NEW USERS! INTRODUCE YOURSELVES!

Congratulations on getting HM (@virajpuri), and welcome to the forum.

Hi. I’m Didrik and a native of Oslo, Norway. I’ve entered the contest three times now, so I thought it was time to introduce myself to the forum. : )

I mostly write fiction in Norwegian, but I’ve made some English fantasy stories too because the WoTF contest and its resources are such a great way to practice the writing craft. (And of course, a few HMs do soothe a sore ego.)

At university, I studied a bit of medieval history, so I naturally gravitate towards rather traditional fantasy, where I understand the setting better – and I love castles, knights and monsters – but I do try my hand at the occasional sci-fi story as well.

My goal going forward is to improve both my storytelling and English skills.

I wish you all a splendid day!

Didrik  

Posted by: @gayatric

@aliciacay can you expali  the meaning of hm , r and shm?

---

 

Of course. It's short-hand for how people's stories placed in the contest that quarter. Silver Honorable Mention (SHM), Honorable Mention (HM), and an R means rejected/didn't place. Finalists can be noted as F, and Semi-Finalists as an SF.

I may have missed your post if you already said, did you enter Q3 and/or Q4 (Quarter 3/Quarter 4)? If so, how did you do? 

Good question, keep them coming!  

~A.

Posted by: @cider

Hey everybody,

I'm Cider. I've been submitting to the contest for awhile and writing for longer, but I've never really had a community of writers to talk to/work with. Normally I just send my writing to my friends/family for critique. I don't know how I missed that this forum existed lol. Looking forward to interacting with other writers!

Welcome, Cider! You’ve stepped out from the shadows into the wider world, and this is a great place to start! Don’t miss taking the WotF Online Workshop—the WotF instructors teach you how to craft stories there. In here, you’ll find lots of support, places to track results, and a critique swap topic as well.

Enjoy and welcome aboard!

Wulf Moon

Forum Moderator 

Posted by: @virajpuri

Hey everyone, 

I'm Viraj. I'm a bit late to introducing myself seeing as I've spent the past few months lurking around the forums. Even taken help from some of the wonderful members here and completed the Workshop. I was a bit shy about interacting with the community and writing as a whole, but after placing a HM in this quarter, it's given me a boost of confidence. 

I'm really looking forward to participating in more quarters and interacting with everyone on the forums!

Thank you for introducing yourself, Viraj. Welcome!

You did well taking the WotF Online Workshop. I’m sure it helped you with that first HM. Congratulations!

Tap into all the excellent knowledge and writers here, it will help you to keep leveling up.

Welcome aboard!

Wulf Moon 

Forum Moderator 

Posted by: @didrik

Hi. I’m Didrik and a native of Oslo, Norway. I’ve entered the contest three times now, so I thought it was time to introduce myself to the forum. : )

I mostly write fiction in Norwegian, but I’ve made some English fantasy stories too because the WoTF contest and its resources are such a great way to practice the writing craft. (And of course, a few HMs do soothe a sore ego.)

At university, I studied a bit of medieval history, so I naturally gravitate towards rather traditional fantasy, where I understand the setting better – and I love castles, knights and monsters – but I do try my hand at the occasional sci-fi story as well.

My goal going forward is to improve both my storytelling and English skills.

I wish you all a splendid day!

Didrik  

Didrik, welcome! A kroner for your thoughts! ?

Lots of epic fantasy writers here—you’ll fit right in. Maybe you’ll create a topic on some of that medieval history you’ve studied. History is fascinating!

To improve those skills, I highly recommend taking the WotF Online Workshop—it’s taught by the same instructors that teach the Hollywood workshop for the winners. Don’t be afraid to swap critiques, especially since English is not your first language. Little nuances played wrong really stand out, causing you story to get downgraded in rank. 

There’s lots of resources and people here to help! It’s a big reason we have two or three winners a year from the Forum. May you be next!

Welcome aboard!

Wulf Moon 

Forum Moderator 

Welcome Didrik. By your signature you seem to have good writing technique. Follow Wulf's advice and you might win an all-expenses paid vacation to LA.

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome guys! @wulfmoon @storysinger 

Thank you! @gayatric I wrote fantasy, it is by far my favourite genre. And yes, I'd love to exchange notes. I'm not on facebook but you can message me here and we can connect over email. 

Hello all.
My Name is Sam Hallion, actor and V/O artist from the UK. I started taking writing more seriously after watching an interview with Orson Scott Card. Naturally that led me here, and who wouldn't take advantage of such great resources? I have a free substack -- just for my own amusement really -- over at monstermouse.substack.com where I've put up my novelette 'Cold Cubes' (a touch explicit for WOTF and too long for most short fiction markets) alongside a few other scuttlebutt morsels. Hope you're all having a stress-free run up to christmas.
Sam x 

@shallion1191 Happy to have you with us, Sam! We’ve already gotten acquainted here, but thanks for officially introducing yourself to the Forum!

