's face it, w...

And I'm with Jeremy. If this story doesn't win, I'm pretty much sure that nothing I write will ever be able to. Then again, what do I know!?!?! wotf024 Quick note: First off, something can be a totally amazing story and still "not right for WOTF". . This is very true. Except I wrote this ...

Does anyone know the third winner? wotf017 Joni mentioned somebody, and apologies if I'm not remembering correctly, but I think it's a woman from the UK who isn't a forumite here? Joni told me that the other two winners were from Utah and Durham, U.K. My apologies, dstein, but I can't recall if you...

storysinger wrote:Does anyone know the third winner?

Joni mentioned somebody, and apologies if I'm not remembering correctly, but I think it's a woman from the UK who isn't a forumite here?

Good luck! I feel like the publicity from WotF might help with Baen in particular; both are still fond of a certain type of heroic genre fiction.

Congrats everyone! Now onto to the next stage of waiting.... wotf011 Is it weird that I'm not that bothered about whether or not I actually get the grand prize? I mean, the $6k is nothing to sneeze at, but I'm so over the moon about being published that getting the grand prize would just be gravy. ...

So... I just spoke to Joni and she said I can take this public, so I'ma do it: FIRST PLACE! Matt, thanks for the info about keeping my title/story characteristics secret. So, I also spoke to Joni and I won: SECOND PLACE! Looks like we'll be seeing each other next April, buddy! wotf059 Yeah, Joni me...

So... I just spoke to Joni and she said I can take this public, so I'ma do it: FIRST PLACE!

Matt, thanks for the info about keeping my title/story characteristics secret.

Like Matt said, the real secret about starting with conflict is that you don't have to start with the major, story-ending conflict. But there has to be something, some dissonant note, something wrong with the world in an intriguing way to convince the reader to come along. If it's a hint at your sp...

David, you may have read Brad Torgersen's essay "How to win the Writers of the Future contest": https://bradrtorgersen.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/how-to-win-the-writers-of-the-future-contest/ Everything there is true, but I also don't think it's possible to "game" the system here. ...

Congrats Rebecca!

Well, it's been 24 hours since I got the call so I can say it: I made finalist!

Also, Joni's really nice over the phone.

I wish there were some way to know not necessarily which finalists have been notified, but at the very least when all finalists have been notified. The fact that I got Joni's "you're still in the running" e-mail last month means a lot to me, but I've gotta think there's a better alternativ...

Oh, yeah. I got that email. I know I made the first cut at least. This is the twitchiest Thursday I've ever had. The worst thing is, my phone rang an hour ago. Unknown number. A woman's voice on the other end of the line... Trying to scam my credit card info. wotf23 I guess I should give it until n...

Athena, did you get the e-mail in mid-March from Joni letting you know that you've made the first cut? If not I'd send her a quick e-mail so you don't get your hopes up (or, alternately, so that you can be appropriately excited at still being in the running, which is also likely!). As far as I know ...

That's tough, peony. I'm in a similar situation. Finished the first draft of "this quarter's" story and I'm happy with it, but it's confusing the hell out of everybody else. It's a very unusual setting where excess exposition and ambiguity both lead to problems, but once I walk that tightr...

Nothing yet, except that Sarah Toth still really wants me to take a look at some Hubbard westerns...

I was pretty peeved last quarter that my "R" was never sent, leading me to think I was a finalist until the last moment. But at least it cured me from checking this forum all the time. I'll probably still cycle a short story through WotF once a quarter, but I'm starting to target them for ...

Transport. Your. Reader. /smacks forehead I knew I was forgetting SOMETHING! :) To paraphrase Dr. Jonathan Crane, I always intend for my writing to take the reader places. Sadly, those aren't always places the reader wants to go. But where that disconnect happens, I'm hoping it's more and more beca...

Ah, so it's less that there are specific delineated genres than that Dave tries to represent speculative fiction pretty well with a little variety. That's a load off of my mind!

Quick question for anybody with a little info: I've been told that Dave generally picks a story in each genre. I can think of a few off the top of my head that I've read in collections—urban fantasy, trad fantasy, sci-fi, horror, possibly dark fantasy or military SF—but does anybody have a better id...

Does Dave read things more or less in order, either as they come in or after the quarter closes? I'd be interested in seeing a distribution of winners by submission date, though it wouldn't really be possible to control for any writerly factors which might lead somebody to submit early and write kil...