Introductions: Tell us about yourself, your volume, and your writing or illustrating journey. (And welcome to the new winners)

I'm Martin L. Shoemaker from V31 ("Unrefined"). I've been telling stories as long as I can remember, but I got discouraged by every rejection and gave up for years at a time. 13 years ago I became a little more determined, and I had my first Finalist 8 months later. I didn't win, but Jerry Pournelle loved my story and thought it should've won. That's when I gave up giving up.

I'm glad you gave up giving up ? 

I'm James Davies from V40 ("Ashes to Ashes, Blood to Carbonfiber"), or will be, once V40 is published!

Long story short: I also gave up a load, then gave up giving up.

Short story long:

I remember falling in love with creative writing around six years old, when I wrote some fan fiction (don't hate me, I was six!) about The Land Before Time Movie. I couldn't find the right word for the thicket of brambles the dinosaurs hid in, and neither my parents nor my teacher could/would help me. I got so frustrated with the roadblock that I decided I hate writing.

When I was ten I stumbled across my first ever fantasy novel, in a random bookstore in Kenya of all places. It was The Sum of All Men by the wonderful David Farland. Fortunately for me, the bookstore had the second book in the series, Brotherhood of the Wolf, for me to pick up the following day after I'd fallen in love with and devoured the first. David had me hooked!

Five years later I discovered David's The Runelords online forum, and ended up writing tens of thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of words of fan fiction, which had me well practised for when I had to do my first creative writing for school since 'the thicket incident.' It was for my General Certificate of Secondary Education and thus relatively important. I poured my soul into it, my teacher told me I was guaranteed an A+. It was meant to be a minimum of 1000 words. Most people handed in 1000. I handed in 16,000. And then, a few months later, I got my mark from the exam board: C.

Once more, I hated writing.

A few years after that, David Farland stepped back into my life with an email, mentioning his latest Runelords book and recommending a contest called Writers of the Future. I gave it a shot. Turned an R into an HM, but then I started applying for my engineering Chartership, which required writing technical mojo for hours most evenings. Fiction writing took the back seat, and then chasing promotions, having babies, and general life-stuff kept getting in the way.

Then a friend asked me to edit his fantasy novel. I did (the novel is so fun but he hasn't studied 'the craft' at all, so is possibly unsaleable) and it revived my love for writing. I wrote a load of terrible stories, joined the forum, and the wrote progressively less terrible stories as I studied the craft and discussed it with the fine people here. My trajectory was pretty consistent, albeit slow, until I started pen-paling with Dustin. Without saying a single unkind word, he managed to tell me 'hey, your foundation is all wrong, think about this, read this, stop doing this.' I did, then bam:

Hey all! Published finalist from Vol38. Finally getting settled after a crazy move and wanted to check out the forum - I miss it! 

Posted by: @rschibler

↑

Hey all! Published finalist from Vol38. Finally getting settled after a crazy move and wanted to check out the forum - I miss it! 

Hi Becky!

Did you hear me thank you up on the stage? Wouldn't have made it without your many critiques. Including for my winner. Which you probably critiqued a few times over the years. It was my magnum rewriteopus.

@tj_knight I did ? it was an honor to have so many of the winners say my name! I’m so glad I got to be a part of your journey to that stage.

Hey everyone!

I was scrolling through the forum today and was like, hang on, what's this thread that's appeared at the bottom?!

I'm Joel C. Scoberg, a winner from Vol 41 ("The Stench of Freedom"), and I am very much looking forward to my trip to Hollywood next year!

Perhaps continuing the theme of giving up on giving up, my story is similar. I remember writing or drawing stories as a young kid, folding bits of A4 paper so they looked like a book (mad to think my story will now feature in a book!). While I read voraciously, I didn't read fantasy until discovering The Hobbit on a caravan holiday as a teenager. From the opening line I sat, utterly mesmerised, and finished it in one sitting. That was me hooked on fantasy. Star Wars (original sequel) had a similar effect with sci-fi but in a movie sense rather than books. It was Dune that got me into reading sci-fi. Now I write mostly sci-fi short stories but my winning story is actually a fantasy.

Any dreams of being a writer I had were put on hold as I studied law at university then became a lawyer. The long hours, mental exhaustion, and lack of time were excuses to not pursue writing "properly". I had written and submitted one or two stories over a five year period, but I rarely made time for it. The dream kind of stagnated and became something I'd do when I retired or won the lottery. It was only when my daughter was born that I realised I could hardly tell her (and now my son) to pursue their dreams if I hadn’t done so myself. That was the trigger. So, since about mid-2020, I've been writing with renewed purpose.

