Discussion: Q3 Volume 38

And Q3 is submitted. Now it's time to...

*drops phone as panic sets in*

*anxiously checks Shunn's formatting rules for the 30th time*

*realizes that it's too late anyway and closes Shunn's webpage*

*picks up phone as though nothing untoward happened*

...start working on Q4.

Maybe after a calming cup of tea.

Posted by: @doctorjest

Posted by: @czing

And I'm in for Q3 with a story that likely isn't right for this market but that I think is pretty great (LOL I always think my stories are great at least at some point in time). It is one that @rschibler gave me an excellent critique on - full of encouragement and suggestions that I used to take the story up many notches (I think).

It would be nice if it hit semi-finalist - putting that thought out into the world that I'd like to get past the SHM level. Let's see if the universe is willing

Also worth bearing in mind, as Wulf has commented--sometimes, an SHM may actually be higher in Dave's mind than a SF. While a SF is a great placement and will get you some great feedback from the Man Himself, the SHM, SF and F entries all end up conceptually in the same pile--some of the SHMs are SHMs instead of SF entries because Dave is hoping they may get revised and come back to him with some element or elements improved. So you're already in that mix.  

Thanks, that is good to consider! I wouldn't mind getting the feedback which is maybe why I am focused on the SF.

Posted by: @disgruntledpeony

Yeah, Becky's awesome at this.

Absolutely. I think she was the first person I got to critique my work on this forum. Wow - what an amazing standard! Helped improve my story so much. 

I won't have anything ready by July 1, but I'm hoping to have my next story done by Aug 1, if she is still willing to critique then.  

It's awesome how many people agree that you do a fantastic job, Becky!   

I'm so glad you guys find it helpful, really! When I started out here on the forum I'd been writing for 3 or 4 months. There were a few people (DisgruntledPeony, Hannah Reinhold, Kentagions, among others) who took SO much time and energy and effort to critique my stories and gently nudge me in the right direction. It's a huge reason why I'm still here, why I believe in this place. I'm just glad I can help somehow. Mike Resnick said, Pay it forward, now. Thanks all. ❤️ 

@lost_bard

How brilliantly you've captured my last ten minutes!

(And not sure if I mentioned, but congrats on the HM for your first submission! That's great)

And I'm in with my sub for Q3.

I like it, but I also recognise how steep the competition is in the contest.

Totally gonna have to put it out of my mind for the next three months. Luckily, there are more stories that need writin'!

Posted by: @wulfmoon

Posted by: @doctorjest

I still need to do my final out-loud reading, I've put it back to accommodate other unavoidable things for a spell, but I'm running out of space to make sure I get this done. I'll try to find a window to go through it tonight and give myself the remaining couple of weeks to make sure I deal with any of the feedback that I get.

I wrote “Moongirl” in a day and a half. You can do this, Dr Jest!

 

This is the standard I aspire to reach one day...a brilliant, WotF winning story written in a day and a half

It takes me that long to be happy with a paragraph (of lesser quality) at times !  But this is what the forum is for, helping each other get to where we want to be on our writer's journey. And already, I feel the critiques have improved how I look at my stories as a whole and helped me tighten up loose (ahem, terrible) plot points and recognise gratuitous tangents into unnecessary world building.

Posted by: @rschibler

I'm so glad you guys find it helpful, really! When I started out here on the forum I'd been writing for 3 or 4 months. There were a few people (DisgruntledPeony, Hannah Reinhold, Kentagions, among others) who took SO much time and energy and effort to critique my stories and gently nudge me in the right direction. It's a huge reason why I'm still here, why I believe in this place. I'm just glad I can help somehow. Mike Resnick said, Pay it forward, now. Thanks all. ❤️ 

I miss being able to critique stories more actively, but I'm glad I was able to help as much as I did, and I still try to offer crits when I can. (Twin toddlers are crazy, y'all.) If/when things get easier for me, I want to start offering critiques more often again. We'll see how things go.  

My story is following a nice sequence and I'm on that last try fail cycle before the ending and I'm struggling with what would be the best ending with the greatest emotional pay off. Argh! Oh well, still have a day or so to go and am hoping to get this in for Q3. I'm really looking forward to Moon's class on endings. 

As a newbie here, I've noticed those who've been around awhile have a bunch of codes in their signature line. I've figured out that they seem to be awards in prior editions of the contest, which raises three questions:

1. What are the codes? I can't seem to find the levels of award in the contest rules, other than Grand Prize and 1st/2nd/3rd prizes.

2. Contest rules say you may only enter one manuscript per quarter, but I see people with 3 or more codes listed for a single issue. How can that be?

