Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS Workshop & Challenge!

I'm in but it'll be one canned, three fresh. Sounds like fun!

I'm new (just introduced myself on the—surprise!—introduce yourself page), but I am in for this, baby!

I say we draw straws. Only way to keep things fair.

I reworked an R, and it's 2/3 a new story. I'll make it my Q1 submission, and then it's only a 1/3 of a story resub rate for the year.

Welcome aboard to all the new! Soon, secrets shall be shared. Mysteries shall be unlocked. Doors shall be opened...

I'm heading off to the sign maker now. I'm thinking we're going to need a lot of these:

Hey Wulfy: Congrats on the BIG WIN! Just saw it in FB. Wow! Can I say I knew you when? Guess that won't work because you were already a winner.

Hey Wulfy: Congrats on the BIG WIN! Just saw it in FB. Wow! Can I say I knew you when? Guess that won't work because you were already a winner.

Thanks, Dragonchef! Glad you saw my announcement. What's your Facebook page?

Everyone that writes stories and sends them out are winners. When you start selling, it's validation, but nothing changes. You have to keep writing, keep reading, keep sending, keep writing. Only way to get better. It's why I've started this bonus challenge. I will be sharing some secrets. And this bonus is one of the biggest.

Sign on, all you lurkers! After Q1 ends, these doors close.

Success to your writing, Dragonchef! You are on the path!

Cheers,

Moon

Wulf - I sent a Facebook friend request your way. It's not a writer page, though; but my personal page.

Okay, Storysinger, Oh Keeper of the Sacred Records, we need your post updated please. Two categories on one page: 1. THE FULL CHALLENGE. 2. THE THREE QUARTER CHALLENGE.

Thanks so much! And now, as a teaser as to what is to come for those joining the challenge, we shall soon discuss the secret methods to win this contest! You already know Moon's SUPER SECRET #1: Enter EVERY quarter. You already know Moon's SUPER SECRET #2: Write fresh stories. It's why you're here, why you took the challenge. I now unveil Moon's SUPER SECRET #3: Vaulting past the Gatekeeper! Yes, we're going to talk about how to beat Kary English at her cudgel wielding WHACK-A-MOLE game!

But ONLY if you're a member of this challenge! So sign up now, before we close the Dimholt door! "The way is shut. It was made by those who were dead, and the dead keep it. The way is shut.'"

Dragonchef? Can you get a fire going? It suddenly got very cold in these halls....

I'm new to the forums, but I would like to join!
I did three fresh stories this year, my first entries. I am working on a new one for quarter 1.

I'm joining in with hopeful trepidation ... its going to be a full yr in my alter ego kid lit writing world ... but it's time to make spec fiction a priority too. Here's to subbing 4 new or to die trying. Insert inspiratonal writer's sea shanty here. Onward and upward.   

Now where did I leave that first draft? Back to revising.

As Keeper of the Sacred Records I must create a third category. It is the best of all.
DQ'd due to winning. Every one of us are striving to attain this objective.

Winner
Wulf Moon

The Full Challenge

Storysinger
TimE
DoctorJest
disgruntledpeony
Dragonchef
AjZach
Megan

The Three Quarter Challenge

KDJulicher
thegirlintheglasses
RShibler
SCAFontaine
vsutherland01

Damn it. I can't resist. My Q1 is going to be an automatic bust. I'll have 2 weeks to pull it off.

Damn it. I can't resist. My Q1 is going to be an automatic bust. I'll have 2 weeks to pull it off.

It's still worth a try! 

Thank you, O Keeper of the Sacred Records, for keeping the Sacred Records. Welcome Azjach and LittleRed! More fodder for the cannons! Er, I mean, you're going to make it, men! You've got skillz, else you wouldn't have enlisted, because you'll get no free college tuition here, only THE MOST AMAZING ONE WEEK WORKSHOP FOR SF WRITERS ON THE PLANET!

VSutherland, are you in or out? Because it sounds like you're in. : ) And let me tell you, you can write a story in four hours before deadline and get an HM. If you've got a whole day, you can get second place. Ask me how I know...

