NEW! The Writers of the Future ONLINE WORKSHOP!

Announcing the new L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Online Workshop, proclaimed by SciFi Magazine "an extension of L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future (WOTF) Contest, the world's preeminent competition for up-and-coming genre authors." It is a free workshop featuring three Writers of the Future Workshop judges: Orson Scott Card, David Farland, and Tim Powers.

Access it via the WritersoftheFuture.com homepage. Click on FREE ONLINE WORKSHOP.

Articles, exercises, and video instruction by the same instructors we had at the Hollywood week long workshop! Learn from the best, for FREE! And you get a nifty course completion certificate at the end to post on your wall! What are you waiting for? Take the course and up your writing game!

Do come back when you're finished and post comments on what you enjoyed, and what point you think will help you most. There's much here to discuss!

All the beast!

Wulf Moon

I did the entire course start to finish as a beta tester. Took me almost 9 hours but I wrote a short story (3,500 words) in the process. It’s definitely a great course with insightful lectures and essays and some thoughts on business as well. It’s really good. Highly recommend.

I plan on taking this soon, although it's definitely going to take me longer than Becky.

It took me about six hours, mentally doing the exercises, and skipping writing a story. I had to push it because they wanted me through quick so they could do a Zoom interview for promo. I took lots of notes. If you're trying to win this contest, this online program will definitely help. And you've got the same great teachers we had for the Volume 35 workshop! You couldn't ask for better instructors than Orson Scott Card, Tim Powers, and David Farland. They are masters.

And did I mention it's FREE?

Enjoy another wonderful gift from this most generous contest!

It was certainly a motivating workshop. I spent over ten hours on it as I took notes on every single section (about 26 pages of notes with some writing exercises included), and I wrote two stories for it. My writing exercises included writing lists of personal prompts, specific story ideas, and structures, noting down some quick research for story content, writing 2 pages of description, dialogue, and narration, writing outlines for the story (in my case, the stories), writing out a beginning, a middle, and an ending, and writing some practice suspense.

It's a nice overview of what the judges in this contest are looking for, and also includes a look at the business and motivation and goal of writing as an ART from Hubbard. The videos were high quality and there were some decent connections made between essays and videos. The practicals are fairly basic and will only serve you if you really put in the effort. That is to say, if you've taken notes on the essays and the video lectures, and are motivated to put in the time and focus, then the practicals, which are really just a sentence stating write this part of a story, will give you some good practice, and may even give you a decent story (or two!) to work with. I'll be honest, I wanted more, it ended too soon, but it had smooth flow to its structure overall and was certainly a beneficial experience that I'm using to guide a few stories for this quarter.

I had a blast going through this workshop. I have one story that's currently going around my writing group for peer review before I submit for Q3, and I used a lot of what the judges mentioned to help plot the foundation for another story I'll be submitting in June for a different contest.

Lots of good material was presented, and I highly recommend.

I had a blast going through this workshop. I have one story that's currently going around my writing group for peer review before I submit for Q3, and I used a lot of what the judges mentioned to help plot the foundation for another story I'll be submitting in June for a different contest.

Lots of good material was presented, and I highly recommend.

Glad you enjoyed it, nreavis!

Author Services had me run through it first as their guinea pig. Oink! Here's the video interview on my impressions!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=568129577153705

I'm about halfway through it so far. I'm making time as I can, so I usually get through one or two practicals a day. Got through three today, but it's the first time I haven't been busy with other things or needed a nap during one of the babies' naptimes. Just finished the narrative paragraph.

Overall, I've had a decent time following along--although the wording for the description-related practical exercise initially resulted in me basically writing a more detailed/descriptive outline of my story rather than, y'know, two pages of description for said story. Not sure how much of that the wording and how much was just my perpetually over-tired brain, though.

The story I'm writing is a lot more... personal than most stories I write, I guess? I usually write with more of an escapist bent, but with this particular story I guess I'm more seeking to gain some catharsis on old grief and fears. It, uhh, it hurts. Writing the outline made me cry.

"...technique is not a habit, but a constant set of rules to be frequently refreshed in your mind." from the essay by L. Ron Hubbard in the lessons about writing suspense.

i was so relieved when I read this! I thought I was stupid because I have to keep post-it notes on my computer: hook, senses, desire.
And I have to keep referring to Wulf Moon's list of secrets, over and over and over and over again.
Now I understand that this is normal. Phew! Can't wait for his secrets book. I will have to put the pages in a ring binder because no book would be able to stand up to the abuse I'm going to put it through.

Also, I got the impression, from this essay, that even after he was famous, Mr. Hubbard still received rejection notices. Did I understand this correctly? So there is no finish line. We keep learning what we forgot.

I finished the rough draft of the story I wrote using workshop instructions yesterday. It needs a lot of work, but I know what it'll take to fix it. Going to finish the course today.

"...technique is not a habit, but a constant set of rules to be frequently refreshed in your mind." from the essay by L. Ron Hubbard in the lessons about writing suspense.

i was so relieved when I read this! I thought I was stupid because I have to keep post-it notes on my computer: hook, senses, desire.
And I have to keep referring to Wulf Moon's list of secrets, over and over and over and over again.
Now I understand that this is normal. Phew! Can't wait for his secrets book. I will have to put the pages in a ring binder because no book would be able to stand up to the abuse I'm going to put it through.

Also, I got the impression, from this essay, that even after he was famous, Mr. Hubbard still received rejection notices. Did I understand this correctly? So there is no finish line. We keep learning what we forgot.

There is no finish line when you're playing the Infinite Game.

Glad you are looking forward to the Super Secrets book! And all those hidden secrets that AREN'T on the topic!

Don't worry. The more you work with the skills, the more they start to stick!

Stay with it! There is a good reward for your hard work!

Cheers!

I finished the rough draft of the story I wrote using workshop instructions yesterday. It needs a lot of work, but I know what it'll take to fix it. Going to finish the course today.

Cool, Liz! Wouldn't THAT be a story if your Online Workshop story was your winner! I think they'd ask you to write a blog about it for sure!

Cheers!

I finished the rough draft of the story I wrote using workshop instructions yesterday. It needs a lot of work, but I know what it'll take to fix it. Going to finish the course today.

Cool, Liz! Wouldn't THAT be a story if your Online Workshop story was your winner! I think they'd ask you to write a blog about it for sure!

Cheers!

It would definitely be interesting, but I'm not sure this story is the kind of thing Dave would want for the WotF target market... I'll have a few different options come Q4, and this story should definitely be finished by then, so we'll see how things go.

I finished the rough draft of the story I wrote using workshop instructions yesterday. It needs a lot of work, but I know what it'll take to fix it. Going to finish the course today.

Cool, Liz! Wouldn't THAT be a story if your Online Workshop story was your winner! I think they'd ask you to write a blog about it for sure!

Cheers!

It would definitely be interesting, but I'm not sure this story is the kind of thing Dave would want for the WotF target market... I'll have a few different options come Q4, and this story should definitely be finished by then, so we'll see how things go.

May the Force be with you, Liz!

I finished the rough draft of the story I wrote using workshop instructions yesterday. It needs a lot of work, but I know what it'll take to fix it. Going to finish the course today.

Very good and good success with it, once it is fixed. It will be at least a good story

You know what I love most about the WOTF Free Online Workshop? Transcripts for the videos, so I can work through the lessons while I'm at work! You guys thought of everything. Thanks!

I just finished the workshop yesterday. I feel like I learned so much and came out of it with a solid foundation for a story. It's really well done, thanks!