Welcome aboard!

Wulf Moon 

Forum Moderator

Hello fellow writers!

My name is Christopher Brown and Q4/Volume 38 was my first submission. I'm excited to get this ball rolling and I look forward to talking to you guys. I'm a 17-year Air Force veteran (still serving in the Air National Guard) and I live in southern Alabama. I've been writing short fiction off and on for a number of years, with a few pieces published in small markets, but I've just recently started to really buckle down.

Nice to meet you all and good luck!

@didrik Welcome to the forum! WotF sounds like a great place to explore and spread some of that medieval history knowledge. Congratulations on the HMs and the progress on writing fiction in a second language.

Posted by: @shallion1191

Hello all.
My Name is Sam Hallion, actor and V/O artist from the UK. I started taking writing more seriously after watching an interview with Orson Scott Card. Naturally that led me here, and who wouldn't take advantage of such great resources? I have a free substack -- just for my own amusement really -- over at monstermouse.substack.com where I've put up my novelette 'Cold Cubes' (a touch explicit for WOTF and too long for most short fiction markets) alongside a few other scuttlebutt morsels. Hope you're all having a stress-free run up to christmas.
Sam x 

@shallion1191 Hello and welcome! And congratulations on the Silvers

I've always been really interested in VO work. How do you break into that kind of thing? And are you looking to record audiobooks?

Posted by: @broca74

Hello fellow writers!

My name is Christopher Brown and Q4/Volume 38 was my first submission. I'm excited to get this ball rolling and I look forward to talking to you guys. I'm a 17-year Air Force veteran (still serving in the Air National Guard) and I live in southern Alabama. I've been writing short fiction off and on for a number of years, with a few pieces published in small markets, but I've just recently started to really buckle down.

Nice to meet you all and good luck!

Hello Christopher Brown! Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the previous publications.

What genre(s) do you usually write?

If you're into writing or reading fiction with military or Air Force tie ins, you might want to check out Chris Kennedy Publishing, which is best known for military scifi from former military authors and appears at a lot of conventions in the south east. (I say this as one of the civilians in that group who works for the government in the form of public education.)

Best of luck on future WotF submissions!

@mikejackstoumbos 
Hey Mike, thanks for the welcome. First thing to do if you're interested in V/O work is to put a high quality voice-reel together. Find a company that does reels, preferably one that gives you tips on what material sits best in your voice (not the sort of thing to compile at home unless you have an incredible setup). When it's finished and edited, submit it to V/O agents.

www.damngoodvoices.com/Talents/Sam-Hallion

^^^Here's mine for reference. A few genres with a few accents, but nothing too crazy.

In terms of recording, I'm always up for anything.
Hope that helps a bit.

Sam x
   

Posted by: @mikejackstoumbos

Posted by: @broca74

Hello fellow writers!

My name is Christopher Brown and Q4/Volume 38 was my first submission. I'm excited to get this ball rolling and I look forward to talking to you guys. I'm a 17-year Air Force veteran (still serving in the Air National Guard) and I live in southern Alabama. I've been writing short fiction off and on for a number of years, with a few pieces published in small markets, but I've just recently started to really buckle down.

Nice to meet you all and good luck!

Hello Christopher Brown! Welcome to the forum and congratulations on the previous publications.

What genre(s) do you usually write?

If you're into writing or reading fiction with military or Air Force tie ins, you might want to check out Chris Kennedy Publishing, which is best known for military scifi from former military authors and appears at a lot of conventions in the south east. (I say this as one of the civilians in that group who works for the government in the form of public education.)

Best of luck on future WotF submissions!

 

Hey Mike!

I typically write fantasy, science fiction and horror, though most of it seems to come out with a mild Hitchcockian flare whether I want it to or not. I'll definitely check out Chris Kennedy Publishing. Thanks for the tip!

Posted by: @broca74

Hello fellow writers!

My name is Christopher Brown and Q4/Volume 38 was my first submission. I'm excited to get this ball rolling and I look forward to talking to you guys. I'm a 17-year Air Force veteran (still serving in the Air National Guard) and I live in southern Alabama. I've been writing short fiction off and on for a number of years, with a few pieces published in small markets, but I've just recently started to really buckle down.

Nice to meet you all and good luck!

Welcome, Christopher Brown!

We're glad to have you with us! I'm guessing with your background you write military SF. What do you do in the Air Force? And how's that transfer to Space Force coming?