Fortune favor the brave! We're going to talk about getting into that new slot Storysinger just made. The one that disqualifies you from fulfilling this challenge...because you won.

It's still worth a try! 

Yes it is!

VSutherland, are you in or out? Because it sounds like you're in. : ) And let me tell you, you can write a story in four hours before deadline and get an HM. If you've got a whole day, you can get second place. Ask me how I know...

I'm in haha, but I don't have to be happy about it. I am letting peer pressure influence me. I do want to hear that story and I intend to ask about it

Well, Vsutherland01, the story is the reason for the challenge. I'll tell a little of it now, and then I'm going to be unlocking secrets as we go on. There are others in this challenge that know the secrets to making finalist, even published finalist, and I fully expect them to weigh in. But that's the tease to get more to challenge themselves by signing up!

Now, what made me create this challenge. And this DOES NOT mean this is the only way. I know some that have resubmitted, even the same story, over and over after continually updating after new critiques, and have watched their honors rise to the eventual win. Good for them! There are many roads to Mecca. This is just my way, but I do believe my way will leave you with some distinct advantages as you go on after the contest to build your writing career. Perhaps the most obvious advantage is that you'll have a stack of fresh stories to sell to other markets that you otherwise would not have had.

Four years ago, I challenged myself to enter every quarter. While I didn't make every quarter (my wife was going through serious health issues) out of the 15 times I entered, 14 received honors, from HM to semifinalist to finalist and the win. Each quarter challenged me to improve my skills, and it will do the same for you. It's also why I put up this Super Secret Bonus Challenge. You see, the last Q, I only had two days available at the end to write. I pulled up a little one page intro I had been mulling over and wrote 1000 words the first day, 5000 words the next. I finished at 11:15 PM, last day of the Q. I handed it to my wife to proof, did her typo corrections at 11:45 PM, and submitted at 11:56 PM. Just made it! You know what happened from there. How could I write a winning story in basically a day? No revisions? No critiques?

Because I had been entering *every quarter* and honing my skills so that when called upon, they did not fail me.

Same will be true for you. This is the Olympics for spec fic writers. Want to win the Gold, the Silver, the Bronze? If we don't push our abilities to the edge of our limits, we will not win. That's because there's somebody else out there that is. Be that somebody that views this as training for the Gold.

AND NOW, I UNVEIL MOON'S SUPER SECRET # 1: Enter EVERY quarter. With a fresh story.

All the beast,

~Moon~

That's awesome to read those words Wulf. It makes what happened to me yesterday seem a little less of a thing to worry about.
When I sat to write I looked at my dry-erase board and a possible title caught my eye.
I'd already had at least one brainstorming session with it so the story direction clicked prompting my taking a seat to write a new story.

Right out of the gates the new one is fast-paced with no slowing down in sight.

So we've added KD, Brittany, and now Rebecca to the three fresh, one canned quarters challenge.

Add me to this list. I’m in.

Oh Keeper of the Sacred Records, please roll down another sheet of TP and add micheaeljwwayntjr to our illustrious scroll!

And we need a crier calling out the time! I had no idea how close Q1 is about to close, what with all the drama surrounding Joni's phone calls, posting announcements, being told I need to sum up my entire person and writing life in 250 words and we need it yesterday! There is nothing more torturous than telling a guy that thinks a flash story is 17K that you'd like him to sum up his life in 250 words! Glad that's done, took me as long as writing the story! Thankfully, on my submitted story, Dave said my copy was clean, minor typos to clean up, and a couple small descriptive enhancements to look at. When you win Q4, they need everything yesterday, because they have to get editing and proofing and layout done so it can go to press in time for the gala release. Publishing never moves this fast, it's glacially slow. But WotF has this down to a science--when you do something successfully for thirty-five years you get GOOD at it--and they know how to hustle.

