Discussion: Q1 Volume 39

The finalists (not winners) have been notified. Joni was working on getting the new DQ letters and RWC letters loaded and tested when I spoke with her earlier today.

I can't promise that results will start today, but they're imminent.

It's been a rough quarter, everyone. We thank you for your patience.   

@karyenglish I am looking forward to cheering on the finalists. 

Breaking out popcorn

Fingers crossed for anyone (there must surely be someone?) who made the cut from our august company!

I'm curious - anyone else who uses submission grinder - if you get a rejection with comments would you mark that as a personal or a form. It seems like it still falls into the form category in one way but maybe not? Just planning ahead in case I get that.

Posted by: @czing

I'm curious - anyone else who uses submission grinder - if you get a rejection with comments would you mark that as a personal or a form. It seems like it still falls into the form category in one way but maybe not? Just planning ahead in case I get that.

I think because the comments aren't so specific and are for stories that are HM/R boundary they'd be form rather than personal. 

Posted by: @czing

I'm curious - anyone else who uses submission grinder - if you get a rejection with comments would you mark that as a personal or a form. It seems like it still falls into the form category in one way but maybe not? Just planning ahead in case I get that.

I would say form. 

Posted by: @angelslayah

sorry, folks, but i duuno what’s going on; aren’t we thinking the winners have all been notified? heck, my Q1 is already turned around to two different markets! what’s with the twitchin? something I’m not gettin….

Not the winners, as far as I can tell--just the finalists. But people still like to get a feel for how their story did (hence the twitching).  

Posted by: @disgruntledpeony

Posted by: @angelslayah

sorry, folks, but i duuno what’s going on; aren’t we thinking the winners have all been notified? heck, my Q1 is already turned around to two different markets! what’s with the twitchin? something I’m not gettin….

Not the winners, as far as I can tell--just the finalists. But people still like to get a feel for how their story did (hence the twitching).  

Plus, we twitch in the sheer anticipation of seeing our friends show up in this thread, and proclaim themselves Finalists! When we don't make the cut ourselves, the next best thing is to see folks from the Forum getting into the mix, and to cheer them on.

But it's great that @karyenglish has given us the go-ahead to know that we can do things with the stories we had in for Q1! So I'm going to be tinkering with my non-finalist Q1 today to try and see if I can shape it up for a new home. It's nice to be in that place while I'm waiting to see where it placed--and to see if I can maybe get a number dropped into one of my zero slots...

I love to watch who gets what. Its my favorite part of competition. Also, I want to see where I placed. 

@czing Totally up to you.

You might consider getting an envelope in the mail containing a a certificate signed by the coordinating judge with your story name listed on it as personal. I choose to.

Posted by: @axeminister

@czing Totally up to you.

You might consider getting an envelope in the mail containing a a certificate signed by the coordinating judge with your story name listed on it as personal. I choose to.

I've been putting all my Rs, HMs, and SHMs as form rejections. I think at first I had one or two of the HMs as personals but then changed them. Think I'll probably end up going with form if I get one of these new RWCs (plus I always ask for no certificate )

Posted by: @axeminister

You might consider getting an envelope in the mail containing a a certificate signed by the coordinating judge with your story name listed on it as personal. I choose to.

I'm pretty sure the Grinder is referring to "Personal" those cases where the editor actually gives you some guidance and help related to your story, rather than using a stock form. The WotF certificates, for me, are simply another type of stock form. The only "personal" aspect of it is knowing that my HM-or-better story ranked in the top 15%, but that doesn't do much to help me know why.

Of course, I've also gotten some short "personal" notes from mag editors that weren't much help, too. Like one that said "The ending was too much on-the-nose."

Posted by: @ehonour

Like one that said "The ending was too much on-the-nose."

Hah. Whenever my husband says this about a story of mine he can't help but literally tap his nose. 

Curious to see if any results have been posted.

@scribblesatdusk

Check out September fawke's site. She has a post today on this exact topic. https://www.septembercfawkes.com/2022/05/theme-showing-telling.html?m=1

@empressed Really a great article! Thank you for linking it.

I did that for a while just so I could keep track of HM and above, but then I figured out you can make a note. I agree with everyone that it is a form rejection unless you get input on your story or if the reason given is non-generic. About the most generic thing I logged as personal was something like this: Our reader liked your story but we didn't think it was a good fit for our needs. Please submit again.

It sure is quiet in here. I can even hear my own thoughts echo off the walls. Not that I care to listen anymore; never an honest word from any of them. Thoughts are seldom sincere communicators. Once they told me I could fly. They laughed at me all the way down, only stopping just before I hit the ground . . . and woke up.

@dragonchef She stood on an empty road in the desert. The tumbleweeds rolled past her, reminding her of the cold reality that that even the plant were faster than her car. The  battery gauge always over estimated how far she could go. Now she’d have to get her car towed, but there was no one around. 