I can't remember how I discovered WotF but I remember opening Vol. 35 (or maybe Vol. 36) and turning to the first story, which was by a writer from Wales in the UK (J.L. George, I believe), and I thought maybe this is a sign I should be entering this competition! My first submission was a SHM and that gave me a confidence boost after a series of form rejections. The forum has been invaluable, both in terms of critiques (and critiquing) and support. In fact,after a string of HMs I was a bit down because I thought those stories were some of my best and was considering giving up. My time is limited to write (two young kids and a demanding job) and most of my writing was for WotF, so I was thinking of changing focus. But @ease reached out and gave me advice and support and, two Quarters later, I got the call from Joni!

I'm still trying to process it, but I owe a massive thank you to James for helping me keep on going. That's the great thing about the forum. I hope to give back as much to others who may be suffering with doubt moving forward. It's clear from even the limited posts above how forumites help one another.

And @tj_knight, I believe you actually gave my winning story a 450word critique. The story just sat unfinished for a year. I had aimed to keep it to under 7k but couldn't do it. Then James did an analysis of recent winners and I saw a lot were plus 10k words so I just wrote the story until it was done (and it's my longest at around 14k) and submitted it. There were a lot of moments I could have given up, but didn't (mostly thanks to James!), and I am very glad I did not.

This is a very long and winding post, so I'll sign off with a "hello and thank you"

That's a great story, Joel! So glad you kept going. You will have such a great time in LA.

Will you be able to have your family with you for the gala?

14k! That's double. Whew. Well, whatever you added worked. Can't wait to read it!

Funny about the sci-fi and fantasy switch. I have mostly sci-fi for short stories. I think the high concept ideas one can create in sci-fi lends itself better to shorts. Then off I go and write a fantasy trilogy! (From memory, I believe only one of my 32 entries was fantasy. SHM (co-authored)).

41, man. 41. It's gonna be awesome.

Posted by: @joel-c-scoberg

↑

I was scrolling through the forum today and was like, hang on

Note to self: inform winning forum members of this secret section 😆 

I'm glad our chat/messaging helped motivate you! But you owe me no thanks; I likely would not have won without the critique you gave me of my winning piece (the first critique it got, I believe, and you totally fixed my opening line). This is WotF: propping each other up is what we do!

You may be bored of hearing it, but I'm not bored of saying it: congratulations, again!

Posted by: @tj_knight

↑

That's a great story, Joel! So glad you kept going. You will have such a great time in LA.

Will you be able to have your family with you for the gala?

Diolch yn fawr, Dustin! (Thank you very much in Welsh)

Ny wife will come out for the gala. We are thinking of maybe a road trip afterwards, she has always wanted to see the giant redwoods and Yosemite. Not sure about our kids yet. The flights are really expensive and, at 4 and 3 yo, not sure how they will fare during the gala. Also, thinking of my wife bringing them over on her own, the luggage, sorting out car seats for them (as @ease helpfully mentioned in a message to me) etc. etc. They may stay on this side of the pond.

Posted by: @tj_knight

↑

14k! That's double. Whew. Well, whatever you added worked. Can't wait to read it!

Funny about the sci-fi and fantasy switch. I have mostly sci-fi for short stories. I think the high concept ideas one can create in sci-fi lends itself better to shorts. Then off I go and write a fantasy trilogy! (From memory, I believe only one of my 32 entries was fantasy. SHM (co-authored)).

I mostly write sci-fi shorts too as I struggle to get the magic system, world, conflicted story to a low(ish) word count in fantasy; hence 14k for my entry  But saying that, I have now committed (mentally) to writing a sci fi novel ahead of Hollywood. I have the general direction from a short story I never quite finished for WotF, though I had some critiques on it from forumites over the years, including @rschibler. So, I've gone and thrown out my "rulebook" for writing sci fi shorts and fantasy longs. Hopefully the latter will be as successful as the former!

I'm awaiting feedback from Jody on my story, which I am looking forward to. I've not been through that editorial process before so I am excited (and nervous) about it, and to seeing my finished story.

Posted by: @tj_knight

↑

41, man. 41. It's gonna be awesome.

Posted by: @ease

↑

I'm glad our chat/messaging helped motivate you! But you owe me no thanks; I likely would not have won without the critique you gave me of my winning piece (the first critique it got, I believe, and you totally fixed my opening line). This is WotF: propping each other up is what we do!

I did not realise I was your first critique. I remember reading Vol 40, going straight to your story, and going, "oh yes, I remember this!" Both our journeys to victory (and Dustin to Rebecca above, and many many others) prove the value and general kick-assery of this forum. Pay it forward, pay it forward, pay it forward.

Posted by: @ease

↑

You may be bored of hearing it, but I'm not bored of saying it: congratulations, again!

And diolch yn fawr to you too! I will never tire of hearing it