Discussion: Q2 Volume 40

Congratulations, @ease! Third place is my favorite place. See you in Hollywood!

congratulations @ease  

Wonderful news! I can't wait to read your winning story  

congratulations @kent on your second finalist!

Congratulations James on winning.  

You are writing top caliber stories Kent, keep it up and you'll reach the stage in Hollywood.

Congratulations, @kent! 

Congrats, @kent! You're clearly pounding & kicking on that door w/ top-notch stories!

Congrats on making finalist, @kent!

Congrats on being a finalist @kent!!! That is seriously awesome.  

Congrats @Kent 2xFinalist.  

2x finalist is a big deal! Congrats, Kent! Hoping the next will be a big win for you. Congrats also to Ease!!

@jason I didn't get an email about my result - discovered via the blog (another SHM) - is there a bug in the system?

@ease I was under the impression that if you make finalist you're not allowed to publicise the fact?

Or was I wrong here? Did Joni give you permission to do that?

My thoughts on rewriting an SHM.

I've got (checks notes) 5 SHMs so far. The others were 2 RWCs and one HM which was a rewrite of an SHM. One of the RWCs was also an SHM rewrite. Interestingly, this spans the changeover to Jodi - David gave me an SHM for a very political parallel world story which then got rejected by Jodi (or possibly Kary). This tells me the end result is subjective.

In other words, all my submitted stories are professional quality, the only consideration is subjective - that's to say they are either 'not what this publication is looking for' (e.g. RWC - not PG13 or 'political' - if I was to elaborate on the political/geopolitical aspect of those stories it would reveal the author of certain submitted stories so I can't) or 'someone else wrote a story on the same theme and we chose their story because...' (I have unpublishable views on that particular option, btw - hence the RWC lol).

Therefore, in my not-so-humble opinion, one should not rewrite an SHM and resubmit to the competition. an SHM, by definition, is already not just 'good enough' it's a perfectly written story. It's simply that WoTF is not the right market for it. If you rewrite in order to fit that market then you are denigrating the original intention and soul of that story. Do not be misinformed into thinking that there was anything wrong with the story or with your quality of writing. If you get an SHM, that's a perfect story. No rewriting required. Send it elsewhere.

Mind you, I have a problem with the 'sending it elsewhere' thing - maybe my stories are simply too hard-hitting and telling and close to the human bone to be tolerable for humans. I've experienced straight rejections for my SHMs - and there you go with the subjective thing again.

I guess I'm trying to give people who get SHMs (and to a certain extent HMs - although you can always try a little rewriting of HMs and see what happens) some reassurance here - in my view, there is no difference in quality whatsoever between SHM, SF, finalist, and winners. It's entirely subjective.

I also guess that this is the reason why once I had enough story words for a collection I went ahead and (self-)published (see bio) - there was no reason for sending those stories to other publications because I'd get the same SHM-equivalent response.

I do think this is a serious consideration which a lot of people in this forum should think about - if you keep getting SHMs, I mean, then you need to understand you have perfected your art - and if you can't find a market for your SHM stories then the problem isn't you, it's the market. Meaning, the market doesn't cater for you. In which case, you self-publish. Even if only a dozen people ever buy it, or even if you offer it for free, at least it's out there.

And anything you put out there, well, that ends up in the galactic archive. Think about that, eh? In a billion years, someone might love it...

Lots of love,

EV

Here, in my humble opinion, is the shortest sci-fi story ever written (please note i have copywrite on this!). i can post this because flash fiction ain't never gonna win.

here we go:

Title: 'Sleeper ship monologue'

Text: It was June when I returned to the dead planet...

There, ten words. That would never win. it's a great opening, though. Which is why I've bagsied it. That goes for the title too, before you pesky lot get any ideas in your human heads. I know what you're like...