But now I'm worried. I set up this challenge to help you guys have the same experience. Well, not the HOW IN THE WORLD AM I GOING TO GET THIS SUBMITTED BEFORE IT CLOSES IN 4 MINUTES PART, I don't wish that kind of pressure on anyone. I want you to relax! So don't cut it closer than FIVE minutes before close--those submission forms take a few minutes filling out!  So I need to start helping you with more SUPER SECRETS! Okay, the doors aren't shut yet, so we'll let the lurkers look on a bit more, maybe they'll join before the Q ends and the challenge is closed. DO YOU HEAR THAT, LURKERS? YOU'VE GOT THREE WEEKS TO JOIN US! Heh, thanks for the reverb, hallowed halls!

And now, without further ado and fanfare, because we didn't spring for trumpets, but you can help yourself to the tartlets at the entrance:

WULF MOON'S SUPER SECRET #2: DON’T drive to the story!

UPDATE: This Secret has been expanded and will not only be published in my Super Secrets of Writing book, you can read it for free at DreamForge Magazine. Click on the link at the end when you've finished reading the original Secret here! A bonus for you!

This is beginner faux pax numero uno! We start our day getting out of bed, brushing our teeth (you do brush your teeth, don't you?), looking in the mirror so we can describe every detail in our face so everyone knows what we look like....these are the things we do, so we think our protagonist must as well. Just don't. Please. You are better than this. Assume we know your protag sleeps. Assume we know she ate breakfast, bathed, combed her golden locks, and walked out that door, and got in her space skimmer, and punched in at the orbital station for her nine to five. Tell us something we don't know! Give us something interesting at the very moment a wrench is thrown into her routine and sets off a chain reaction so she can never return to that dull boring routine again! Or when she does, she just went through something so monumental, life will never be the same for her, maybe for the world, maybe for the universe, ever, ever again.

This is called in medias res. It's Latin for “into the middle of things.” These type of stories begin with the catalyst that sets off a chain reaction that leads with inevitability to the explosive climax. You still open with 1. a character 2. in a setting, with 3. a problem, but you get to the point! You don't spend ten pages describing your character, describing your world, describing their features, describing their oatmeal with bits of fruit! (Oooh, are you gonna eat those dried cherries? I LOVE those things!) Instead, as our Jane Doe slips into the seat of her skimmer, have an alien put a blaster to her head and say, "Drive, you oxygen sucking carbon based life form!"

Okay, that opening may not win a Nebula or a Hugo, but trust me, it's going to be better than 90% of the other stories submitted!

DON’T drive to your story. Begin your story where the first domino falls that takes us toward the inevitable climax. Got it? Good. I knew there was a reason you stepped under the portcullis. I could see it in your eyes...you, my friend, have a date with DESTINY.

But you're buying, and she's ordering lobster.

Q1 close is almost upon you. Don't look at me. I did this for twenty-five years, I'm enjoying my retirement. It's up to you now! 

"Write, you oxygen sucking carbon based life forms!"

~Beastmaster Moon~

Click HERE to read the expanded published Super Secret!

WULF MOON'S SUPER SECRET #3: Set the hook!

Your reader is a fish. Your opening is the tasty bait. But hidden within is the HOOK! The sooner you can set the hook, the sooner you can shout, "FISH ON!"

Just listen to that sweet sound of your reader going for the run, peeling out the line. All because you set the hook and didn't let him nibble a bit and wander off to something elsewhere that looked tastier.

How do you know that you hooked Kary and Dave? Did you get an HM or better? Then you set the hook! An honor certificate is solid proof you did your opening right--no way to get one if you didn't! They read the first two pages and couldn't put your story in the rejection pile, so good job!

How do you fashion a hook? There's all types of lures. I keep gazillions in my fishing tackle box, because you never know what might cause a fish to bite, and there's probably just as many opening hooks to stories. But I know lots of you know them, because lots of you have honors. So for this one, I'd like some with multiple certificates to weigh in. How do you hook a reader in your opening? And if you've taken one of Dave's classes that talk about hooks, weigh in! I haven't had the privilege.

Come on, open your tackle box. Show us what you got!

