WRITERSoftheFUTURE.com

I have a question regarding these things, and if it's been answered somewhere then feel free to give me the hose again. If you get an R on a technicality, is there any way to know this? This might be completely wishful thinking, but I recently became aware of the Microsoft Word meta data it includes...

It's an R for me.

Do they leave a message if you miss the phone call? Or if you're like me, probably 19/20 phone calls are from spam or robots, so I never answer the phone unless I know the number.

The sun, low-hung and slurred beneath a haze of grey clouds. It remits no heat, only a disc of dim light. A retinue of hooves kneads the barren dirtscape, those without brush boots chided raw from catsclaw and grimthorn and nettle. The riders, twelve in number, all bear the red mark of the Crimson. ...

This makes sense, I was thinking like if the one of the three winners got disqualified.

Wulf Moon wrote:
Remember, if a winner gets disqualified, they pull from the semifinalists. I'm guessing that's why semifinalists are no longer notified with the rest of the crowd.

Just curious, but why wouldn't they pull from one of the other finalists? Aren't there like 8 of them?

Excerpts from one of my favorite writers: The sharp and brittle crack and clatter of its weathered and ungreased wood and metal is slow and terrific: a series of dry sluggish reports carrying for a half mile across the hot still pinewiney silence of the August afternoon. They moved rapidly on betwe...

I once had a magazine change my story from present tense to past tense without telling me. Didn't find out until they sent me a copy. Really irked me. If I wanted it written in past tense, I'd have done it like that.

It's still a harrowing process once you become aware of it. I went the whole three months without really thinking much about it and then just off-hand the other day I decided to come here and take a look. Now I can't get the thought out of my head. It just keeps saying, soon soon soon soon soon... I...

I think the length of dialogue varies, depending on the situation. People can often talk for a long stretch without interruption. Are they venting? Are they speaking quickly? Or are they super charismatic so they command the attention of the other characters? You could probably even splice this in w...

I'd love to hear what specifically drew judges to the winning stories and what inspired the authors of the stories to write what they wrote (winner interviews). Also tips, what judges look for... And how to level up or advance in a writing career. This right here. Would love to hear what made the s...

I guess the tastes have changed over the years. I'm currently reading volume XVI, and the word "fuck" appears like six different times in Atlantis, Ohio , along with a few other words like "shit." Of course, this one was edited by Algis Budrys. I think a few other stories in ther...

I have this same exact problem. My writing doesn't flow, and I try to make things super poetic. So many people have told me my prose was clunky and I never understood what that meant. I started paying attention to what other professionals were saying. I think Elmore Leonard has a rule that goes If i...

I'm so excited, but I can't figure out where to watch live. Anyone have a link? I feel like its somewhere on their website but I CAN'T FIND it!!!! Gahhhhhh https://www.writersofthefuture.com/?utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=71282756&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_upTnqMK9fGPlI867Q4_kD...

That's quite a good response, thank you for taking the time to offer that. I have a suspicion that I'm probably okay, and the fact that I'm even asking this question means I'm aware that something might be wrong, so now I have some things I can look for.

Here's a question for you lot (and I'm not even English): I have a story wherein the protag finds herself in a sort of hospital/maternity ward with about 65 other women. These women are pretty much sheltered. I would like to try to take advantage of this by "worldbuilding" a few of the dyn...

Always tough to say for sure why the story didn't move further into the contest. Dave offered this information a while ago. Might be of some use. https://www.writersofthefuture.com/why-you-only-got-an-honorable-mention/ ~Morgan That's awesome, thanks for the link. I haven't seen that one yet. I'm p...

Going to rewrite my HM for this one, which gives me lots of time to just polish. The story is done, only I think I may have to kill somebody. It's impossible to tell what was wrong with the story, since there's no feedback. My first hypothesis is always going to default to, "Maybe not enough pe...

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 :) That's sort of disheartening to hear about g...

I dunno. I just resized the image to make sure it fit the parameters and it worked first time through. Welcome to the Forum Daniel. I lived in Manitou and Colorado Springs when I was stationed at Ft. Carson. Wulf got my attention when he mentioned the Superstars Writing Seminar. If there's any way I...

Count me in. I'm going to rewrite my previous HM and put that in for Q2.

Entered on 31 Dec.

1. I start with the concept. The concept itself has to be intriguing enough to warrant building a story around it. 2. After that I figure out who the players are, why they even care. What are they motivated by? Then, I look at how each of their own goals can interfere with everyone else's goals. 3. ...

Hi, do you have any other covers or examples of your art that you've done?

Submitted to this on Monday. Spent about 20 days on it. I think I'm going to revise an old R to submit for Q2.

Thanks for the warm welcome, folks. I actually did not know about that, Wulf Moon. I will have to check that out.

The two that stand out most in my mind are:

"Carrying the God" - Lee Battersby. I like evil endings.
"The Paradise Aperture" - David Carani. I thought this was a very unique story.

I know this is an old thread, but surprise endings are kind of my favorite. The trick to nailing this involves a good deal of sleight of hand. Essentially, you want to plant the clues within the story so that they're innocuous on their own, but once the ending drops you take them all together and re...

Hello everyone. I'm Daniel Donche, I tried to register unsuccessfully for a few years actually. Thought I'd try again and looks like the magic is in my favor this time. I live in Colorado Springs. I'm not new to the contest, per se, my record currently is R, HM, R, and I submitted a 4th story to 1st...