Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS Workshop & Challenge!

Just finished a 500-word and 250-word flash prompt challenge for PROMPT: BLOODSUCKER.

Best,

Retro

I'm late to the party, but congratulations to Wulf!! I just saw the Critters Awards list this afternoon. Such nice things don't happen by accident. Wulf is showing us what to aspire to with hard work and dedication and supporting each other.

Congrats again to Wulf... he posted about a couple of his awards, but he did NOT mention that he won SO MANY. When I got the email this morning and read through all the winners, I was so excited to see him and his work listed for so many categories. Wulf, that's awesome! You are on fire!

I just completed my flash for the Blood Sucker prompt -- a 1400-word flash (a little over the 1000, oops!), and then KYD'd it down to 490 and again to 207.

I'm so curious what all the mystery tied to this prompt is about.

Congrats again to Wulf... he posted about a couple of his awards, but he did NOT mention that he won SO MANY. When I got the email this morning and read through all the winners, I was so excited to see him and his work listed for so many categories. Wulf, that's awesome! You are on fire!

I just completed my flash for the Blood Sucker prompt -- a 1400-word flash (a little over the 1000, oops!), and then KYD'd it down to 490 and again to 207.

I'm so curious what all the mystery tied to this prompt is about.

Thank you, Crystal and everyone else. Now back to writing!

After doing KYD, make sure you bring your 250's back up to 1000 words or less. Base it on what you discovered in the 250, the beating emotional heart. It should change from what you first wrote, the original flash piece. It should be tighter and carry an emotional wallop. Don't forget to come full circle with your endings. The best stories come full circle, often echoing the opening line, but now that line means something new.

Get these back to regular flash pieces now. Your kraken must rise back up from the crucible! HEAR HIM ROAR!

Beastmaster Moon

Alright, Moon, I trusted you even before you won all those well-deserved awards (congrats, again)! So I'm joining the extra-credit beasties on this one. I did something a little different: I applied KYD to my detailed outline before having technically written the story. I'll still do the traditional KYD on a completed draft later today, but I suspect I'll be adding back some of what I wrote - having already killed my plotting darlings before fully writing them.

We look forward to learning which vampire-themed flash anthology you have in mind for us

I have finished the blood sucker exercise, including building it back up to just under a 1000 words.

https://theshortstory.co.uk/competitions/short-story-competition/

All of you doing the flash prompts regularly - this is a good opportunity for you!

1. It is a good opportunity, and you *can* tell a moving story in 300 words. It's called a vignette, and I've been teaching you how to do it.

It's the Kill Your Darling's exercise.

If you can afford the fee, you are uniquely qualified to write these and have a good shot at winning this contest. 300 words, nine pounds ten ounces--heh, just kidding, you don't have to sell your firstborn to enter this contest. Closes February 6th. If you can afford it, you have been trained to write these. Give it your best shot.

2. Now, on to the week's prompt: BLOOD SUCKER. You want to know why I asked you to write a flash of 1000 words or less on this? Using KYD, which is writing the piece, then reducing it to 500, then refocusing it through the 250, and THEN building it back up into a reborn 1000 word flash focusing on the beating heart within it. Well, you have to be a challenge member to find out! Membership has its privileges. : ) So, we love you all, but only IF you are a SUPER SECRETS Year 2 Volume 37 Challenge Beastie, please message SwiftPotato for details. She is our Keeper of Records, and she saves me much time so that I can continue doing this workshop for you. Thank you, Leah! ALL HAIL THE GREAT SWIFTPOTATO!

If you haven't started yet on this flash but wish to do so, hail Leah as well, and she'll get you the deets. Again, this is for Volume 37 registered challenge beasties ONLY. When you get the details, you should have in place your wise reader and your professionally published expert (or as close to that as you were able to find). Utilize them.

Fortune favor those that do the work!

All the beast,

Beastmaster Moon

Any members of the Wulf Pack interested in doing something like a weekly writing group?

I have no specifics and am open to suggestions, but maybe a google hangout once a week for an hour-ish? Every week you’d commit to reading and providing commentary on each member’s weekly submissions? Could be short stories, novels excerpts, flash, whatever.

Group couldn’t be too big (maybe there would be enough interest for a few squads), but could be a way to get to know each other a little better and fill our writer cups periodically.

Pm if interested.

In other news, I hope to finish the blood sucker prompt today!

I have finished the blood sucker exercise, including building it back up to just under a 1000 words.

