Jibber Jabber - Q1 - Volume 35

[seerod26]

I'm a first time submitter... Do rejections usually come on thursday?

[RSchibler]

Yay verily yay. It is known.

Results tend to come on Thursdays. But any day can be a Thursday, it's just typically Thursdays.

Superstitious? Not us!

Edit: I've never gotten results on a Thursday either

[morganb]

Yay verily yay. It is known.

Results tend to come on Thursdays. But any day can be a Thursday, it's just typically Thursdays.

Superstitious? Not us!

Bwa ha ha! That's awesome!

My results have come on a Friday, a Tuesday, and a Tuesday, respectively.


~Morgan

[Rebecca Birch]

Keep in mind that even if/when Dave is done, he's not the one who sends out the responses, Joni is, and she's in the middle of workshop week/gala prep, so the first quarter is almost always a long wait.

[disgruntledpeony]

Keep in mind that even if/when Dave is done, he's not the one who sends out the responses, Joni is, and she's in the middle of workshop week/gala prep, so the first quarter is almost always a long wait.

Hadn't thought about this, but it's definitely true. Just because Dave has made a list of rejections doesn't mean Joni's had time to send them out. I think someone mentioned a couple of quarters ago that, because the submissions are anonymous, it's up to Joni to re-match the stories with their writers after Dave sends her the results. With that in mind, we might not actually see any results until after the gala.

[Wulf Moon]

With only a month to go before Q2 ends, better to focus on the next race than waiting for results to come in on the last. Let's face it: for "amateur" writers, this is the Olympics.

Go, go, go!

~Moon~

[rachelwrites]

I more or less live my life in a state of nervous preoccupation, but March 1st + Thursday = extra twitches, no?
Or maybe it's just buckets of caffeine.

[michaeljwyantjr]

"Buckets of Caffeine" is my Alt-Synth-Inspired Cure cover band.

[AmytheAuthor]

Is it common to submit the same story (with extra editing /tweaking) for the contest more than once?

[michaeljwyantjr]

Yep. That’s not abnormal at all. I’ve done it myself.

[RSchibler]

I more or less live my life in a state of nervous preoccupation, but March 1st + Thursday = extra twitches, no?
Or maybe it's just buckets of caffeine.

I'm not twitching it's just coffee

Still thinking it'll be April, but I have lots of hope/fear!

[michaeljwyantjr]

It's March 1st and it's Thursday and an email from Joni just dropped in my inbox...

And it's a writer tips email.

Heart attack averted.

[michaeljwyantjr]

Oh god... it just happened again...

*takes a short walk around the house to burn off stress*

[stevorso]

It's March 1st and it's Thursday and an email from Joni just dropped in my inbox...

And it's a writer tips email.

Heart attack averted.

Same reaction here.

I should really be focussing on my next story, but...

[Checks email again]

[morganb]

Is it common to submit the same story (with extra editing /tweaking) for the contest more than once?

That's very interesting. My only question would be, since Dave has been the first reader of the contest for several years now, wouldn't he recognize the same story submitted more than once? I wonder if that would pre-bias his read of the rewrite.


~Morgan

[michaeljwyantjr]

That's very interesting. My only question would be, since Dave has been the first reader of the contest for several years now, wouldn't he recognize the same story submitted more than once? I wonder if that would pre-bias his read of the rewrite.

I imagine you're right. That said, I found it very useful for getting into the swing of having something ready for each quarter back when I first started submitting. Getting in the habit of having creative work ready by a deadline is one of the biggest boons of this contest, in my opinion, and doing major revisions on a story and resubmitting was a stepping stone for me to get to the point where I'm submitting new work each quarter.

I wouldn't suggest doing it more than once or twice or you end up using it as a crutch.

[Jeremyteg]

That's very interesting. My only question would be, since Dave has been the first reader of the contest for several years now, wouldn't he recognize the same story submitted more than once? I wonder if that would pre-bias his read of the rewrite.

