Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Books => Topic started by: WriterDan on January 24, 2007, 10:40:44 PM
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So, now that I've submitted two short stories to L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future for their quarterly contests, I decided to pick up a copy of their annual publication and see what kind of things get picked by the judges there. I got a copy of Volume 19 from the library (2003 publication), and have to admit that I was sorely disappointed. On the whole, I thought that the writing was quite good, but that the stories themselves just lacked a whole lot. At this point I'm mostly just confused. I was curious if anyone else had read this volume, and if so what they had thought of it. I'm still going to plan on picking up copies of the more recent volumes to read, and am hoping that maybe that 2003 was just a funny year. Then again, maybe I'm just a dufus and don't have the capactiy to grasp "real" short story writing as it is in this collection. Anyone have an opinion?
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2 things. First, it's funny that you so blithely reversed the order, according to most advice I've heard. Usually, you pick up examples from the place you're submitting BEFORE you submit. Nothing wrong with it, I just found it amusing. What are you going to do, write a story specifically so it'll win with a particular judge? Ridiculous.
Secondly, you have to remember that the contest is primarily for new writers. Not having truly amazing work therein is probably to be expected. But I've read several of the anthologies and been blown away quite a bit. Hopefully you'll have more luck with others.
Good job for submitting by the way. That in and of itself is impressive.
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Yeah, I did kind of reverse the order. :) I tend to do that quite often. Sometimes I think I have some rare form of dyslexia that translates over to other brain functions besides reading. I really wasn't that worried about my stories fitting in though, seeing as how they are supposed to be fantasy/sci-fi. I agree that tailoring a story for particular contests is pretty ridiculous. I try to avoid that as much as possible.
I really don't want to make it look like I'm bashing on the newbies. I'm not really. Not being published myself, I really wouldn't have any clout in that arena anyhow. I guess that I just expected more from what I've heard. If there is a particular year that you could point me to, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm starting work on another story, which will be for my third submission to the contest. I know that I'm not going to like everything that they publish, I'm just looking for something that I like (I guess) so that I can have some sort of hope that they'll like my work (which I obviously like :) ).
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There is a year that I'm thinking of as good in particular... can't place it right now but I've got it at home and if I remember to look I'll post it tomorrow.
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Personally, I was really disappointed with the "Best Of". It's all I've read.