Posted by: @craydimensional

@dragonchef She stood on an empty road in the desert. The tumbleweeds rolled past her, reminding her of the cold reality that that even the plant were faster than her car. The  battery gauge always over estimated how far she could go. Now she’d have to get her car towed, but there was no one around. 

Then her mind turned to the body still locked in the trunk. It was only a matter or time before it started to smell.

@henckel

There was nothing for it. She’d have to call Jerome. Hopefully he still lived out here. God help her if he actually picked up.

He was the reason she’d left The Family.

She paused, finger hovering over the call button. It’d be safer to call the cops and confess.

Screw it. She hit the button.

@lost_bard How could she explain the old man dressed as a wizard appearing in front of her car. Fortunately, Jerome never asked many questions.

Re: personal v. form rejections:

If the subgrinder is asking us to evaluate the feedback, it’s pinning too much data on far too variable a response curve. 

I reckon anything not patently a form letter is “personal.”

If “your story made it past our first reading round” is followed by boilerplate, it’s still telling you something more than “we wish you luck placing it elsewhere” and should count, for data purposes, as “personal” - thus an HM would as well. 

Re: unhelpful personal replies

“The ending is too ‘on the nose’” counts as an exceptionally helpful in my books. I’ve been asked for rewrites with far less direction than this! 

To me the most useless “personal” rejections, rather, gush about -and quote favorite lines of- the story they’re not buying, without giving more reason for rejection than the form-style “it just wasn’t right for us.” To me these are actually hurtful, as I already know which lines, etc, are good.

If I’m left to ask, “Then why won’t you #&@!$ buy it?” they’ve done less than zero to help me improve it. 

I mean, I think I do know why, but is it a secret? 

@craydimensional Another tumbleweed rolled by, shedding dust and twigs as it passed. Damn, those things are big.

No sign of Jerome.

The trunk rattled. 

Posted by: @craydimensional

@lost_bard How could she explain the old man dressed as a wizard appearing in front of her car. Fortunately, Jerome never asked many questions.

Except one. 

“You interrupt my panel at WizCon for this, Eloise?” He scanned the empty desert, sour-mouthed, then turned hawkish dark eyes on her.

“It’s Elle. I’m not six anymore.” She reached under the dash to pop the trunk.

Posted by: @ceciblack

Posted by: @craydimensional

@lost_bard How could she explain the old man dressed as a wizard appearing in front of her car. Fortunately, Jerome never asked many questions.

Except one. 

“You interrupt my panel at WizCon for this, Eloise?” He scanned the empty desert, sour-mouthed, then turned hawkish dark eyes on her.

“It’s Elle. I’m not six anymore.” She reached under the dash to pop the trunk.

She couldn’t believe her eyes. There in the trunk was a gopher wearing the a coned shaped wizard hat. 

Jerome threw up his hands. “It’s just a gopher, and it’s not even road kill.”

Eloise scratch her forehead. “I don’t know where the gopher came from. I put a man in the trunk.

Another tumbleweed rolled by, shedding dust and twigs as it passed. Damn, those things are big.

The gopher waved its paws, and the tumbleweed changed into a large strawberry glazed donut.

Eloise stared at the gopher in disbelief.

@craydimensional 

Elle, spoke the voice in her head. Eat the gopher and its doughnut. Then fly to New Zealand.

Elle wondered exactly what kind of mushrooms were on that pizza she'd had for lunch.

When another tumbleweed crossed the road and smiled at her as it went by, she knew.

<i>

Posted by: @angelslayah

Re: personal v. form rejections:

If the subgrinder is asking us to evaluate the feedback, it’s pinning too much data on far too variable a response curve. 

I reckon anything not patently a form letter is “personal.”

If “your story made it past our first reading round” is followed by boilerplate, it’s still telling you something more than “we wish you luck placing it elsewhere” and should count, for data purposes, as “personal” - thus an HM would as well. 

Re: unhelpful personal replies

“The ending is too ‘on the nose’” counts as an exceptionally helpful in my books. I’ve been asked for rewrites with far less direction than this! 

To me the most useless “personal” rejections, rather, gush about -and quote favorite lines of- the story they’re not buying, without giving more reason for rejection than the form-style “it just wasn’t right for us.” To me these are actually hurtful, as I already know which lines, etc, are good.

If I’m left to ask, “Then why won’t you #&@!$ buy it?” they’ve done less than zero to help me improve it. 

I mean, I think I do know why, but is it a secret? 

 

Someone stated at a writing conference that the biggest lie in writing is when a rejection includes "This should easily find a home."

Posted by: @babooher

Someone stated at a writing conference that the biggest lie in writing is when a rejection includes "This should easily find a home."

That's what I thought with my SF entry. "Surely, if my story came this close to winning WOTF, it'll sell somewhere..."

Five pro rejections. Still searching for a home.

Posted by: @morgan-broadhead

Five pro rejections. Still searching for a home.

Five? Ha, you've hardly started