Well done, AJ! You are a VOLUME 37 CHALLENGE BEASTIE! As such, you qualify to PM Leah to receive your newsletter from me. Membership has its privileges.

Congrats for doing the work!

Cheers!

BEASTMASTER MOON PS: Love your Avatar shot, Zeet! We should have you teach us how to do those. This is your assignment, should you choose to accept it, a post on this. Cheers!

Assignment accepted.

To make sure I understand said assignment, are you referring to using a photo as an avatar?

If so, just head into your message board profile and edit.
Then edit avatar on the left.
Then under avatar type, select upload avatar.
Then "choose file" to select a saved photo (I'm doing this all on a pc or laptop, rather than a mobile device, btw).
The key at this point is the photo needs to be 180 pixels by 180 pixels at most. If you pull up the file of your photo on your computer, you should be able to edit the size by pixel.

As a quick note: if you're PMing me to ask about the blood sucker prompt details, and I don't have your email already, please include it in your message! If you're not comfortable with that, I can work something out with you, but the information will be much easier to receive and read via email.

I built my Blood Sucker story back up to just under 900 words... I hope that's close enough to the 1000! KYD exercise definitely helped clarify the story... there's more depth to it now and yet it's still 500 words less than my first draft before the KYD.

I built my Blood Sucker story back up to just under 900 words... I hope that's close enough to the 1000! KYD exercise definitely helped clarify the story... there's more depth to it now and yet it's still 500 words less than my first draft before the KYD.

Then you did it right, Crystal. THAT is what it's supposed to do. Your baby kraken just lost his baby fat. He's a lean, mean fighting machine now! Send him out to claim his first prize!

Please PM SwiftPotato and get my Super Secrets Challenge Vol. 37 newsletter. And put your email in it please, make it easy on her.

Best of success with this! Again, you have to be on the roster of the Volume 37 challenge to request this. We love you all, and we share with all, but membership has its privileges.

Beastmaster Moon

I did my blood sucker story on ticks. Was it supposed to be about vampires? I did 999 words, then 500, then 250, then backup to 1,000.
I am becoming a lean, mean, writing machine!

Thanks for giving us such fun assignments Wulf Moon! This was fun!

I did my blood sucker story on ticks. Was it supposed to be about vampires? I did 999 words, then 500, then 250, then backup to 1,000.
I am becoming a lean, mean, writing machine!

Thanks for giving us such fun assignments Wulf Moon! This was fun!

Ticks sound like a far more interesting twist on this prompt, crlisle. I did not say vampires, I said Blood Suckers. You will always be ahead of the pack if you think outside the box. Original ideas are the stories that get purchased and published, in Writers of the Future, and in the markets outside this contest.

Well done!

And Zeet? Thanks for explaining how to set up Avatars. We should all do that, including me, if I had the time. In Guild Wars 1 & 2, I designed capes our guild wore with our Wolf Pack logo on the back. That purple wolf was so cool. www.theforestguard.com

All the beast!

Hey All! I've just received a short story critique from a Hugo award winning editor. While the feedback was story-specific, here are the main points quoted from their comments:

"I think the biggest challenge here for me as a reader is twofold.
First, I don't really know what the stakes are for the main character in terms of success or failure..."

"...Second, in terms of worldbuilding, I have difficulty seeing what is important and what is not."

For the second point, I was sure that I'd KYD the crap out of it. But it turns out that I took the reader for granted and assumed that they knew why the aspects of the world were important. In hindsight, most of that was in my head.

Will revise the story and send the baby Kraken back out. Btw, this wasn't a query, but a critique op. Keep yr eyes out on twitter etc, it seems that the opportunities are out there!

FYI 😀

"...Second, in terms of worldbuilding, I have difficulty seeing what is important and what is not."

For the second point, I was sure that I'd KYD the crap out of it. But it turns out that I took the reader for granted and assumed that they knew why the aspects of the world were important. In hindsight, most of that was in my head.

Thanks for sharing and that's cool you got some high level critiquing there. I think that point about the reader not being able to see what's important is something I struggle with while doing the KYD. After several laptop sessions on the train or couch, I finally cut my 1644-word blood sucker flash to 1094 then 901 then 675 then 582 and 403. At the 403-582 word point, I tried to reform it into a 250 vignette, but I had trouble expressing the depth that had been apparent when it was longer. It was in my head and I could feel it, but on the page, it had gotten lost. Still working on it.

