Moon's SUPER SECRET Bonus Challenge! Vol. 36

[AnikeKirsten]

Finally, after battling time between life, constant power outages, and getting my paintings done, my Q2 entry's edits are done and I just submitted. I'm in with a fresh one for Q2! Not only that, I also have art entered into Illustrators of the Future for Q2. I'm feeling very productive today.

Writer and an artist?!!!! The list of things I have heard now contains everything!

Good luck!!! Wouldn't it be cool if you win both and get to draw the art for your own story. Has that ever happened in WOTF history?

Thanks!

I don't think an artist winning gets to paint their own story. Plenty of other artist winners to assign that to and the point is to challenge and showcase the winners' abilities, and giving them a story they don't know to illustrate does that.

[AnikeKirsten]

Finally, after battling time between life, constant power outages, and getting my paintings done, my Q2 entry's edits are done and I just submitted. I'm in with a fresh one for Q2! Not only that, I also have art entered into Illustrators of the Future for Q2. I'm feeling very productive today.

Kudos to all of you logging your FRESH STORY Q2 subs! Well done! Very big conga rats dancing for you, Anike! My friend Stephen Stanley was the first in the history of the contests to win both WotF and IotF. He was a member of the Wordos workshop that I was in in Eugene, Oregon. So, not only was he in one of the best writing workshops in the country, he also was a professionally trained artist and illustrator--I am sure that helped. : ) Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

Except, maybe, YOU!

Best of success,

~Moon~

Thank you! I can only dream of winning both but won't know if I don't try. I really wish I had access to conventions and workshops of the calibre in the US. One day, though, I'll be at them. Aim for the moon! Which, by the way, is glorious tonight. Here in the Karoo, it's orange from all the dust kicked up due to strong winds, and with a partly cloudy sky, it looks surreal.

Best of luck to all entering! May the odds be ever in your favour.

[RSchibler]

It's my turn for Writing to the Point! Yay!

[Wulf Moon]

It's my turn for Writing to the Point! Yay!

Yay! That's got everything you need to know to write a professional story. The rest is practice, practice, practice.

Keep writing, keep learning, keep sending.

~Moon~

[storysinger]

It's my turn for Writing to the Point! Yay!

You'll find a lot of excellent advice in a small package. Enjoy.

[chuckt]

So what is Moon's super secret tip re "happy endings?" Need to have one for WoTF? Can it be a tragedy? Or mixed? I think all the ones I've read so far in WoTF are upbeat endings.

[OldDarth]

And now that our discussion has ended on the topic, with some members weighing in with excellent comments (Well done, youse guys!), let's return to:

Moon's SUPER SECRET #22: THINGS GET WORSE!

~Beastmaster Moon~

Great advice - and the very thing I need to amp up in my stories.

[Wulf Moon]

So what is Moon's super secret tip re "happy endings?" Need to have one for WoTF? Can it be a tragedy? Or mixed? I think all the ones I've read so far in WoTF are upbeat endings.

To comedy or not to comedy, THAT is the question.

We are speaking in the Greek storytelling sense of the term, of course. Comedy = happy ending. Tragedy = sad ending. And that's GROSSLY oversimplified, so don't jump on me! Oh yeah, we're among friends here, I'm safe. No one's trying to showboat.

The best way to answer this question, and you have already answered it, is to read the latest WotF volumes. (Everybody has preordered the latest, right?) They tend toward happy endings, as you've noted. You will note many Hollywood movies tend toward happy endings, whereas many Asian movies do not. It's a Western cultural thing. We like our denouements to be upbeat. Perhaps because it's been ingrained since we were babies that "they lived happily ever after." We want our heros to learn a good lesson, come out on top, and yes, have a better life with a very very very nice house, and two cats in the yard, because life used to be so hard.

Doesn't mean you have to write an ending like that, and many do not. But it does tend to satisfy what we crave in stories in our Western culture. Good people coming out ahead, bad guys getting their just deserts. Doesn't often work like that in real life, but this is, after all, escape fiction.

All the beast,

Moon

[Wulf Moon]

Moon's STUPID SUPER SECRET #23: READ!

This is my stupidest SUPER SECRET EVAH! There's only one that's even a STUPIDER SUPER SECRET , and I'll post that next time. Writers MUST be readers, and not just in their favorite genre they write in, and not just fiction either. Writers read. *Everything.* Cereal boxes, grill assembly manuals, good fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, ships' logs, advertising lines, Celestial Season tea boxes....anything with print, even, dare I say, WRITERS OF THE FUTURE VOLUMES.

Why? Our minds are sponges. They are soaking up whatever we put in front of our eyes and ears. As wordsmiths, we want to soak up words, lots and lots of good words, and we want to exercise with those words, left, right!, up, down! As storytellers, we want to soak up lots and lots of ideas, we want beakers and vials bubbling over in our minds with the stuff of crazy mad scientists' laboratories. Our subsconscious is a mulch pile, and we want to heap lots and lots of organic matter upon it so it will ferment and sprout with a cornucopia of ideas and stories. Reading from a diverse palette of works and interests gives you a massive array of real life matter to grow your beautiful story garden from, or to gather the abundance of body parts necessary to create your growling Frankenstein. Read. Read everything. Because it all goes on the mulch pile.

