A lot of this has been said before in other interviews but the Amazon comment was new to me
Just posting in case anyone else finds this interesting
"...your motivations for wanting to write are probably complex. You may have a few great passions, you may want to be rich and famous, and you may need therapy."
- Dave Farland, Million Dollar Outlines
Writers of the Future:
2026 Q1: TBD Q2: TBD Q3: TBD Q4: TBD
2025 Q1: HM Q2: SHM Q3: HM Q4: P
2024 Q1: F Q2: HM Q3:SHM Q4: SHM
2023 Q1: RWC Q2: SHM Q3: SHM Q4: R
2022 Q4: R
Submissions to other markets:
2025: 163 submitted 10 acceptances
2024: 53 submitted 8 acceptances
2023: 74 submitted 13 acceptances
2022: 22 submitted 1 acceptance
2025 goals: a. New Novel b. New piece submitted/month c. 100 rejections
A lot of this has been said before in other interviews but the Amazon comment was new to me
Just posting in case anyone else finds this interesting
I feel like this comment sums up perfectly my ability to write short for this contest:
"Yet Sanderson’s books, while not exactly concise – he rarely uses a sentence when a paragraph will do, and Wind and Truth stretches over 1,300 pages ..."
"There are three rules to writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
— W. Somerset Maugham
Drop me a line at https://morganbroadhead.com
SFx1
HMx6
R/RWCx6
A lot of this has been said before in other interviews but the Amazon comment was new to me
Just posting in case anyone else finds this interesting
I feel like this comment sums up perfectly my ability to write short for this contest:
"Yet Sanderson’s books, while not exactly concise – he rarely uses a sentence when a paragraph will do, and Wind and Truth stretches over 1,300 pages ..."
Though interestingly, this competition is probably the one venue where you don't have to write short. The 17,000 word limit is pretty generous and they seem to make little differentiation in terms of length, just good is good.
"...your motivations for wanting to write are probably complex. You may have a few great passions, you may want to be rich and famous, and you may need therapy."
- Dave Farland, Million Dollar Outlines
Writers of the Future:
2026 Q1: TBD Q2: TBD Q3: TBD Q4: TBD
2025 Q1: HM Q2: SHM Q3: HM Q4: P
2024 Q1: F Q2: HM Q3:SHM Q4: SHM
2023 Q1: RWC Q2: SHM Q3: SHM Q4: R
2022 Q4: R
Submissions to other markets:
2025: 163 submitted 10 acceptances
2024: 53 submitted 8 acceptances
2023: 74 submitted 13 acceptances
2022: 22 submitted 1 acceptance
2025 goals: a. New Novel b. New piece submitted/month c. 100 rejections
A lot of this has been said before in other interviews but the Amazon comment was new to me
Just posting in case anyone else finds this interesting
I feel like this comment sums up perfectly my ability to write short for this contest:
"Yet Sanderson’s books, while not exactly concise – he rarely uses a sentence when a paragraph will do, and Wind and Truth stretches over 1,300 pages ..."
Though interestingly, this competition is probably the one venue where you don't have to write short. The 17,000 word limit is pretty generous and they seem to make little differentiation in terms of length, just good is good.
While, yes, I agree that the 17K word limit is truly generous, good luck selling that chonker anywhere else in the markets. When I inevitably receive my non-winning contest results, I pretty much have to shove that bad boy in a drawer somewhere, because it's WAY too big for anyone else to want it!
"There are three rules to writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
— W. Somerset Maugham
Drop me a line at https://morganbroadhead.com
SFx1
HMx6
R/RWCx6
@gideonpsmith 17K is a lot of words. I thought about writing a 3 part short-story series of roughly 3-5K each for WotF.
Writers of the Future:
2026 V43: In Process, -, -, -
2025 V42: RWC, HM (HM Resubmit), HM, Submitted
2024 V41: RWC (HM Resubmit), HM, RWC, Finalist (RWC Resubmit)
2023 V40: HM, HM, R, HM
2022 V39: SHM, HM, Semi-finalist, HM (HM Resubmit)
2021 V38: -, -, -, HM (R Resubmit)
2020 V37: -, R, -, -
Other Achievements:
2025 SWA: Crime Fiction Contest - 1st Place, The Lighthouse Prompt - 3rd Place
Todd S Jones
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right."~ Henry Ford
