Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: Christopher on December 23, 2006, 09:16:03 PM
-
Back during WorldCon, I remember quiet a few people talking about entering...or that they had already submitted stuff for WOF. So, how's it going?
And Bradon, before you became the professional author we all admire :), you entered, right? How did you do? How many times did you enter?
I'm working hard and furiously to get a story done before the next deadline...Dec. 31st. We'll see how it goes.
And, to expand this beyond just WOF...what other contests have you guys been submitting to?
Chris
-
I got a reject for the second quarter and I just got my quarter-finalist rejection for the third quarter today, and I'm mailing out another story for it in a couple days.
-
My story made it to the quarter finals also.
I just finished the draft of the story I'll be submitting by the 31st.
It is better than my last one...and the beginning of a series of novels.
A few minor rewrites and it should be good to go.
-
I'll be submitting my second short story to WOF by... tomorrow. Eeek. Need to get busy on the editing. My first didn't get anything, but that wasn't much of a surprise. Glad to know I have some fellow TWG'ers for competition. Good luck all.
-
So, my most recent short story submission to WotF is off and I'm starting on a sketch for my next submission (Mar 31st). I have hopes to submit a new story for every quarter this year. We'll see what happens. :)
-
My story made it to the quarter finals also.
I just finished the draft of the story I'll be submitting by the 31st.
It is better than my last one...and the beginning of a series of novels.
A few minor rewrites and it should be good to go.
I just got another letter today about my 1st Q 2007 submission. My story was one of the semi-finalists. I got a pretty long critique from K. D. Wentworth. She said "this should be a novel". Ha..ha..exactly! And all because Brandon lets me post irrelevant stuff like this on his forum ;D.
-
Congrats, Christopher! Nice to hear from you.
That's great. Pretty much the same thing I got from WotF the year before I got published, so that's good news. May you have the same luck I did.
-
WotF?
-is confused-
-
um... Look at the thread's title.
WotF= Writers of the Future. (http://www.writersofthefuture.com)
It's a prestigious writing contest founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1983. All the winners are published in a paper back volume. The stories are judged by a bunch of well-known authors. There's no fee to enter, and they give out small prizes every three months ($1,000, $750, $500 ) and then one grand prize of $5,000. Oh, and the contest is open only to those who have not been published professionally. (Well, there's more to it than that, but you can take a look at the rules if you're interested.)
Oh, and you can also submit illustrations, candylion, which I'm betting is what would pique your interest the most. ;)
-
I guess I could maybe look at the link to get this answered, but what size stories have you guys been submitting for this? Seems like they're short stories, but I'm still a little hazy on what exactly qualifies as a short story. Under 20 pages? More less? I might consider sending something in.
-
Fiction length is usually counted in words. For science fiction, according to the major awards bodies, under 7,500 is short story; 7,500–17,500 is novelette; 17,500–40,000 is a novella, and longer than that is a novel.
WotF's rules (http://www.writersofthefuture.com/rules.htm) list their max cutoff as 17,000 words.
-
L. Ron Hubbard?
Didn't he find(hehe) Scientology?
With an intergalactic walrus and a brainwashing motion picture?
-laughs....alot-
Wooom illustrations?
I'm on it!
-runs away with her banana milk...the best thing in Korea-
-
Something like that.
L. Ron was always a science fiction writer. Scientology was just his most successful piece of pseudo-science fiction. I am not entirely sure how continuing to run the Writers of the Future contest fits in with the rest of Bridge Publications' goals, but it seems to be pretty separate. Heck, Dave Wolverton was a coordinator for many years, and he's Mormon.
-
Actually going to start drafting my new short story for submission this quarter (ends June 30th) in the next few days or so. Anyone else have one going in this quarter?
-
Meeebbbbeeee, If I can get my act together. Good news, I forced ym cousins to take me to an art store, finally bought a black copic marker and some shoddy inking pens. But I got bettter paper, now it's just practice. There's always going to be something cool about traditional art.
Anywho, I might...just because I have nothing else to do right now in Korea. Preparing myself for RSOM, but this is the wrong thread.
Good luck everyone!
행운을 빕니다!! (Heng-ooneul Bibneedah!!~)
-
We just recently hung my husband's award certificate (second place) up by his computer. I must admit it does feel a little weird to have L. Ron Hubbard's name on our wall.
-
Now that's cool, Pink. When did he win? Has it already been published? Name? Story title?
-
Hey, guys. I need someone to read my story that I'm going to submit this quarter. It needs to be turned in in just a couple of weeks (by June 30th). Anyone have time to give me some feedback? Anyone else... If you want me to read your story, let me know. I'll give you feedback too.
Chris.
-
Deadline is tomorrow!
(I submitted last Saturday. Very unlike me to be a whole week early.)