2. If the contest is open only to those who haven't published more than 3 stories, then do lots of codes mean someone's been around here that long and the publishing world is truly so hard they haven't yet published 4 stories?

Posted by: @ehonour

As a newbie here, I've noticed those who've been around awhile have a bunch of codes in their signature line. I've figured out that they seem to be awards in prior editions of the contest, which raises three questions:

1. What are the codes? I can't seem to find the levels of award in the contest rules, other than Grand Prize and 1st/2nd/3rd prizes.

2. Contest rules say you may only enter one manuscript per quarter, but I see people with 3 or more codes listed for a single issue. How can that be?

3. If the contest is open only to those who haven't published more than 3 stories, then do lots of codes mean someone's been around here that long and the publishing world is truly so hard they haven't yet published 4 stories?

1. In order, they are: Rejection, Honorable Mention, Silver Honorable Mention, Semi-Finalist, Finalist, Published Finalist. Usually if anyone wins, they note their winning quarter separately.

2. You can only enter one story per quarter, or four stories per "issue", since WotF is published annually. The third quarter of V38 will close soon, and then the fourth will open. Writers can enter one story per quarter, or four times per year.

3. It's specifically pro publishing of a story, so you need to both be paid at a certain level per word, and the market paying you needs to meet the criteria for the number of issues published, or impressions received, if the publication is purely online. For example, I have five sold or published stories (one having been published twice), but none of them currently meets the criteria sufficient to exclude me from the contest. As we say here, we either win, or we pro out (which has happened to some members of the Forum too).  

Posted by: @doctorjest

Posted by: @ehonour

As a newbie here, I've noticed those who've been around awhile have a bunch of codes in their signature line. I've figured out that they seem to be awards in prior editions of the contest, which raises three questions:

1. What are the codes? I can't seem to find the levels of award in the contest rules, other than Grand Prize and 1st/2nd/3rd prizes.

2. Contest rules say you may only enter one manuscript per quarter, but I see people with 3 or more codes listed for a single issue. How can that be?

3. If the contest is open only to those who haven't published more than 3 stories, then do lots of codes mean someone's been around here that long and the publishing world is truly so hard they haven't yet published 4 stories?

1. In order, they are: Rejection, Honorable Mention, Silver Honorable Mention, Semi-Finalist, Finalist, Published Finalist. Usually if anyone wins, they note their winning quarter separately.

2. You can only enter one story per quarter, or four stories per "issue", since WotF is published annually. The third quarter of V38 will close soon, and then the fourth will open. Writers can enter one story per quarter, or four times per year.

3. It's specifically pro publishing of a story, so you need to both be paid at a certain level per word, and the market paying you needs to meet the criteria for the number of issues published, or impressions received, if the publication is purely online. For example, I have five sold or published stories (one having been published twice), but none of them currently meets the criteria sufficient to exclude me from the contest. As we say here, we either win, or we pro out (which has happened to some members of the Forum too).  

Great help. Thanks!

Your specific signature raised another question: You've sold a story to Abyss and Apex, but it won't be published until Oct'23? I'm surprised at such a huge lead time.

Posted by: @ehonour

Great help. Thanks!

Your specific signature raised another question: You've sold a story to Abyss and Apex, but it won't be published until Oct'23? I'm surprised at such a huge lead time.

Yeah, A&A have a long lead-time on story publication after acceptance. However, I don't know to what extent this is to do directly with a solid accumulated future catalogue (I've seen some markets close to subs temporarily due to having purchased enough good fiction to publish for a couple of years), or if it's to do with where they want to place this specific story (eg, if they liked the story, but it wouldn't fit within other volumes of A&A that they have scheduled inbetween now and then--this is all down to editorial wizardry, and I try not to second-guess it too much).

I did learn not to worry too much about the publication date, though, especially if the market itself is reliable, like A&A. My first sale ended up being my third story published, due to the amount of lead-time that accumulated, partly due to general publication timing, and partly due to the editor being tied up with personal family matters (which he spoke about openly, so all contributors were aware of what was going on--transparency goes a very long way to cultivating good-will where that's concerned).

In this case, knowing that there's a long lead-time is good for me, as I won't wonder if it's simply vanished or been forgotten.   

@doctorjest

When it comes to "pro-ing out", how do we gauge indie sales? I'm guessing it would be the monetary and numerical equivalent? For example, if I put a 100K novel up on Amazon at $2.99 and sold 5,000 copies (would be nice!), that would be $0.10/word at the 70% Kindle exclusive rate. I'd think that counts as pro-ing out, though not traditionally published.

