Author Topic: Writers of the Future  (Read 12138 times)

Recovering_Cynic

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #30 on: September 25, 2009, 10:35:42 PM »
Gah... so does that mean I might have to wait like three more months before I find out what if anything is going on with my piece?
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #31 on: September 25, 2009, 11:40:44 PM »
Yeah. They seem to announce the results of the prior quarter at the very end of the current quarter.
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Silk

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #32 on: September 26, 2009, 12:05:28 AM »
Cynic: Unfortunately, that's something that I'm afraid you're going to have to get used to in this industry.

Steve, WriterDan, good luck. :)

Unfortunately, I'm just going to have to submit next quarter...

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #33 on: October 05, 2009, 10:04:47 PM »
I'm trying to get something done for WotF as well. And I'm gonna do it this quarter! I've been telling myself that for about a year now, but always chicken out. But I swear, this quarter will be the one!

Good luck to you guys as well!

WriterDan

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #34 on: October 06, 2009, 05:45:40 PM »
Results coming soon.  Apparently.

And yes, I wish I was being sneaky and subtle, but I still haven't heard anything about my Q03 entry.

First read-through is done though, and the coordinating judge is doing a second run to pick out the finalists and semi-finalists.  More HM's should be coming soon as well.  Luck to everyone that has a story in.

Also sent off my Q04 story in the nick of time.  Was pretty happy with that one too.  Ended up being a lot darker than I had originally envisioned though.

Think I'm going to do a re-write of an old submission for this next quarter (2010 Q01).  Hoping for some more goodness from the deep, dark hole I call my imagination.

If anyone wants to throw a story-swap together, I'm game.  The next deadline for the other group I'm in is Oct 14th.  We're trying to get all our stories off by the end of November to beat the end-of-quarter rush.
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Recovering_Cynic

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #35 on: October 06, 2009, 08:35:47 PM »
Where'd you get all the updates?  I've got my idea for what I'll be submitting next quarter, but I have not put pen to paper on it yet other than a few notes.
this is the way the world ends,
not with a bang, but a whimper
~T.S. Eliot

WriterDan

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #36 on: October 06, 2009, 09:50:57 PM »
WotF newsgroup:

http://webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=xover&group=sff.writing.writersofthefuture

Kathy Wentworth (First Coordinating Judge) posts there as everything happens.

Ah, and she's already figured out the finalists and semi-finalists for Q03 and notified Joni.  So now, it's naught but a waiting game for the finalists to be called and the rest of the results to be posted.

But at least now we know that the time line is short.  :D
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Bookstore Guy

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #37 on: October 07, 2009, 03:44:11 PM »
Hey Dan, you got HM. Grats!

As for my own story, I apparently didn't have enough spec. at the beginning, and it wasn't fantasy/SF enough. Oh wells. I'm actually not disappointed at all, because now I can send it to an actual horror magazine.
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WriterDan

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #38 on: October 08, 2009, 06:39:38 PM »
Yup.  One more HM on the stack.

So, I've decided to try something interesting with my next story.  An experiment, shall we say.  Essentially all of the stories that I've read out of the recent WotF anthologies (the last eight) were written more like novels.  Meaning, they included a lot of stuff that wasn't necessarily pertinent to the story, but that fleshed out the world and helped it to feel a bit more full.  So, instead of trying to keep things succinct and bare bones, I'm going to hit this next story as if it was a novel.  Strip down the plot so that it's just a simple snapshot and really make things fluffy.  Granted, not so much that it makes the story boring; just enough so that it feels more like you're reading a snippet of a novel instead of a fully-contained short story.  For some reason, those seem to be the kinds of stories that win.

And as long as we're on the topic...

Has anyone else read the most recent anthology?  The 25th?  Anyhow, there was one story that really had me questioning the judges.  There were 36 pages to it, there were no obvious speculative elements in it until like page 32, and it was nearly a plot-perfect copy of Stephen King's Needful Things.  I mean, down to the fact that the main character was an officer of the law.  I've read multiple times that the  most important thing in this contest is to have unique ideas in our entries.  So, does this mean that the judges don't read King?  Or what other options are there?  This just boggles my mind and makes me more frustrated than I care to admit.  Just get over it, Dan.  The world is pretty dumb sometimes.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2009, 07:00:52 PM by WriterDan »
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Silk

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #39 on: October 08, 2009, 06:41:21 PM »
Congratulations on the HM, Dan! Steve, good luck placing yours, though I've no doubt you'll manage that eventually. :)

Hm. Not sure I'll be able to make any writing happen by October 14th... I'll see if I can get in on it, though...

re: the most recent anthology: I haven't read it, but ugh, that's frustrating.

42

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #40 on: October 10, 2009, 01:29:35 AM »
WriterDan: trying to guess what WotF is looking for is rather self-defeating I've decided. After looking at my own stack of honorable mentions, I decided to look over a lot of them and start sending them out to other venues. I figure if it the story got honorable mention, it was a good story, it just didn't make through the group of stories submitted that quarter. It's a contest, which is actually a little more competitive than most short-story venues. (I'm also working on my next WotF entry currently.)

I've also read some of the stories getting published from WotF and I'm starting to question what they are thinking too. But there is no accounting for taste. What's brilliant and original to one person is bland and boring to someone else. It that weren't the case then getting published and writing best sellers would be a lot easier than it is.

So keep writing and keep submitting. And congratulations on getting honorable mention.
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Recovering_Cynic

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #41 on: December 17, 2009, 06:22:10 PM »
Hmm... so the results for this last quarter of Writers of the Future should be appearing any day now, right?
this is the way the world ends,
not with a bang, but a whimper
~T.S. Eliot

Chaos

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #42 on: December 18, 2009, 12:09:26 PM »
Hmm... so the results for this last quarter of Writers of the Future should be appearing any day now, right?

I don't think so. I'm thinking late January at the very worst, simply because it being 4th quarter, a lot more submissions will come in at the last minute, slowing everything down.
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Recovering_Cynic

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #43 on: December 18, 2009, 03:22:09 PM »
Oh happy day.  I checked December 2008 and they were pumping out results by early December.  I wonder what's taking them so long this year?
this is the way the world ends,
not with a bang, but a whimper
~T.S. Eliot

Chaos

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Re: Writers of the Future
« Reply #44 on: December 18, 2009, 03:39:51 PM »
Unfortunately for us, it seems competition is the likely answer.
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