-
Ha, ha!!!! I still have...just under 21 hours to edit. Eek! It's going this time though. :)
-
Now that's cool, Pink. When did he win? Has it already been published? Name? Story title?
Oops, sorry, I just saw this. Douglas Jole, "The Witchin' Man," Volume IX (1992).
-
Here we go again. Using Brandon's forum to discuss our WOTF amateur writing dreams.
The deadline for this quarter is Sept. 30th. Who's entering this time?
I am. I know Dan is.
If anyone else wants to exchange stories, let us know.
And the results from the last quarter should be coming in before too long.
Good luck to everyone.
-
If anyone is interested in a list of 36 tips on entering WOTF, based on what K.D. Wentworth and Tim Powers said the two times I attended the workshop, PM me with your email address.
(I haven't publicly posted this list because I want to give a slight edge to writers I've had some interaction with.)
-
If anyone is interested in a list of 36 tips on entering WOTF, based on what K.D. Wentworth and Tim Powers said the two times I attended the workshop, PM me.
(I haven't publicly posted this list because I want to give a slight edge to writers I've had some interaction with.)
Thanks, Eric.
I just sent you a PM.
-
I'm having trouble getting this 2nd thread page to appear on my computer. I'm posting this to test it.
Oh, and to the point. If anyone else wants to trade stories with me (or with Dan...we'll ask him), send me a message here at TWG.
-
Sorry for needing to start a second thread, but I can't get pg. 2 of the first thread to open (tried it on three different computers the last couple of days). To summerize:
1) Some of us are entering the WOTF contest every quarter.
2) Some of us are exchanging stories...critiquing them for each other before we submit them.
3) If you would be willing to read and critique our stories (or even a single story), please let us know. We need all the feedback we can get.
4) Of course we are willing to read your story also, if you are submitting to WOTF.
Oh, and, again, ALL PRAISE BRANDON for letting us post this WOTF stuff in his forum.
Chris
-
Someone has a bad avatar (meaning not 65x65) on this page and it was crapping out the forum, I disabled some Avatar validating features which should resolve these issues.
-
Thanks for fixing it Spriggan.
----------
Alright. I just finished my story and the first rewrite.
It's ready to send out if anyone is interested in critiquing it.
It's called "The Wishing Well Gang".
Let me know.
-
I'm really interested in entering this sometime soon, but I can't seem to buckle down and finish one short story. Also my workload is crippling. After this quarter, which ends...Sept 30, right? When does the next quarter end?
Also yes, ALL HAIL BRANDON.
-
The quarter ending September 30 is also the end of the 2007 contest year, which corresponds to WOTF XXIV, to be published next year.
The next quarter (deadline December 31) is the first quarter for the 2008 contest, which corresponds to the 25th volume in the series, and I know they're already planning to do some special things for the 25th anniversary.
Oh, and remember that the deadlines are postmark deadlines, so if the deadline falls on a Sunday or federal holiday, you may need to get it to the post officer a day earlier.
-
If anyone else wants to trade stories with me (or with Dan...we'll ask him), send me a message here at TWG.
Man it's good to have other authors as friends. :) I'd love to swap with anyone. Or send. Or accept. I'm open to help/helping in general. My new short story is just about done. Planning on finishing it this weekend, and should be ready to send out on Monday. It's called Pito-1694.
-
Winners announced for second quarter WotF. http://wotfblog.galaxypress.com/ And unless you're female, it's a no go. Go girls.
-
Yep. Second quarter. I already knew that was a no go for me. Third quarter first round results should be out sometime later this month. I sent in a much better story. Here's hopin'.
-
A friend of mine was notified today that he's a finalist for third quarter.
-
From Kathy Wentworth today, Sept. 5th:
"I finished the Q3 first reading last night. The 8 Finalists and 10 Semifinalists have been sorted out and sent back to California.
BTW, it's official. Quarterfinalists will now be known as Honorable Mentions to cut down on confusion.
In the meantime, you still have time to enter Q4, which is a good one to win, because you can still attend next year's workshop and be in next year's anthology.
Go forth and enter!"
-
If anyone is interested in a list of 36 tips on entering WOTF, based on what K.D. Wentworth and Tim Powers said the two times I attended the workshop, PM me with your email address.
(I haven't publicly posted this list because I want to give a slight edge to writers I've had some interaction with.)
Got it. Thanks, Eric.
-
I saw that the maximum word count was 17,000. Does anyone know the average words most are submitted at? How long is all of yours?
-
My last submission was around 7K.
This next one will be about 8K.
-
Kristal: My last submission was about 14K. Not sure about this one, but it'll probably be about 10K. Of course, I just write long stories. I'd say that the average of stories that get published have seemed to be longer ones though. The only one that comes to mind that I've read in the past few years that wasn't longer was Schrodinger's Hummingbird. WotF has said that it doesn't have to be long to win, but from what I've seen, most winners have written long stories.