Posted by: @dommichaels

@doctorjest

When it comes to "pro-ing out", how do we gauge indie sales? I'm guessing it would be the monetary and numerical equivalent? For example, if I put a 100K novel up on Amazon at $2.99 and sold 5,000 copies (would be nice!), that would be $0.10/word at the 70% Kindle exclusive rate. I'd think that counts as pro-ing out, though not traditionally published.

I think you'd be correct there, yes, but to be honest, for indie sales I would reach out to Joni for clarification. Ultimately, the determination of whether you do or don't qualify is up to the contest administrators--though the above case certainly meets the conditions of exclusion from the contest as written, so at worst, you'd want to make sure of it.

And I'm in! Submitted to WoTF for 3rd Quarter, volume 38

YAY! 

I'm in.  I got some critiques for the first time which helped greatly.  It's very different from what I entered the last two quarters, or what's building for Q4, but at the very minimum, I amused myself.

@crlisle and @chwalter, welcome to the twitch party!  

Right, I've finished, had a couple of quick crits and completed even quicker editing. I'll let it breathe for ... a day, then I'll submit.

I submitted the first two stories I wrote to magazines without any crits; got two quick rejects. I had myself pictured like L. Ron Hubbard, just sending 'em in and gettin' 'em published.

Since then, I've joined three different crit groups, two online and one f2f. I've been gaining enough humility to recognize that—at least until I become so good I can get published first try—I need to hear other people's thoughts about my words to get the best story.

Now I've got eight stories out there running the rounds, with over 30 rejects and no acceptances yet. But I keep writing, because I'm enjoying the writing.

  @doctorjest Thank you! Where's the kettle corn?

Q3 story submitted. It's short, but sweet. Good luck to my fellow hopefuls! Fortune favors the brave.  

Posted by: @ehonour

I submitted the first two stories I wrote to magazines without any crits; got two quick rejects. I had myself pictured like L. Ron Hubbard, just sending 'em in and gettin' 'em published.

Since then, I've joined three different crit groups, two online and one f2f. I've been gaining enough humility to recognize that—at least until I become so good I can get published first try—I need to hear other people's thoughts about my words to get the best story.

Now I've got eight stories out there running the rounds, with over 30 rejects and no acceptances yet. But I keep writing, because I'm enjoying the writing.

Read Scot Noel’s article in the latest edition of DreamForge Anvil (#3) and you’ll understand what’s going on and why expectation doesn’t meet reality. He uses a wonderful martial arts analogy throughout. The good news? You’re doing all the right things to fix the issue, instead of falling into the trap. “I’m a brilliant writer! Why are all these editors blind to my glorious light?” 😁

Posted by: @joel-c-scoberg

Posted by: @wulfmoon

Posted by: @doctorjest

I still need to do my final out-loud reading, I've put it back to accommodate other unavoidable things for a spell, but I'm running out of space to make sure I get this done. I'll try to find a window to go through it tonight and give myself the remaining couple of weeks to make sure I deal with any of the feedback that I get.

I wrote “Moongirl” in a day and a half. You can do this, Dr Jest!

 

This is the standard I aspire to reach one day...a brilliant, WotF winning story written in a day and a half

It takes me that long to be happy with a paragraph (of lesser quality) at times !  But this is what the forum is for, helping each other get to where we want to be on our writer's journey. And already, I feel the critiques have improved how I look at my stories as a whole and helped me tighten up loose (ahem, terrible) plot points and recognise gratuitous tangents into unnecessary world building.

 

Thank you for your kind words, Joel. I did have an advantage you possibly did not have. I had been writing fiction and nonfiction for many decades. The skills accumulate, and what comes out raw needs less and less editing. I didn’t even have the time to read through what I had written on that one. I also find I can pull a rabbit out of a hat under pressure, an odd superpower of mine. My subconscious rises up under the compression energy of looming deadlines. Speaking of ...

Finally! Q3 out the door. Or outbox, actually. 

NO telling how this one will land 😬 

Good luck to us all! 

I'm in for Q3--so much for not submitting on the last day...

Posted by: @bethpowers

I'm in for Q3--so much for not submitting on the last day...

Well, I mean, it's not quite the last day...

Hi!  New guy here.  I'm trying to get a submission in for this quarter's contest, but I get a message on the Wizehive form telling me it is closed for applications.  After reading through the forums for last year in Q3, it looks like this is some kind of recurring bug?   :  https://www.writersofthefuture.com/forum/the-contest-quarterly-topics-and-other-items/discussion-q3-volume-37/paged/7/#post-33224

Is there any recourse I can take to get my story submitted? 

Thanks!

Rewrote the first two pages this morning. Now I'm letting it sit, you know, distance.

Will look at it again maybe lunch time. Then again after work. I like subbing in the AM the last day, not in the evening. But that's the deal this time.

@wulfmoon Moon magic