WRITERSoftheFUTURE.com

Naw, see, now you have time to have TWO stories ready to submit. Or three! Or write that novel we all have in the back of our minds.

Bought it, read it, would happily get the T-shirt. Or the hat. I will be recommending this to others as well. Thanks Wulf.

Draw a pentagram on the floor in fresh wine mixed with blood from your left thumb. Inside, place a golden pen, a ticket to Los Angeles, a keyboard with the letters worn off, ninety-three cups of coffee, and a blue newt. Chant the words "thegirlintheglasses" five times and she'll appear. O...

I've posted this elsewhere but I'll reiterate - I'm always open to critiques for forumites. Some have even said my feedback is helpful. :)

Yes, definitely. A harder sell doesn't mean impossible - it just raises the bar a bit because all things being equal, editors are likely to choose shorter stories. Write your story. If it's 19k, this just isn't the right market for you - that doesn't mean the story is necessarily flawed.

Many threads little time. I submitted a half-canned, half-newly baked story for Q1. I'm 3k into a story that may end up being my Q2. We'll see. I have many pots on the stove.

Send it out to other pro markets. And write a new, fresh story. WRITE, MONKIES, WRITE! ~Beastmaster Moon~ I've been doing this regularly with my stories since my first HM. It takes the pressure of the contest results, especially now that I'm up to about eight stories cycling through slush, and enco...

Congratulations to all who made it in. It's all about submitting and taking that risk, last minute or early, to see if your story can tickle the fancy of another chunk of flesh. You win, whether you "win" or not, because submitting is the plunge into the depths. So, congratulations fellow ...

I wrote a flash piece that I think I'll develop into my Q2. Hopefully quickly and get it subbed before the second to last day of the quarter.

Happy New Year all!

Submitted 12/28/18

I'm in.

I'm in for the quarter. I almost completely rewrote a former piece, and added about 4k words, but still counts as revised. Best of luck to those of you writing up to the deadline - I think this is the closest I've ever come to the cutoff. Thanks to all who helped with swaps.

I'm looking for someone who hasn't read this piece to glance over the first 450 words and see how it grabs them.

You should send in a complete story that fits the word count. If you don't have anything that is under 17k words, either edit them down (although the closer to that limit they are, they harder of a sell they're going to be), or write something that is :)

I just finished a massive rewrite of my story. It could *almost* count as a fresh piece, but that would be cheating.

I'm open to critiques for anyone who wants eyes on their story. Send them my way.

Good luck all.

I tried a 3 POV story for Q3 and got a rejection. The story had other issues, but trying to weave in three POVs for a short story was a challenge!

I agree, five or so solid critiques is enough to know if the same issue is bugging multiple readers. I don't take every piece of advice from every reader, but I do consider it all. I've been lucky to find really excellent swap partners through this forum.

I'm a terrible over-editor. I don't know how to NOT edit my stories. I'm always poking at them, seeing if I can make them live. Like the good doctor, though, I tend to create monsters instead of paragons. On the topic of editing, I've cleared my reading queue (I believe, poke me if I haven't gotten ...

I think it's important to make the reader ask questions, speculate, and get intrigued right away. The best hooks make promises to the reader, drawing them into the tale. Things like: this problem will be hard to solve, or this character has an interesting issue, or this setting is rich and will be f...

I say we draw straws. Only way to keep things fair.

I reworked an R, and it's 2/3 a new story. I'll make it my Q1 submission, and then it's only a 1/3 of a story resub rate for the year.

YAAAAY!!!!

I'm down for the glass-three-quarters-full challenge. I know I won't have time for Q1, but I can do the other three.

Brittany that's FANTASTIC! Congratulations! Kiss those baby cheeks and cheer! Woo-Hoo! Always a joy when there's a forumite finalist.

I have written two stories inspired by Welsh mythology :)

I'm going to do my best but working on historical fiction is, well, work. Who knew? I'm hoping to wrap up the book in time to squeeze a rewrite into Q1 but I'm full on in the murky middles and wrestling with plot bears. But I plan to make the attempt and not break my streak.

MattDovey wrote:Look at it this way: you need two things to be a writer--rejections and acceptances. You've got the rejection now, so you're halfway there, right? Right!

Matt, if you're telling me it's supposed to be a 1:1 ratio I've got a huge pile of acceptances headed my way.

Aaaaaaaaaaany minute now...

Always

Send it my way.

Always up for swaps.

Congratulations KristyEmber. That's a great accomplishment. It's hard not to want that shiny shiny finalist, but a semi-finalist is JUST off the mark as I'm sure you know. You'll certainly sell the story elsewhere AND you get a personal critique from Dave. Pretty shiny. I wonder if that means the fi...