Chris: So, I'm a bit confused. Is this the setup for timing of quarters?
1st Q: Oct-Dec
2nd Q: Jan-Mar
3rd Q: Apr-Jun
4th Q: Jul-Sept
Sounds like it anyhow. Which is good, I guess. Turned my most recent story in on June 30th. So, those results haven't been released yet. Boy, and I've been all bummed since I saw that post by Joni yesterday. I guess I can put off the blues for another bit. So, where did you read that bit from Kathy Wentworth? Would be interested in checking out anything she has to say.
-
Dan, I'm giving you the inside connection, ha ha...just because it's you ;) (and all the other good people here at TWG).
Kathy posts over at sff.net a lot. They have a WOTF future thread. Here's the link.
http://webnews.sff.net/read?cmd=xover&group=sff.writing.writersofthefuture
As far as quarters, third quarter stories are those turned in on June 30th--the results aren't back yet, but will be shortly.
The fourth quarter stories are due by Sept. 30th. If you want to make it into next year's book, and go to next year's WOTF workshop, that's your final chance.
Q: When's WorldCon Denver? I think it is the beginning of August in '08, and the workshop is in August, isn't it? That would be cool. Two big events back to back.
NOTE: if I don't place in the contest this year, then I'm having a big barbeque in August, and STILL GOING to WorldCon (with my fellow TWGers) to peddle my newest attempt at a novel which will be done by then. It's all good ;D.
-
Thanks Chris.
-
Hey, Dan. I just sent you an updated version of my story. I had to make a pretty big change to strengthen the ending. If you haven't started reading my story yet, read the update. If you've already read the old version, no worries. It will be interesting too see if you make the same suggestion.
-
A friend of mine was notified today that he's a finalist for third quarter.
I've been wondering about this. Without telling me who if you shouldn't, was it someone Kathy W. knows, so she called them early? Do all the finalists get a phone call? Does it mean that, if someone hasn't already gotten a phone call they aren't a finalist? How does it work?
-
I got my notification in the mail the other day that my story made the quarterfinals (top 15%). This is a story I actually sent them by accident. I was formatting two stories for submission: this one--which was supposed to be going to F&SF--and another one, which I'd planned on entering in WotF. WotF was so much on my brain that I formatted this one for it, printed out all twenty-seven pages of it...and then went D'OH! But I was derned if I was going to spend the ink and paper to fix the error, so I went ahead and sent it in.
Understand, it's the stretchiest of stretches to call this thing "fantasy," which is why I was hesitant about doing so.
But, hey. Quarterfinals. I squee'd.
F&SF rejected the other story. Darnit.
Now I have to figure out what I'm going to send W0tF this quarter, the end of which is sneaking up on us very quickly. I'm scribbling something new, but whether it'll be done in time or not is an open question. However, I've found that a deadline concentrates my mind wonderfully. The second thing I ever sent them was banged out in less than a week, which is record time for me. It didn't do anything, but it's sitting with a senior editor at another publication right now (after a revision).
Oh, hi, by the way! *waves*
-
I emailed Joni from WotF after getting nothing back on my 1st Q submission for forever, and she said that all of the winners get called. Don't know about the finalists though. All I know it that there is a 10-week deadline, and that was, for the 3rd Q, last Saturday. So, I'm not expecting too much at this point. But who knows. Maybe the whole workshop and awards ceremony thing delays 3rd Q announcements on a regular basis. Anybody know?
-
I got my Q3 results letter today!
Wait for it...
Wait for it...
REJECTION.
Which is pretty interesting to me because I THOUGHT that the story was better than both my quarter-finalists entry and my semi-finalist entry.
Shows what I know.
But I am not discouraged. I really like my new story a lot, and it will be ready to go before the 30th.
:).
-
So, I have the first draft of my WotF story for 4th Q finished. If anyone is interested, PM me. No word yet on my 3rd Q submission. I'm beginning to feel left out... :( Luck to everyone finishing new stories!
-
Looks like I joined the boat of rejections for Q3 this year. I'm beginning to think that I don't belong in the short story writing realm.
-
Looks like I joined the boat of rejections for Q3 this year. I'm beginning to think that I don't belong in the short story writing realm.
No, Dan. That's wrong. I liked your last story a lot. It was more organized and easier to read than the one before. You've got to keep pluggin' along. Your stuff is getting better and better. You should probably do what I'm doing. Most of my energy is going into my novel with breaks occassionaly to write a short-story in time to submit every quarter. I think the short-story discipline is tightening up my novel writing, and the novel writing gives me ideas for shorter works. It's a marathon, man. Not a sprint. Sprints are for newspaper columnists.