But this challenge is about something more than writing. It's about writing a story that WINS Writers of the Future. So you're going to need to read the Volumes to figure out what David Farland (and now added, first reader, Kary English) deem as the necessary elements to BE a winning story. And not just read, but carefully analyze as well. Did you preorder Volume 35? Are you planning on getting it? Because that's got the latest, and the latest means cutting edge. You want that cutting edge. Many skilled contestants will never have a chance to win this contest because they didn't do numero uno when it comes to selling a story: STUDY YOUR MARKET. How do you do that? You read the current issues. This will give you the mind of the editor, and in this case, the mind of the coordinating judge, and insight into what passes the judges' panels in the various quarters.

You guys accepted my challenge, so I'll give you a special tip. Think about it. Before any story gets to Dave--the coordinating judge--it must first go through Kary English. That means if you want to win Writers of the Future, you now have to get past her FIRST. But how do you know what she likes? How do you know what she believes are the necessary ingredients that must be present in an award-winning story? How do you discover what her tastes are? THE SAME WAY. : ) Read her works. Study her style. This is how Dave won so many contests in the past--by studying the contest judges, what they buy, what they've written, what they've written on writing if it's out there. Well, Kary was a WotF first place winner. I can't recall the volume at the moment, but I think it's back five or six (one of you will certainly know). If you have it, read it. If not, get it. She just published or revamped four stories to Amazon. One of them was free, not sure it still is, but if not, they're only 99 cents. This is my 'word to the wise,' and that means you guys in this challenge. She's the gatekeeper now, she's got the guest list at the gate of the mansion, and you scruffy mutts , it would behoove you to figure out the type of folks she's letting into the party.

We all have to remember...if we aren't cutting edge, if we aren't learning everything we can, someone else is. Knowledge is power. You be that guy or gal that went above and beyond, discovering that bit of extra knowledge that put your story above and beyond...and into the WotF winner's circle.

Fortune favor the industrious,

~Beastmaster Moon~

[TimE]

It's the 'behooving' bit that I'm not keen on. I like my feet with toes. Getting hoofs is a step too far for me.

[Dragonchef]

It's the 'behooving' bit that I'm not keen on. I like my feet with toes. Getting hoofs is a step too far for me.

Never saw yourself as a Centaur or a Satyr, eh?

[Wulf Moon]

It's the 'behooving' bit that I'm not keen on. I like my feet with toes. Getting hoofs is a step too far for me.

Never saw yourself as a Centaur or a Satyr, eh?

I dunno. I danced with a satyr once at Norwescon. She was lovely and graceful in her hooves.

But I SERIOUSLY do not know how she stood in those things, let alone dance!

[Dragonchef]

I dunno. I danced with a satyr once at Norwescon. She was lovely and graceful in her hooves.

But I SERIOUSLY do not know how she stood in those things, let alone dance!

Ever see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief? Percy's friend Grover, a satyr, dances to Lady Gaga. Must come natural for those with satyr genetics.

[Wulf Moon]

I dunno. I danced with a satyr once at Norwescon. She was lovely and graceful in her hooves.

But I SERIOUSLY do not know how she stood in those things, let alone dance!

Ever see Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief? Percy's friend Grover, a satyr, dances to Lady Gaga. Must come natural for those with satyr genetics.

[TimE]

I can see a humorous short story developing here. (But if women can dance in stilettos hooves have got to be easy.)

[SCAFontaine]

I just submitted my Q2. It's a fresh.

[Wulf Moon]

I can see a humorous short story developing here. (But if women can dance in stilettos hooves have got to be easy.)

Not these hooves! Only the ball of the foot made contact with the floor through the small hooves. The arch and heel were elevated in the air, forcing her to counterbalance just like a satyr. That she could stand in them at all was impressive, that she danced well in them was miraculous. She really did look like a satyr dancing on the floor. I love the dance at Norwescon, it's like being at a mad fey dance!

[Wulf Moon]

I just submitted my Q2. It's a fresh.

Well done. Thanks for posting without a prompt. For the rest, please confirm each quarter you are keeping up with the challenge commitment. It's for your own good. Brittany, our Keeper of Records, is finishing her Q2 and will be back to tally as soon as she's done. I critiqued three Challenge Beasts' stories this quarter--I hope it helps! Who will get theirs critiqued by the Beastmaster in Q3? Well, I wish the entire group could, but I simply don't have the time. So share in the discussions, keep doing the work, offer a helping hand to others, and YOU could be next! You also have award-winning professionally published writers in this very group to help you, and others that have many honors certificates, all the way up to finalist. Even published finalist. Take advantage of the knowledge.