@eviekb Hi,

Joni asks that finalists refrain from sharing results until she has notified all eight finalists. This time around, I was notified on Monday, July 3 and she asked me to hold off for at least 48 hours. So, I waited until I saw results hit the forum. I left hints, but I'm not well enough known anymore that anyone would pay attention.

Concerning permission, it is the same apprehension an author should show for any story written for WotF and referenced on this or any open forum. If you lose your anonymity (If a judge can associate your name with your story), then you will be disqualified. There are finalists who have befriended current and past judges, and may have become known for certain attributes, so they shouldn't announce finalist status, here. And Joni cautions finalists against stating the title of their story.

Other than the above circumstances and cautions, authors have permission to post as a finalist. After all, it is one (two for me) of the most exciting things to happen to a rising author.

Study, read, exercise your craft muscles... and have fun.

Kent

BTW - I used to be known around here as kentagions, if anyone was wondering.

Posted by: @eviekb

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@jason I didn't get an email about my result - discovered via the blog (another SHM) - is there a bug in the system?

Congratulations on your SHM!!!!! 

I do highly recommend everyone to be on the mailing list here as that is where we send out the official monthly news and standings and that is a very solid system. https://writersofthefuture.com/newsletter/

We did send out auto notifications from the Zengine (WizeHive) submission system around the 5th of July. Possibly your email ended up in the spam folder or something if you want to look around the 5th of July for an email. (I saw a bunch of people posting right away on the forum so I do know they went out... I can fill out a ticket to verify yours did go.)

But again best to make sure to go to the above link and ensure you are subscribed to the newsletter is for sure a good safety. 

Again well done on your SHM!!!!!

Good luck with your next submission. 

Best, Jason 

Congrats @ease!! You'll have a ton of fun in Hollywood. And congrats to @Kent for becoming 2xfinalist. And three cheers for all who placed and all who submitted. You created something that did not exist before, a situation, a setting, characters, conversations, inner thoughts... As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The writer is an explorer. Every step is an advance into a new land." So let's keep exploring. Onto the next quarter!

Late to the congratulations party, but massive congratulations to @ease for the win, as well as our other two winners, be they absent or merely lurking in the shadows! And to @kent, nice work snaring that second Finalist--if you can do it twice, and under two judges, it's probably only a matter of time before you can grind that quality into a bright, golden win...

So, how are you feeling about your next quarter's entry? 

@doctorjest Thank you, and thank you again for the help on my first 450. And I see you got another HM in your string of placements, so congratulations to you.

My Q3 rips along like a hurricane, the MC fighting against himself every step of the way. So, it's pretty solid. Never can guess about placement, though; my Q1 received an RWC.

Have fun

Congrats whether you are winner, finalist, semi, shm, hm (like me), rwc or r. 

I can't believe I've been waiting two years to use this and then haven't remembered to do so until now... Forgive me, but:

Neat. I hope I get to see lots more of this emoji over the coming quarters. I'm pretty certain I will.

Posted by: @ease

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I can't believe I've been waiting two years to use this and then haven't remembered to do so until now... Forgive me, but:

Neat. I hope I get to see lots more of this emoji over the coming quarters. I'm pretty certain I will.

I was wondering when you were going to whip out that sign. Well done! and... congrats again.  

@physa haha, thank you. Definitely don't need another round of congrats, I just had to use that sign!

Posted by: @ease

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@physa haha, thank you. Definitely don't need another round of congrats, I just had to use that sign!

I'm also waiting for you to update your signature, ;). Change that P to 3rd place and send out the other stories to pro magazines. I imagine you all of a sudden have too much to do. 

I just received my certificate.  This is the quickest turnaround ever for me.

Posted by: @chwalter

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I just received my certificate. 

Congrats on the HMs

Yay! Just got my first certificate in the mail, having dragged my writing level out of the rejections ? 

Got my HM cert yesterday. Wow, that was fast. Great job WotF.

Now I need to turn some of my HMs into SHM, SF, or ...  

@chwalter  I received my HM certificate yesterday. It is framed and hanging already.