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Yeah just look at how long the hm list is when results come out.

Got an HM,

It takes every little bit of my creativity and skill to land an HM. I was hoping to progress further with this story. I really thought it would take me to the next tier, but I will have to be happy it's not an R. Good luck to those still awaiting results!

The suspense!

I'm not ready for results, maybe dave is taking a quick vacay before he reads Q4?

Dr Strange: I looked forward in time, I saw 14,000,605 possible timelines.

Me: In how many of those did I place?

Dr Strange: None

Sorry to sully the forum with infinity war memes lol, but we're in the endgame now.

Winter, I mean thursday, is coming.

I wonder how many people submitted to this quarter, it sounds like Q3 was a huge spike in submissions.

Thanks Orbivillein and MoganB, I don't mean to hog the post, someone else cut in if this topic is getting old. This is why we have trunk stories I suppose. Q4 was rough. I might need Q1 to slack off, deliver a trunk story and then recoup for Q2. It's amateur behavior. I am still learning to cope wit...

Thanks wulf. All great advice! I try to avoid formulae, and right now I am battling the formula for awful amateur writing lol. I do divide my time between reading and writing. I focus on this contest to keep me writing something new every few months but other than that I spend the rest of the time r...

Another problem with focusing on the ratio is that it can suppress participation. I think some writers sometimes skip a quarter when they don't have a shiny new story out of fear that submitting an old/less polished story will hurt their record. Yeah that's true. I fear Q1 of next year, I don't wan...

vsutherland01 wrote: I am still at the point where my absolute best effort barely makes an HM. But this contest isn't the only one. Nor is it the only speculative fiction market. David is just one editor. Send that best effort to others. See what happens. Best of luck, Kent I will send them out eve...

I hope I can land an HM this quarter. My ratio is embarrassing, I was hoping to do better this year. I am still at the point where my absolute best effort barely makes an HM. I gotta improve that next year. I'm starting to think the place/rejection ratio is overrated (though this may be due to mine...

I hope I can land an HM this quarter. My ratio is embarrassing, I was hoping to do better this year. I am still at the point where my absolute best effort barely makes an HM. I gotta improve that next year.

R here.

Haha nooooo too soon. I get til the end of october to read all the things I want, then back to writing.

That's a great point, thanks for bringing it up. I suppose it's all in the execution. I guess I will see, my Q4 might be too slow of a build given it's 12K length. My Q3 is much shorter and punchier but has a lot less depth.

Here's Dave's latest blog post: https://mystorydoctor.com/how-to-bore-an-editor-to-death/ Happy to say that I don't think I'm guilty of any of these in my Q3. So glad that Dave is alright and recovered from his hospital stay! I just read this. I think my Q3 might pass, but my Q4 is totally screwed....

DylCary wrote:Just got Mr. Farland's newsletter over email, and let me say that it seems he is *definitely* in the middle of some WOTF stories. And he has *opinions*.

/gulp/

*twitch twitch twitch*

I love his blog posts when he is in the middle of judging the contest haha. We are sooooo busted!

Thanks for the response and all the information! We're glad to have you as a judge.

Good luck with Q4. Happy reading.

When do you think we will see results for this quarter? Q3 results look like they will drop in october. Is there any hope for december or are we looking at january?

Thanks for the encouragement. This contest has been a fulfilling experience. Getting feedback and climbing out of R to HM has been a world of validation to all the time I have spent on writing. I am content to write and submit stories exclusively to the contest for now, but once I can land consisten...

Thanks for sharing this interview. The contest seems like such an insurmountable obstacle at times. I found it interesting when John talked about what wins. The stories that win have to be original, so original that they lead the trends. Those are tall orders! More people submit each quarter so the ...

Aaaaaaand I'm in for this quarter. Just submitted, to my own dismay.

Never been so nervous. I love this story so much, which almost guarantees it will flop. Good luck everyone. Keep at it.

At least I can say I got 4 in 35. Wooo!

Just got an email from Joni saying I made it through the "first pass" my story is still in the running for Q3 so it will now be reviewed by DF. Who else got an email?

Haha, that's awesome. I wish you good fortune in the twitching to come.

Thanks so much for the detailed response. I will use this information to keep my formatting simple. In stories involving computers I sometimes name folders as well as the fictitious programs or documents stored in those folders. I will treat them as any other proper noun. For example (unrelated to a...

Hey! Thanks for the response Vin.

That is a great suggestion. I will make that my final pass through. I will have my computer dictate it to me and if I can stomach how it sounds out loud I will be ready to submit it haha.

I am using google docs and I will see if they have a 'read aloud' option.

Sataris wrote:
roughly 12 months

That's the best thing to be twitching for but the wait has to be unbearable. Your story and three others go before a full panel of judges right?

Yeah I feel that way haha. My story is around 13K so it's a bit longer, and I don't think longer stories do as well. I can't think of any ways to shorten it without scrapping the idea and just writing something new. I do feel satisfied knowing that this idea has been taken as far as I can take it, n...

I am trying to figure out the proper way to write these things out in stories. Do I italicize, capitalize, use quotation marks? I see some people do folders like this: 'folder' I see some people apply italics to programs or or files in the folder. What is the best way? I don't want to use italics in...