I originally gravitated here from the Hatrack forums, so my personal strategy tends to be making sure those first 13 lines of prose are as awesome as possible. It doesn't always work, but it often does, although it tends to take a few drafts to really get it right. (I've also found that what I think should be my first scene in my earliest drafts is generally a better second scene, although this particular issue may not be true for everyone. I often want to start a story in media res, but in my earliest drafts that tends to translate into starting the story about one scene later than I should. It always feels like the proper opening--right up until I get my first batch of critiques. Then I end up having to track backward and figure out what the actual beginning should be in my second or third draft.)

On a related note, don't be afraid to rewrite scenes as opposed to trying to get through things with minor tweaking of already existing details. I think I did more scene rewrites on my story that made finalist than I have on any story before or since. Every story is different, but if there's a major problem with a scene it might well be better to start fresh and approach it from a different angle.

I think it's important to make the reader ask questions, speculate, and get intrigued right away. The best hooks make promises to the reader, drawing them into the tale.

Things like: this problem will be hard to solve, or this character has an interesting issue, or this setting is rich and will be fulfilling to explore. The best reader promise has to do with the story itself for me. *This story is going somewhere* The end is implied with the beginning. Of course, the important thing to do then is to make sure you go full circle and deliver on any of those promises made in the hook/opening.

As an example, here is an opening line from one of my all time favorite writers and stories. ("The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" by Ernest Hemmingway.)

"It was now lunch time and they were all sitting under the double green fly of the dining tent pretending that nothing had happened."

Immediately, you have a sense of place and time. But most of all, you have a question. Pretending nothing had happened? But what happened? Why pretend it didn't?

It compels the reader to go on, to dig deeper into the story. That's a good hook. And each following sentence should up the ante by both deepening the reader's immersion in the time and place and characters, and increasing reader questions. Answer one with a new question, or by creating a problem. It should be hooks all the way down, really.

Great comments on hooks, thank you Liz and Rebecca! Rebecca has also previewed some other secrets we'll be talking about soon! These first SUPER SECRETS are being shared to help anyone get past an R to an HM or higher. If you've been frustrated by contest rejections lately, the answer to the problem will be somewhere in these secrets. TRUST ME ON THIS!

Time is running out, Q1 is almost over! In three weeks from now, will YOU be able to say you joined the full SUPER SECRET challenge? There's still time! Don't be a lurker, be a BERSERKER! Call out that you're IN for the WIN!

Now, I know there's plenty of others that know about hooks. You've gotten HMs to Finalist certificates to prove it! You simply cannot get those without knowing this secret. Looking for more comments on this, because it's really important. We MUST drag our reader into the story from a cold start. It must happen immediately. How do we do it in those first lines? It must be there, or our fish will swim away and go bite somewhere else. Don't let Kary and Dave swim away! SET THE HOOK!

Here is another of the many hooks you can employ in your opening. A quirky phrase that throws all your sense of how the world works upside down, and demands the reader read further to answer this intriguing mystery. As an example:

At precisely 11:18 A.M., the president of ThermoDyne Biometrics was brutally murdered. At 11:57 A.M., they hired me to go hunt myself down and terminate the killer. This job would be easier than other assignments I'd taken on in the past. At least I knew what the killer looked like.

See? Something quirky, that impels the readers to read on, because they've had their curiosity piqued, and now they need answers. That's one example of a hook. Or, if we're pulling that out of a tackle box, we'd call it a lure, because you don't catch fish on bare hooks. You need all the flashies and sparklies and colors and scents to trigger the reader's subliminal instinct to strike!

Show us what you got! There's more lures in your tackle boxes, I know it!

Thanks for sharing your insights with us Moon.

I have achieved a few hooks in the past, and I think I have been able to string along a series of hooks towards the end of my stories to build the pace to decent finales. Still, I have yet to maintain a riveting series of hooks throughout my entire story. You have inspired me to take a more exploratory approach to Q1. I have a rough idea of what I want and I am going to write every sentence with the question "how does this grip the reader?" I won't get tied down to my outlines or all the boring stuff I will try to insert. I will tackle each moment as it comes and try to keep the pace breakneck from start to finish.

