WRITERSoftheFUTURE.com

All joking aside, always read the latest for the current trend, as much to avoid writing something similar as to see what Dave currently likes. And then go back from there, latest to last, for about five or six years. Volume 31 is an important year. My friends Steve Pantazis, Martin Shoemaker, and ...

RSchibler wrote:My story "The Wizard, the Watcher, and the Waif" will be published Friday at https://nightshiftradio.com/storytellersprint. Enjoy!

Congratulations!

Check out Wulf's Super Secret # 31 where he talks about this. If you ever want any information about winning the contest, it's a good bet that Wulf's super secrets probably talk about it. Regarding minimum word length, see this thread It's my personal opinion from looking at non-winning finalists th...

Yes, "like" and "as" as also words that I try to cut out. If I can change a simile into a metaphor, I do. And usually when there's a simile (e.g. "her eyes were as dark as night") I try to cut the first like or as (her eyes were dark as night). Compare “‘I’m not actuall...

RSchibler wrote:I got my list from The Ten Percent Solution by Ken Rand.

Reuben Previously wrote:(which is a book that I do plan on buying sometime in the near future).

Well, I guess that leaves me no choice...

Thanks! I think I know why I've been rejected--there's no way for them to tell I'd be a good fir in anyway. They didn't offer a trial or anything. I guess I'll just have to wait until I get something published, then try again (as my signature so tellingly says).

Thank you, everyone! And thank you Liz for the suggestions. Very helpful. Not to get on with the actual writing... wotf007 I do a CTL+F for "that" and a number of other words before submitting. It's quite frequently unnecessary. I'd love to hear what those words are, as well as anyone else...

I've found that "that" is a word I use often without thinking, yet the sentence reads well without it, and in published fiction it's usually absent. It seems like it's one of those words that you use to cut the "ten percent" (which is a book that I do plan on buying sometime in t...

So where is the line? Obviously people who read a lot are influenced by what they read. And beginning writers (consciously or not) try on styles of various writers they admire, write fan fiction, put new twists on old ideas, etc. Obviously no one should be using fanfic or revamped versions of someo...

I just got rejected for an opportunity to be a first reader.

Any idea what they're looking for, aside from having professional sales? It's not as if we critique publicly.

Uh oh. I would email Joni--definitely. Might be it just didn't go out yet, though. Since I'm paranoid, I usually go back into the site and click Enter Writers of the Future Contest, and if it tells me that my submission has been processed, I relax. I advise you to do that; also, check your spam mail.

Wow! Congratulations!

Ending where one began is a common and easy way to wrap up a story and make it look cohesive. Although there are other ways to achieve the effect, this is the easiest, whether it be through plot, or setting or dialog, although setting is the most common, I think. For example, the first time I saw th...

Yup, looks like spam. On the other hand, it looks pretty interesting once deciphered. It's teaching all the spam super secrets!

Yikes, not much time left. I'm happy to offer my eyes. I've pm'ed you.

At this point, whoever you are, just submit something! If your a new writer or an old hand, got a sure winner or a rotten banana, SUBMIT. It's at least good practice and will lessen chances of technical difficulties when you really want to. Plus you have a cool R, or higher, for your signature pane...

By the way, I really enjoyed your story. Vol. 33 was the first I read (it was the most recent one one ebay that was cheap) and your story was at first the only one what really spoke to me. In fact, I sort of copied my third submission after your story (not intentionally, obviously), although that di...

Submitted at last. I feel like I sat too long on this story, although I have a good feeling about this one. Finally, I don't have to look at this story for another three months.

Not to finally start working on my other story for the quarter...hmmm, three days left.

Best of luck to everyone!

Wow. Impressive signature

Jed and Sally. Ted's problem. Conflict frontiers. The savage gnome. Starship harriers. I'm not sure if any are good names but the top two are not. Or am I wrong? Yes, I think the first two are obviously bad. Firstly, because they don't say much. (What about Jed and Sally? What exactly is Ted's prob...

I find titles fascinating. To your first question: Yes, they're important. Yes, Dave has said that he looks at titles, that the title is the first hook. I don't think anyone would discard a story because of a title, but there are good titles and bad titles. Professional ones and unprofessional ones....

Not nodnoL! Personally, I prefer the post comments with the latest at the top. Like the topic headings already seen to do. This avoids having to go to another page then scroll all the way to the bottom. Drives me batty! This has to have come up before? Anyone in my corner? Any chance it may be swit...

I smell something fishy... On another note, talking about 7 point plot structure, there are actually two different ones. There's Dave's, but there's also Dan Wells'. It's not better or worse, just different, helps create a structure. He has a thing on youtube and a podcast about it on Writing Excuse...

I feel the others are more throw away lines. Like the writers tried very hard to write a fancy string of words, rather than setting up questions that the reader asks but aren't told. Do you read just because it sounds interesting or because there's a definite question? The stock market report can b...

Be happy to. I've sent you a pm.

Wow. I suppose that first lines are different for everyone. Me, I couldn't have stopped reading after that first line. What kind of question is "Would you kill a child"? Who would ask such a question and to whom are they asking it? A similar first line that I think is ingenious, from Gene ...

A hundred percent. It may be, however, that different people have different ideas for interesting hooks. For WotF? Every single story in the anthology has several hooks, raises several questions, just in the beginning. A personal favorite of mine from vol. 35 is: "Would you kill a child?" ...

It's called "No Seriously, Where Do You Get Your Ideas" (season 10) and was one one the most eye-opening episodes for me. Mainly, it was Mary's parable of oranges that did the trick. I git several ideas from that one brainstorming exercise, and my current WotF entry is based on one of them.

Writing is the basis of everything and you don't need anything to do it. Reading is optional. It is interesting that people find it hard to grasp that someone who doesn't read much can want to be an author. I don't mean to be confrontational, but what I find hard to grasp, is not regarding plain wr...

Firstly, I hope you weren't offended by what I said; I didn't mean it as such. I just took for granted that there were books that you liked, and I was saying you should study (read: study, not imitate) those. And if there wasn't a single story you like reading, I was wondering why you wanted to writ...