I imagine you're right. That said, I found it very useful for getting into the swing of having something ready for each quarter back when I first started submitting. Getting in the habit of having creative work ready by a deadline is one of the biggest boons of this contest, in my opinion, and doing major revisions on a story and resubmitting was a stepping stone for me to get to the point where I'm submitting new work each quarter.

I wouldn't suggest doing it more than once or twice or you end up using it as a crutch.

I wholeheartedly agree. The best thing that WotF has done for my writing is putting me in the habit of finishing things and submitting them.

[RSchibler]

Thirded. I feel really lucky that I found the contest and the forum so early in my writing journey. It set me on the path of regularly producing polished work and submitting it instead of endlessly fiddling with one or two things. Having a deadline is motivating!

[amyhg]

My winning story was actually a third rewrite. It was a good learning experience for me though. I'd never seriously written before coming across WOTF so when I started submitting, I just dusted off a old short story from a college creative writing class. I at least knew from my college class that it had a plot. After doing some minor editing to make it into a science fiction story (based in a world I'd already been working on), I sent it in thinking it was the best doggone thing since Dune. Flat rejection. I thought it was the word count so I cut it down a couple thousand and submitted again. Another flat rejection. Getting another rejection kicked me in the rear so I went on a hunt for why I got rejected. That was probably the best thing to happen to me. I studied Dave's writing tips and articles from his website. I picked up books on writing from the library. I read published short stories, especially the WOTF anthologies. I got into Critters and started dressing down other people's stories and then applying the same standard to mine. Not only that, but I wrote two new short stories in the meantime, declaring one an utter failure and sticking it on the shelf and submitting the other to WOTF (another rejection, ha ha, but it was experimental). Then, after an insanely great round of Critters and some heartbreaking edits, I submitted my story for the third time and won.

Long story short, it depends on where you are in your writing. If I'd tried writing a new story every quarter, it would have been a waste of my time because I didn't have the foundation for it. Every story would have turned out to be a poor story. I needed to figure out how to turn a poor story into a good or great story to make producing more worthwhile. Now, hopefully, I can just skip the "poor story" part and start producing good/great stories. And just for the record, to me, "good/great" stories are HM's or better in my book. I think if you're producing HM's or better regularly, then resubmitting a story won't do you much good unless you've made some major changes.

That's my two bits anyway.

[AmytheAuthor]

Thank you for those thoughts! *off to find out what hm stands for*

[michaeljwyantjr]

Honorable Mention. :)

[rachelwrites]

Honorable Mention. :)

Way to give me a heart attack and make me think results have gone out

[michaeljwyantjr]

Whoops. Sorry!

[vsutherland01]

Anyone want to read something? I had a story I was working on for this quarter then I wrote a completely new short over the last few days.

Not sure how I feel about it yet. Wether or not it fits the desired tone of the contest. Looking for some broad opinions on wether I should pursue it or scrap it.

Anyways, PM me if bored and looking for someone to swap with.

EDIT: oops wrong thread, sorry folks. Nothing to see here.

[RSchibler]

Always

[TLBenjamin]

I know that results for Q 1 are always late, but I was hoping to hear something by this week or next. Based on I see here, nobody has received word yet.

[michaeljwyantjr]

Nope. We’re all just sitting here twitching... but at least we’re twitching together.

[RSchibler]

I know that results for Q 1 are always late, but I was hoping to hear something by this week or next. Based on I see here, nobody has received word yet.

Based on the last 2 years, expect them in early April. It floods in here when they come out, though.

[AmytheAuthor]

Another question. The website wasn't working when I submitted, so I had to do hard copy... Does that mean I'll be notified of results by snail mail? The wait is killing me already even though I'm pretty chill and patient in the real world. You regulars are both helpful and hyping things to an unhealthy level at the same time!

[RSchibler]

Paper submissions tend to come out in the last wave. If you included email you'll get the results that way but it takes time to sort it out. I did my first sub that way. So when the first wave comes out - typically all rejections - you have to wait to know if it's an honorable mention or higher or a rejection. It's brutal! Keep twitching.