I predicted a winner from our group this year, let's make it happen! Have you preordered Volume 35? Good! Wait, you haven't? What are you waiting for? Studying those as swiftly as you can will put you ahead of the pack. Carefully study the Q3s and Q4s in there as well--I believe that's when Kary became first reader, which means every one of those were chosen by her to send up to Dave. Could cause some subtle shifts in the anthology. One thing is for sure, you have to pass through her to get to Dave now. As I've mentioned, her work is available on Amazon. Figure out what she likes just like you are trying to figure out what Dave likes. And Dave is easy, he posts tips on writing, many of them about the contest. If you read any of his novels, you'll know immediately why he praises "big worldbuilding" in stories. You write what you love. You read what you love. For a judge, you award what you love. Study your judges. It will give you an edge.

And that, my friends, is Moon's SUPER SECRET #24: Study your judge!

And never forget a first reader is the first judge of your work. You must past through them to get to an editor or judge. I know some first readers at the 'zines I work for and am or am about to sell to. They are well read, they have definite tastes in fiction, and they are tough, tough, TOUGH on what comes in, shedoobee. They have to be. Their job is to sift through all the sand and pebbles to find that gold ore that gets them kudos from their editors. The have strong opinions on what makes good fiction and good writing. Problem is, they are often unknown secret readers behind the scenes, so you never get a chance to figure out what their tastes are. In Writers of the Future, you guys have an edge. You know who the first reader is. Use the knowledge. Dave studied everything he could about judges of contests. And he tailored his stories to suit their tastes. It's why he won so many contests. He wasn't just writing, he was marketing, and studied his targeted market in great detail.

You do the same. It's how you win.

Q2 is almost over. You've got a few days, Use them wisely. But don't miss a quarter! You promised us you wouldn't, we're counting on you! Even if you're writing up to 11:56 PM before you push submit, get it in!

May the Force be with you.

~Beastmaster Moon~

[chuckt]

Thanks again Moon. Wish I found the forum before I submitted my Q1 and Q2 but better late than never! My Q3 definitely benefited from the advice here. Gotta come up with an idea for Q4!

[thegirlintheglasses]

Just wanted to pop in and let you guys know I'll be updating the list soon-ish. I wrote two fresh stories because some of you amazing people inspired me to write more than one so I could choose a favorite. But I wasn't loving either. I wrote a new one last week and now I'm frantically polishing (hard to find polishing time with little kids, no? Lol). Wulf said we're writing to win-so I'm aiming higher than a fresh and finished (which is what my goal has usually been). I'm writing until I write something I love-because even if I don't win, I know I've got a dang good story to sell somewhere! So long story short... The list will probably update after Sunday. I'm pretty sure I'll be writing until then ;)

[TimE]

Save you looking through the threads - I've submitted new stories to 1 & 2.

Damn - F means Fresh, and there was I thinking it was a prediction of Finalist.

[Wulf Moon]

Just wanted to pop in and let you guys know I'll be updating the list soon-ish. I wrote two fresh stories because some of you amazing people inspired me to write more than one so I could choose a favorite. But I wasn't loving either. I wrote a new one last week and now I'm frantically polishing (hard to find polishing time with little kids, no? Lol). Wulf said we're writing to win-so I'm aiming higher than a fresh and finished (which is what my goal has usually been). I'm writing until I write something I love-because even if I don't win, I know I've got a dang good story to sell somewhere! So long story short... The list will probably update after Sunday. I'm pretty sure I'll be writing until then ;)

Thanks for the update, Brittany, we understand! Get your Q2 finished and submitted! You have a mission to complete!

Speaking of missions, I'm about to head out to the workshop. Some of you have been asking how to get a personalized copy of my story in Volume 35. Use the private message feature and I'll tell you.

Now get your Q2 stories in if you haven't already! You have a date with Destiny, and she's buying lobster!

All the beast,

Moon

[Wulf Moon]

Best of success on your Q2's, Challenge Beasties! Done is beautiful.

I'm off to the workshop and gala. See you guys there! I'll know you're in that camera somewhere!

All the beast,

~Beastmaster Moon~

[AnikeKirsten]

Have an excellent time, Wulf! Looking forward to the pics.

[TimE]

Travelling there on Cloud Nine is my guess. I know which side of a camera I prefer to be, but I reckon you'll have a great few days.

[SCAFontaine]

Have fun! Enjoy the week!

[disgruntledpeony]

In with a fresh story as of 3/30/2019.

[Dragonchef]

In with a fresh story as of 3/30/2019.

Pushing the envelope. I like it.

[disgruntledpeony]

In with a fresh story as of 3/30/2019.

Pushing the envelope. I like it.

I didn't like it, but I made it in and that's the important thing. I like to have my story in a week or two in advance when possible.

[storysinger]

Just finished my 2nd new story so only two more to go. I already have been pre-planning my Q3 so I'm thinking I will submit the next quarter earlier than at any other time.