I have a rough idea of what I want and I am going to write every sentence with the question "how does this grip the reader?" I won't get tied down to my outlines or all the boring stuff I will try to insert. I will tackle each moment as it comes and try to keep the pace breakneck from start to finish.

Just don't let this concept bog you down so much you don't get your first draft completed. If it's already done and you're ready to edit, go for it! Don't psyche yourself out, is what I'm trying to say. (Your writing methods may be different than mine, but I've learned the hard way that my first drafts are precious and fragile. Over-thinking things kills my early drafts quicker than anything else. Once that first draft is complete, I have an easier time picking it apart and analyzing it.)

Just don't let this concept bog you down so much you don't get your first draft completed. If it's already done and you're ready to edit, go for it! Don't psyche yourself out, is what I'm trying to say. (Your writing methods may be different than mine, but I've learned the hard way that my first drafts are precious and fragile. Over-thinking things kills my early drafts quicker than anything else. Once that first draft is complete, I have an easier time picking it apart and analyzing it.)

I understand, If I get too wrapped up in this question my story will explode before takeoff. I will focus on completing that first draft as a main priority before I pick it apart with this question too much. I tend to outline heavily, and I think it makes me prone to leaving in slow ponderous elements of the story. I haven't given exploratory writing a chance. By the time I sit down to write draft 1 there is little left to figure out as far as major plot beats go. I think with this story I want to write into the unknown. It might help keep me in the moment and result in more thrills for the reader. My previous HMs have all been confined by the extensive outlines I lay out before I write a single word. I think it's time to throw out the "plan" and think on my toes and create something that feels adventurous and freeform and less like a spreadsheet. I just need to shake things up a bit, write something where I am not already married to every aspect of the story. I write stories where the protag is supposed to go right, the entire story is crafted around them going right. I want them to turn left for a change and I want to find out where that leads.

vsutherland: I like how you're thinking. It's how I won in the end. I started throwing Dave curve balls, writing stories outside my usual box. I wrote them fast and hard and fresh, and I didn't over edit. Some I didn't edit at all, they were first drafts, like the winner. I tried horror, I tried surrealism, I tried comedy because it worked for Jon Ficke in Vol. 34 (but not for me!), and on the last, I tried making Dave cry. There's actually another SUPER SECRET here, so I might as well share it:

Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRET #4: Pick a major emotion and make your reader FEEL it down to their core!

I'm calling this emotional subtext. It's hidden, but it better be there. You can have the greatest ticking time bomb plot, A needs B needs C needs D, all the way to your grand finale, CLIMAX, but if your readers don't feel anything, they aren't going to care. It's like eating popcorn. Tasty crunching nothingness. Nothing to ruminate on, nothing to mull over, nothing that really moves you when you get to The End. You want your reader to get gut-punched. You want them laughing hysterically. You want them bawling and running for tissues. You want them aching to see your protagonist again, but she just died, giving her life to save her world.

Without keying up major emotions in your reader, you're not going to have a powerful story, and that means you're not going to win.

Make jaded editors *feel* from reading your coding? That's a magic trick.

And you better be Houdini.

~Moon~

P.S.: Highly recommended reading on this topic from my friend and one time agent: THE EMOTIONAL CRAFT OF FICTION by Donald Maass. Do yourself a favor and get the book. It's deep. But so are emotions. It will transform your writing.

There's no way I can nail a first draft yet, tried that twice this year and ended up R. Maybe in a few years. I need to get better at subtext. These are fun to read keep em coming Moon.

There's no way I can nail a first draft yet, tried that twice this year and ended up R. Maybe in a few years. I need to get better at subtext. These are fun to read keep em coming Moon.

Honestly, I think some of that just comes down to what works for each individual writer. I don't think I'll ever nail a first draft, although I'd love to prove myself wrong. I'm starting to get better about figuring out what stories need, but outside critiques definitely help me.

Honestly, I think some of that just comes down to what works for each individual writer. I don't think I'll ever nail a first draft, although I'd love to prove myself wrong. I'm starting to get better about figuring out what stories need, but outside critiques definitely help me.

Critiques and story swaps help me the most. I love the feedback and I try to learn from it.