Discussion: Q1 Volume 38

@wulfmoon Thanks Wulf! I'll see about sending it to an editor. It's already at BCS, though they give personal rejections.

And (@henckel) congratulations! Hitting so close to the bullseye twice in a row is amazing. It's only a matter of time...

Also, question: Is it taboo to talk about finalists? Anyone know when the judging will be finished?

I started writing in January 2017. The first community of writers I found was this forum, and I’ll never stop being grateful for that little piece of serendipity. I’ve made lifelong friends, found mentorship and support, and grown as a writer and a human being because of the people I met right here. 

Writing is a weird journey. It’s intensely personal, yet public. It’s largely subjective, but based in precedent and skill and study. It’s just putting words down, but it’s also incredibly hard. Some days you’re sure you can’t and some days you’re sure you will. 

Well, today is one of those latter days for me because after four years, 700k words, and more tears than I’d like to admit, I get to post this sign:

I could not, would not, have made this journey alone. To everyone who supported me and believed in me, especially when I didn’t believe in myself, thank you. All I ever wanted was a finalist - that was in my control. What happens with the judges and the results is not - but by God, I did it!

Posted by: @rschibler

I started writing in January 2017. The first community of writers I found was this forum, and I’ll never stop being grateful for that little piece of serendipity. I’ve made lifelong friends, found mentorship and support, and grown as a writer and a human being because of the people I met right here. 

Writing is a weird journey. It’s intensely personal, yet public. It’s largely subjective, but based in precedent and skill and study. It’s just putting words down, but it’s also incredibly hard. Some days you’re sure you can’t and some days you’re sure you will. 

Well, today is one of those latter days for me because after four years, 700k words, and more tears than I’d like to admit, I get to post this sign:

I could not, would not, have made this journey alone. To everyone who supported me and believed in me, especially when I didn’t believe in myself, thank you. All I ever wanted was a finalist - that was in my control. What happens with the judges and the results is not - but by God, I did it!

YES! GO BECKY!

Fingers crossed that you'll win, but regardless of how everything turns out, you made finalist and that's freakin' awesome!

I've also been quiet, as I wasn't sure if we were doing the wait-until after thing (I feel sure we did that once upon a time?), but:

And I'm super stoked! I struggled balancing life, work, and writing over the last few years, and the Writers of the Future and the community here has been the one anchor that's helped me to keep on trucking through it all. Totally stoked that we have a couple of Forumites in the mix for another quarter--fingers crossed for us both!

Posted by: @doctorjest

I've also been quiet, as I wasn't sure if we were doing the wait-until after thing (I feel sure we did that once upon a time?), but:

And I'm super stoked! I struggled balancing life, work, and writing over the last few years, and the Writers of the Future and the community here has been the one anchor that's helped me to keep on trucking through it all. Totally stoked that we have a couple of Forumites in the mix for another quarter--fingers crossed for us both!

AAAH! That's so exciting! Congratulations!!

I asked Joni if I could post and she said just to keep the story title/content quiet since it's still being judged, but that I was good to say I was a finalist. GO FORUMITES!

Posted by: @rschibler

I started writing in January 2017. The first community of writers I found was this forum, and I’ll never stop being grateful for that little piece of serendipity. I’ve made lifelong friends, found mentorship and support, and grown as a writer and a human being because of the people I met right here. 

Writing is a weird journey. It’s intensely personal, yet public. It’s largely subjective, but based in precedent and skill and study. It’s just putting words down, but it’s also incredibly hard. Some days you’re sure you can’t and some days you’re sure you will. 

Well, today is one of those latter days for me because after four years, 700k words, and more tears than I’d like to admit, I get to post this sign:

I could not, would not, have made this journey alone. To everyone who supported me and believed in me, especially when I didn’t believe in myself, thank you. All I ever wanted was a finalist - that was in my control. What happens with the judges and the results is not - but by God, I did it!

So happy for you Becky!! Congrats!!!

HM here - also big congrats to all the SHMs (go Liz!) and everyone else who entered

Hello everyone. First, congratulations to everyone, finalists, semi-finalists, SHMs and HMs! You all rock! Fingers crossed for the finalists?