You know the drill. Take the WotF Online Writing Course. Learn from the masters on how to craft a working story. Post to the quarter topic you are entering, and cheer on your fellow cadets. We look forward to having you in our ranks.

Welcome aboard!

Wulf Moon

Forum Moderator

@virajpuri hey good job not being on FB. its a trap!. My email is [email protected]. 

I am more into gentle pop scifi stories myself. Love o write about time dilation, folding realities, ai and parallel universes

Wow, so many new members, and from so many places around the world! Welcome @cider, @virajpuri , @gayatric, @didrik, @shallion1191, @broca74! Glad to see everyone jumping in. This is a great place to learn and practice your writing craft. 

Dig through the forum and you will find a lot of great content with hints and tips to improve your writing. I highly recommend reading through Wulf Moon’s Super Secrets thread. The tips and exercises in there changed my writing completely. 

Welcome to the forum!

Hello Christopher Brown. I live close to Pensacola in Northwest Florida, we're practically neighbors.

Best wishes for your writing success.

(@mikejackstoumbos) If you're into writing or reading fiction with military or Air Force tie ins, you might want to check out Chris Kennedy Publishing, which is best known for military scifi from former military authors and appears at a lot of conventions in the southeast.

Thanks for providing another resource Mike. As a veteran I'll be getting to know CKP.

Posted by: @wulfmoon

Posted by: @broca74

Hello fellow writers!

My name is Christopher Brown and Q4/Volume 38 was my first submission. I'm excited to get this ball rolling and I look forward to talking to you guys. I'm a 17-year Air Force veteran (still serving in the Air National Guard) and I live in southern Alabama. I've been writing short fiction off and on for a number of years, with a few pieces published in small markets, but I've just recently started to really buckle down.

Nice to meet you all and good luck!

Welcome, Christopher Brown!

We're glad to have you with us! I'm guessing with your background you write military SF. What do you do in the Air Force? And how's that transfer to Space Force coming?

You know the drill. Take the WotF Online Writing Course. Learn from the masters on how to craft a working story. Post to the quarter topic you are entering, and cheer on your fellow cadets. We look forward to having you in our ranks.

Welcome aboard!

Wulf Moon

Forum Moderator

Thanks, Wulf Moon. Very happy to be here. I haven't dabbled too much into military sci fi yet, but I've been thinking about dipping my toe into those waters. With my background it would probably make sense. I specialize in expeditionary communications for the Air Force. Basically, I provide our troops with various types of comms when they're in austere environments.

Posted by: @storysinger

Hello Christopher Brown. I live close to Pensacola in Northwest Florida, we're practically neighbors.

Best wishes for your writing success.

Nice to meet you, Storysinger! I live in the eastern part of south Alabama - AKA East LA (eastern lower Alabama). But still, we're pretty close to the same neck of the woods. Best of luck to you!

Posted by: @broca74

Thanks, Wulf Moon. Very happy to be here. I haven't dabbled too much into military sci fi yet, but I've been thinking about dipping my toe into those waters. With my background it would probably make sense. I specialize in expeditionary communications for the Air Force. Basically, I provide our troops with various types of comms when they're in austere environments.

Oh, you can definitely come up with something SF with military comms. Just think about one of those 'no $#!%, there I was' stories that military members love telling and you'll have a good start to a short story. I've done logistics for the Army for 20 years, and while I haven't had any success with military SF yet, I find that my world building is much more rich with military SF since I know the culture I'm writing about.

Hello, and thank you for this venue.

My name is Brad, and I live in Oregon. I have a couple of degrees in chemistry, so naturally I’m writing mostly fantasy. I do have half an attempt at a sci-fi story down. I thought it was a great idea, but it’s shaping up as a lousy story. I think I hit that elusive balance where the layperson will think it’s worrying too much about the technical details and the technical person will think that it’s getting those details all wrong. Also, it’s boring in its own right.

My first entry to this contest was in… 2004. Wow. I’m not sure how I found out about WotF, but with a naïve idea that anything semi-literate would be competitive, I submitted some drek about a panphobic vampire who volunteered at a blood bank. Mercifully, that story no longer exists in any form.

I got my rejection, had a few uncharitable thoughts about the judges, and went back to school. Alas, if only I had kept writing at that point… Oh well; something about the best time to plant a tree comes to mind.

I renewed my interesting in writing in the last few years. I self-published a silly novel (not sci-fi or fantasy) on Amazon, to great (if perhaps slightly sarcastic) acclaim by the two coworkers who read it. Someone gifted me volume 33 of the contest, and I started reading it earlier this year. My initial reaction was oh, that’s why I didn’t win. As I progressed through the anthology though, I also had multiple I can do better than this moments. No offense to those writers.