Once I'm happy with what the heart of it is, I'll build back up. It was nice to get another overview from Wulf covering the process and point of the KYD, as quoted here:

"After doing KYD, make sure you bring your 250s back up to 1000 words or less. Base it on what you discovered in the 250, the beating emotional heart. It should change from what you first wrote, the original flash piece. It should be tighter and carry an emotional wallop. Don't forget to come full circle with your endings. The best stories come full circle, often echoing the opening line, but now that line means something new. Get these back to regular flash pieces now. Your kraken must rise back up from the crucible! HEAR HIM ROAR!"

This actually motivated me to keep at the frustrating flash. I also have written flash out for Unstoppable Force and Wolf Moon, but am still struggling to get them cut and reformed down to 500 and 250 before building back up, though I'm happy with the kernels of story I'm discovering within them.

And Wulf, congrats on all the wins there I saw mentioned in the Critters email then announced here or on Facebook. I cast some last minute votes before the deadline and was happy to see them followed by good results. Deserved.

Thanks for the support, RJK Lee and all! Much appreciated!

I'm hearing good things about how many of you did my Blood Sucker flash challenge. Enjoy the bonus that came with your newsletter!

And here's a bonus for all the rest so you don't feel left out. I rejected a story today that had gotten through the gauntlet by our first readers at Future Science Fiction Digest. Why? Weak ending. I expected a big payout from a fairly witty humor story, and I didn't get it. The ending fizzed out like a dud firecracker. Your climax and denouement and especially your last line must deliver and satisfy. In a humor piece, it had better be funny or insightful and I would hope it would make me laugh. You can do everything right, like this writer did, and fail at the very end. It's not just your first two pages you have to work on, it's EVERYTHING.

For your benefit, I asked one of the best first readers I know what causes him to reject stories. Here is one of his answers:

"If you are providing tips, there's one I left out. Multimedia. We are looking for great reads. Emphasis "READS". In today's multimedia world, we receive many submissions which appear to originate from writers who work primarily in different media - but are branching out, for whatever reason. Their written submissions look like stage plays, TV pitches, or a few chapters from a much larger work. Each is an easy reject, even if the characters are fantastic, the dialogue natural, and the challenge an interesting one - because they aren't great reads.

Sort of like the difference between reading music, and hearing it."

The takeaway? Make sure you are mastering how a short story is to be formatted, composed, and delivered. Someone that reads thirty to one hundred stories in a day knows exactly what a short story is supposed to look like and read like. They are prospectors that instantly know the glint of a gold nugget. Read, read, read. Write, write, write. Absorb good authors. Study how they do it. I'd even suggest if you're having a problem here, take your favorite *modern* short story and go type it out word for word so you imbed the process and format of paragraphs and sentence structure. You must get this down, as this veteran first reader pointed out, if you wish to get your story sent to the editor.

All the beast,

Beastmaster Moon

using a photo as an avatar?

If so, just head into your message board profile and edit.
Then edit avatar on the left.
Then under avatar type, select upload avatar.
Then "choose file" to select a saved photo (I'm doing this all on a pc or laptop, rather than a mobile device, btw).
The key at this point is the photo needs to be 180 pixels by 180 pixels at most. If you pull up the file of your photo on your computer, you should be able to edit the size by pixel.

Thanks Zeeteebeez! I just used your instructions (and a bit of tweaking to my photo) to get it to upload. I've been wanting to do this for awhile.

Best,
Angela

Happy Monday, challenge beasties! This week's prompt is: GROWING IMPULSE.

CONGRATS, SIR WULF!!!
After being beaten over the head by life (sometimes literally ), you are rising like a phoenix to soar into SciFi Fame! And I am privileged to witness the ascent.

How placing in the contest can help...Wulf thought my experience might be useful. I mentioned it in a reply in the "Q4 Volume 36" thread, but I will add it here for the Super Secret crew.

Last year, I added the following sentence to my queries:
"I am a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and have placed as Semi-Finalist in the Writers of the Future Contest with my YA time travel, SLIPPING TIME."

With this addition, a better crafted query, and hopefully a clear story premise, I began receiving several requests for FULLS. I crafted the sentence to show how the WotF story related to the interests of the agents I was targeting ("YA time travel"). I cannot say for sure what magic works in queries and what doesn't--that is one of the great mysteries of the universe--but I can say that last year I saw a marked increase in interest from agents.

Good Luck to everyone! And may the publishing gods smile upon us.

This week's prompt is: GROWING IMPULSE.