So, I got another rejection this time. But something ridiculous happened to me today when I read my submission over again. I used Google Docs to write my story, and then converted it to Word on my computer before submitting it to WOTF. And - I didn’t know about this until today, but when I redownloaded my file on my computer, Microsoft Word cut the final words in each sentence into...halves. Without knowing what I had done, I went along and submitted the story, full of cut words, to wotf. And I didn’t know that I'd been doing it wrong all along... until today. Ouch. I seem to have discovered one of the reasons my stories kept getting rejected.

Lucky I uploaded my story in a rft. file on V38 Q2. (I was curious what an rft file was then, and I decided to give it a try)

Posted by: @hermionelee

Hello everyone. First, congratulations to everyone, finalists, semi-finalists, SHMs and HMs! You all rock! Fingers crossed for the finalists?

So, I got another rejection this time. But something ridiculous happened to me today when I read my submission over again. I used Google Docs to write my story, and then converted it to Word on my computer before submitting it to WOTF. And - I didn’t know about this until today, but when I redownloaded my file on my computer, Microsoft Word cut the final words in each sentence into...halves. Without knowing what I had done, I went along and submitted the story, full of cut words, to wotf. And I didn’t know that I'd been doing it wrong all along... until today. Ouch. I seem to have discovered one of the reasons my stories kept getting rejected.

Lucky I uploaded my story in a rft. file on V38 Q2. (I was curious what an rft file was then, and I decided to give it a try)

Well, yikes--that definitely doesn't sound like a helpful editing feature...  

Posted by: @rschibler

Posted by: @doctorjest

I've also been quiet, as I wasn't sure if we were doing the wait-until after thing (I feel sure we did that once upon a time?), but:

And I'm super stoked! I struggled balancing life, work, and writing over the last few years, and the Writers of the Future and the community here has been the one anchor that's helped me to keep on trucking through it all. Totally stoked that we have a couple of Forumites in the mix for another quarter--fingers crossed for us both!

AAAH! That's so exciting! Congratulations!!

 

I asked Joni if I could post and she said just to keep the story title/content quiet since it's still being judged, but that I was good to say I was a finalist. GO FORUMITES!

 

Likewise! And then after I was thinking I should post it, and then that I shouldn't, and then, and then...

Safe to say I probably overthought it, anyway.

Posted by: @hermionelee

I used Google Docs to write my story, and then converted it to Word on my computer before submitting it to WOTF.

So, were you downloading straight from google docs? As in, you clicked on File, hovered the cursor over Download, and selected Microsoft Word?

Posted by: @doctorjest

Posted by: @hermionelee

Hello everyone. First, congratulations to everyone, finalists, semi-finalists, SHMs and HMs! You all rock! Fingers crossed for the finalists?

So, I got another rejection this time. But something ridiculous happened to me today when I read my submission over again. I used Google Docs to write my story, and then converted it to Word on my computer before submitting it to WOTF. And - I didn’t know about this until today, but when I redownloaded my file on my computer, Microsoft Word cut the final words in each sentence into...halves. Without knowing what I had done, I went along and submitted the story, full of cut words, to wotf. And I didn’t know that I'd been doing it wrong all along... until today. Ouch. I seem to have discovered one of the reasons my stories kept getting rejected.

Lucky I uploaded my story in a rft. file on V38 Q2. (I was curious what an rft file was then, and I decided to give it a try)

Well, yikes--that definitely doesn't sound like a helpful editing feature...  

You can definitely say that again! I'm glad to say that I’ve learned my lesson. I posted it up here as a cautionary tale, hoping that my tragedy won't repeat  

@babooher

yes, that was exactly what I did. To be precise, I wrote in the Google Docs in my iPad, saved it, then opened Google docs on my computer, selected "save as word docx.", put it on my desktop, and....uploaded it to wotf  

@hermionelee I'm not sure how I'd handle that. Probably poorly. Thank you for the word of caution.

Posted by: @rschibler

Well, today is one of those latter days for me because after four years, 700k words, and more tears than I’d like to admit, I get to post this sign:

Yeaaaah!!!!! You've made it!

Posted by: @doctorjest

I've also been quiet, as I wasn't sure if we were doing the wait-until after thing (I feel sure we did that once upon a time?), but:

Yeaaaaah!!!!!!! Go all the way, Dr.!! 

May the tribunal be with you both! 

