WRITERSoftheFUTURE.com

ell, darn it, I should be sitting at my pc failing to put words together to make a story - but I have Volume 36 to read. If you're like me you dive right in and call it work, even though it's not. Learning what Kary and Dave like these days is of paramount importance. Write on! I'd say it is work, ...

Aargh. For some reason, my pre-order isn't available until tomorrow on Kobo. I wouldn't be surprised if that was some kind of Scamazon thing.

I was about to settle down for a read. Oh well, one more day.

SwiftPotato , my Q2 was zero KYD flash completed and two fresh stories. I submitted to WotF 15 minutes before the deadline after 24 hours without sleep, working overnight on my story after finishing work (as in my job), then an hour sleep before starting work (as in my job) again. The deadline was ...

Some great successes recently. Nice work everyone.

So I've just submitted my 13th story this quarter under my 13th pseudonym. What a rush! It's April Fool's Day - of course I'm joking! wotf007 It is approaching 8am here in the UK though - I've now been awake for 24 hours straight and start work in 2 hours! If it wasn't for this working-from-home mal...

Reading an interview with Hayao Miyazaki, I thought one of his answers brilliantly summed up something David Farland looks for in winning stories and is something Wulf has covered too. Here's the sentence (bolded by me) in context: MORIARTY: You spent well over a decade preparing to make MONONOKE. Y...

Definitely not the third bullet point (assuming that's the way you want to do it)! If many readers don't perceive the inner journey, I'd think you need to find ways to make that stronger. Inner conflict is something I struggle with for my main characters. I'll have an idea for inner conflict, but it...

I'm sorry to hear about this for everyone who was attending.

At least there will be no doubts in anyone's mind about whether they should go or not now. :/

Hey Elessar - you're welcome to send it to me (PM a Google Docs link or for my e-mail address). I have a 350-word flash I could send you but don't feel under any pressure to comment on it.

I find all opinions useful, and critiquing others work is a good way to becoming a better writer yourself. :-)

Prompts I thought were prompt but are not so prompt considering there were prompter prompts:

1. Megalithic rock star

2. Shallow cup

3. It's the wrong hand

4. Eternal but dying

5. But where's the other shoe?

My alternating is more accident than design this quarter. Since November/December, I've never struggled so much to get the editing over the line. I have too many stories almost ready for submission, but sometimes it's just one aspect I'm unsure of how to fix.

More spoiler warnings... It's a while since I read Lost Robot, but I remember it being an entertaining story without there being any conflict. My thoughts are similar to yours. The speculative elements seemed unbelievable as the detective had superpowers that came out of nowhere. This character feat...

I recently put Warspawn , which is a non-winning Finalist, up on my website. I really enjoyed this story. It had some great worldbuilding (a war golem choosing to live a life of peace? I'm in!) Thanks for sharing it!! wotf007 Same here. It was also interesting to read the prequel after (also on Liz...

I'm behind on the flash prompts, but have finished my story for another market aside from critiques and revisions. I have around 1,000 words written for my WotF story.

I'm still waiting for it to appear on Kobo. The delay has been chased up by the WotF people!

Uh oh. The character climax of my novel is all mind speech and is a three way italics conversion. Guess it won’t be up your alley! Don't worry - I don't really read novels anyway! wotf011 wotf001 Italics are more difficult to read for many dyslexic people (estimated at around 10% of the population)...

Once the reader knows what is happening it's easy to follow, as long as it is consistent with the flow of the story. It isn't easy to follow if the reader finds italics difficult to read, like many (including me) do. I find occasional words and standalone sentences in italics okay to read. I strugg...

Could that be announcing the date the WotF course is released? Maybe not, as that's not new. Hmmm.

As we have Illustrators of the Future...Narrators of the Future. Is WotF going audio?

I find your example in the opening post difficult to read. I've read stories that have whole chapters in italics and find those difficult to read too (one was from two different viewpoints, with one of those in italics). I agree that limited use is fine, such as emphasis in the occasional sentence. ...

Does anyone else out there use polysyndeton as a literary device? I don't see this much (if any) in sci fi/fantasy. Not sure us using such a device would be frowned upon in this contest (even when used correctly)??? Any thoughts? Learned me a new word today! wotf001 Me too! I did it in my HM and an...

What Andy says is my understanding. If the action isn't directly referencing the speech e.g. she said/he mumbled, then there should be a full-stop before the action. Not a great example, but: Wrong: "I can jump this fence," he tripped and hit his head. Correct: "I can jump this fence....

Andy Dibble is another forum member in the next volume. Having read a couple of his stories already, I'm intrigued to read Andy's WotF winner. I may even skip to it straight away (if it's not first)!

Hey JWBenjamin. I think it's awesome you don't have an Internet connection through choice! Congrats on getting an SHM on your first try. If I remember rightly, the judges said that was the strongest quarter yet. I understand being terrified, but we're a friendly bunch here. Welcome in.

I'll try some first-draft lines for stories that won't be submitted to WotF, then read the article you linked to see how it helps. ⋅ Two childhood friends meet at an abandoned playground as an apocalyptic flood threatens to destroy more than their friendship ⋅ An immortal man los...

Not for Kobo users it isn't!

*Waits patiently.*

If you can't write a summary in one line, is your story trying to achieve too much? This is good and I think the answer is yes because every story should have enough focus for you to pick out that focus. interestingly enough, today I was just asked to write a one-liner for my WotF story. If I ever ...

For WotF, unless done in a unique way, I think avoiding the tropes is likely essential. And likely a cross against for the top pro magazines such as F&SF. Too original? If the story can be understood by the general reader, can you be too original for WotF? I think other pro markets may be more o...

I've sent you both a PM.

More flash swaps are always welcome!

I'm sure I remember Joni saying late-March this time?

"Any story that you submit that is not fit to be read by a high school student is, in my opinion, fatally flawed and will be rejected. Profanity may be edited out, but if vile content is what the story is about, then you need to be submitting to someone else." Ten Reasons Why I’ll Quickly ...