And so, I crafted a magnificent comedic novella, taking the word limit as a target. The main character showed up on page 5, he embarked on his quest in chapter five. As an extra bonus, I forgot to double space it, among other formatting sins. I fired it off to the Q3 competition.

After waiting for a while for the news of my victory to come in, I thought maybe I would pass the time by learning a little about the contest. I found this forum and poked around. I was reluctant to read the advice bits – some combination of hubris and fear of overconforming. Ultimately, I did take a look at some of the Super Secrets, and I realized that not only was my masterpiece not going to win, it wasn’t even going to get read. Honestly, I’m still pretty pleased with it, which is mostly why I’m here now: a clear lack of critical distance.

I accepted that it was going to get rejected. I did not expect the even lower tier – no response – but in some ways it’s nice to avoid the bite – even when expected – of the actual moment of rejection. I pounded out my Q4 in an afternoon; a cheap, saccharine attempt at a tearjerker, heavy on emotional notes but light on conflict and substance. That got me an honorable mention, which I would have expected to be disappointing, but it actually felt pretty good. Probably because the email opens with “Congratulations!”

I harbor doubts that I will ever write something better than what I have for the upcoming Q1 submission. Granted, I had similar feelings about the previous two. Given that my starts at Q2 are a fistful of half ideas and scattered pages after the easy flow of the first three entries, perhaps I should give that feeling more weight this time. I have not solicited feedback on my earlier attempts due to a toxic admixture of pride (I don’t need anybody’s help!) and humility (who would want to read this mediocre crap I just made up? Perhaps cowardice would be a better word) that I suspect is not terribly uncommon.

I fear that I need some outside perspective if I want to improve on what I have, so I’m here with the primary goal of taking advantage of the critique swap, hoping that someone might be willing to exchange with a true amateur.

@bzelger Welcome to the Forum, Saint Rupert (Brad)!

That's quite an introduction! A lot of emotional roller coaster in there as well, the ups and downs of writing that we all have experienced. I'm sorry you didn't get a response to that one entry, and I'm sure you know there's not a "Not Even a Rejection Level" in the Contest. Errors happen, and they're not always the Contest's fault, as everyone just experienced in Q3. If your entry was in that period, I apologize. Many are still waiting for their email response. Q3 had to be done by hand. The fastest way to verify your result is to check the official posting on the WotF Blog for Q3. Otherwise, you can wait like everyone else to see if the email comes. If it's from another quarter, you can write to the Contest, but if you're not on the official results post, you already know the result. I'm glad to hear you're already moving on. 

The entries do get read. How far they get read is really up to you. As is the case in any market you submit to. It doesn't mean you can't write, but it can mean you have more to learn before what you write is at a level it could be published at. I encourage you to take the Writers of the Future Online Writing Course. The instructors of the WotF workshop explain what they expect in a well-crafted story. They're telling you what they look for. It's good advice. They are, after all, bestselling authors that have a good handle on what they're doing. They've been to the top of the mountain. They're using their knowledge and experience to show aspiring writers the way. 

Do take advantage of the critique swap folder. Many here have scored highly in the Contest, have won it, and/or have been published in respectable magazines and anthologies. They too can show you the way.

Keep climbing.

Welcome aboard!

Wulf Moon
Forum Moderator

Thanks. To be clear – since it seems like perhaps I wasn't (not an auspicious omen for my authorial career!) – I was not trying to make digs at anyone other than myself. I know my Q3 was a reject, I know why it was a reject (or at least, the top reasons). I ended up with a story that I like, and I learned quite a bit; I'm happy with that result. Wasn't complaining, just attempting to add some color to my narrative.

Hello!

I've been lurking for a while, but I decided it was time to join in the conversation. I've been a SF/fantasy fan since my kindergarten teacher read us The Magician's Nephew and Ozma of Oz. I started writing as a teen and I have always written SOMETHING but especially SF removed link   

I'm a Viable Paradise alumna and at the time I attended, I wrote mostly novels. I recently put novels on the back burner to write short stories and flash fiction. I took the WoTF course online and really enjoyed it. My WoTF results so far are HM, SHM, R, HM. That last HM this quarter meant SO much. Since I started submitting to short fiction markets, the R's have been plentiful. Many thanks to the contest judges and staff for that bit of encouragement, and all that you do.

I'm on Critters and am happy to crit something there or here. Just message me.

Enough about me. I really admire the people who inhabit this forum. Not only are you super talented and hard-working, your kindness and encouragement is exceptional. You don't see that very often.

Looking forward to chatting with all of you.

Glad you decided to join the forum (@sandy). Welcome.

Welcome, @sandy!