@babooher your emoji says it all lol  

 I actually had a good laugh over my stupidity and the absurdity of the whole incident   at least I've learnt my lessons and won’t let this happen again ...

Posted by: @doctorjest

I've also been quiet, as I wasn't sure if we were doing the wait-until after thing (I feel sure we did that once upon a time?), but:

And I'm super stoked! I struggled balancing life, work, and writing over the last few years, and the Writers of the Future and the community here has been the one anchor that's helped me to keep on trucking through it all. Totally stoked that we have a couple of Forumites in the mix for another quarter--fingers crossed for us both!

HOLY CRAP, THAT'S AWESOME!

Congratulations, @rschibler and @doctorjest!! I'm thrilled for you two. How long does it usually take for finalists to be judged? I'd imagine the twitching has only gotten worse.  

Posted by: @penmark

Congratulations, @rschibler and @doctorjest!! I'm thrilled for you two. How long does it usually take for finalists to be judged? I'd imagine the twitching has only gotten worse.  

Thanks! And geez, you're not kidding about the twitching--it's done a total number on my ability to concentrate on anything useful! 

Huge congrats to you both, @rschibler and @doctorjest !!!

I've been lurking here since I submitted my very first short story in Q1, and I am thrilled with the result.  Congrats to everyone who scored a certificate, especially our finalists.  The sheer numbers involved in reaching that level are mind-boggling.

Posted by: @wulfmoon

Posted by: @time

Humbug - another HM for me. I'm pretty well stuck at that level. But then this entry was humorous which i tend to think is a bigger risk.

Congrats to everyone who got anywhere - and keep trying to all those who got 'R's.

Sorry, Tim. Editors always ask for humor, but buy so little of it. One man's funny bone is another man's chicken bone in his craw. Keep swinging. I tried all kinds of genres and story types until I dabbled in YA and it won. You never know what will connect with Dave, and then it has to connect with the other judges as well.

I thought I'd read that Dave was looking for more Sword and Saucy, and there's only so many codpiece story lines you can write.

Posted by: @rschibler

Posted by: @doctorjest

I've also been quiet, as I wasn't sure if we were doing the wait-until after thing (I feel sure we did that once upon a time?), but:

And I'm super stoked! I struggled balancing life, work, and writing over the last few years, and the Writers of the Future and the community here has been the one anchor that's helped me to keep on trucking through it all. Totally stoked that we have a couple of Forumites in the mix for another quarter--fingers crossed for us both!

AAAH! That's so exciting! Congratulations!!

 

I asked Joni if I could post and she said just to keep the story title/content quiet since it's still being judged, but that I was good to say I was a finalist. GO FORUMITES!

 

Well done Becky and DrJ - really pleased for you both,

Alright, so we can tell people now?

Hoping for a swift judging process, as I am absolutely not functioning right now...

And then there were three!

Huge congrats, Becky, Doc, and Valiant!

Now the real waiting begins.  

Posted by: @valiant

Alright, so we can tell people now?

 

Hoping for a swift judging process, as I am absolutely not functioning right now...

 

Whaaaaaaat?! This is awesome! 
Congrats!

Congratulations to the finalists! And to all those who’ve had their efforts recognized. 
You know what, congrats to those that are absorbing Rs as well. I’m jealous you’ve had your existence acknowledged and get to move on. I still haven’t heard and have moved from anger to bargaining and am nearing acceptance.

I tried not to be a complete grouch all weekend but ended up kicking the dirt a lot like the only kid in line not to get an ice cream cone.

We’re telling? We’re telling!!!

I’ve been entering this contest for 4 years now...3 rejections...6 honorable mentions... 2 silvers... 1 semi finalist... and now 4 finalists. Four. FOUR!!! I can hardly believe it. I’m incredibly happy and also sick with anxiety as this ride gives me whiplash. Hoping for a short wait. Thursday? Friday? What am I thinking. Everyday is Thursday! I may puke lol.

Congratulations Becky, DoctorJest, and Valiant! May we ride this roller coaster all the way to HoLlYwOoD!

And Congrats to all those that entered! This forum has had a fan-freakin-tactic showing!

Have a fabulous Monday!!!

^ I'll have what she's having.

Posted by: @valiant

Alright, so we can tell people now?

 

Hoping for a swift judging process, as I am absolutely not functioning right now...

 

 That's awesome, valiant! I'm so happy for you!