Yay! This looks like so much fun! These exercises are really helping my writing a lot, so keep them coming! I may use one for my 3rd quarter WoTF entry. These prompts are amazing.

This week's prompt is: GROWING IMPULSE.

Yay! This looks like so much fun! These exercises are really helping my writing a lot, so keep them coming! I may use one for my 3rd quarter WoTF entry. These prompts are amazing.

Thanks, crlisle. They aren't random generated, careful thought was put into each one. They have been designed for speculative fiction writers.

Thanks for posting them each week, SwiftPotato!

I have many more Super Secrets, but right now, I want you guys to be sure your Blood Sucker flash stories are perfect. Make sure they do not exceed 999 words. I am told anything at 1000 and over (Dustin, I believe I heard this from you), and with pro pay and the right circulation, they are counted as pro sales by WotF's standards. Why blow a chance to win WotF because you sold a story with one extra word?

Cheers!

Blood Sucker flash done and dusted. 991 words.

It's my first ever flash submission, so not really expecting anything from it, but it was fun to write and I think it's a good seed to build a story upon later in the quarter.

Make sure they do not exceed 999 words. I am told anything at 1000 and over (Dustin, I believe I heard this from you), and with pro pay and the right circulation, they are counted as pro sales by WotF's standards. Why blow a chance to win WotF because you sold a story with one extra word?
Cheers!

Wulf,
I believe it's 3k.
I will confirm and return, but this comes from Joni, so I want to be sure to find the thread.

(Speaking of, do you know why the Writing Craft ... thread only goes back to March of 2018? I looked and looked for my "where to find published finalists" thread yesterday and could not find it.)

OK, found the discussion from a different forum.

Rule #1. If you are in doubt, check with Joni directly. These quotes are from others who checked with Joni, and these quotes are several years old. They are informational only and should not be taken as Official Contest Rules.

Yep - "more than one novelette" means that if you sell two, you're ineligible.

For shorts, "more than three" means the fourth sale is the one that disqualifies you.

When you mix novelettes (or novellas) and shorts, you still get four sales as long as only one is a novelette. If you sold a novelette, a short, and a novelette, in that order, you'd have pro'd out on the 2nd novelette sale, same as if you'd sold a short followed by two novelettes, or two shorts followed by two novelettes.

That's right, flash fiction doesn't count toward WotF disqualification. And SFWA has changed its guidelines. Now you need at least three qualifying stories that add up to 10K words. It seems that the whole purpose of that was the block writers from qualifying with three flashes.

Data point on pro'ing out straight from Joni: A 3K-word story is too short to count toward disqualification.

I was asking for clarification on where I stand because I have five SFWA sales at this point. She said that only two of them, with word counts of 8K and 5.4K, count as strikes.

Rule #2. If still in doubt, read rule #1.

Thanks, Dustin. I appreciate your looking this up. The truth is, and you have noted that, we cannot go by hearsay--all we can go by are the official contest rules and Joni Labaqi's position on them. I talked to Martin Shoemaker just now about these quotes above, and here is what he said:

"The rules talk about one novel, more than one short novel, or more than three short stories. SFWA has no definition for short novel. It DOES have novelette and novella, and WotF never mentions either. So when I asked Joni, I got a radically different answer: WotF is a short story contest; WotF accepts up to 17,000 words; ergo 17,000 is a short story." Martin also said SFWA and WotF official guidelines don't always line up. For Writers of the Future, we go by their rules for their contest.

What does all of this mean? That Joni decides the gray area, and she does this on a case by case basis if someone writes in that's close to pro'ing out. Until clarifications are placed in the guidelines, that's how it works.

Get your three pro sales, and when your fourth hits and you're in doubt about something in your set that may or may not disqualify you, write to Joni for a ruling. She will do her best to keep you in as long as possible, according to the rules and her judgment of them.

It's a good problem to have.

Keep writing, keep sending, and get the pro sales that lead to these kind of problems! They're the ones you WANT to have!

All the beast,

Beastmaster Moon P.S.: On your other question, Dustin, Martin said Brad set the system long ago to delete old and inactive files after a period of time to make room for the new. This is no doubt what happened in your case. Sorry.

GROWING IMPULSE flash done 1,000 down to 500 down to 250 and back up to 1,000
BLOOD SUCKER kraken has been released to Daily Science Fiction with a title of "Tick Talk"

Alright! I'm feeling quite fresh and meaty. I guess I'll just jump in with the GROWING IMPULSE prompt and see where it takes me!