Discussion: Q3 Volume 38

@folkloremipsum 

Congratulations! 

The HM list alone is pretty long. 

Posted by: @folkloremipsum

I am that lucky wife! And this wonderful man of mine dashed out to buy the whole family lunch the day I learned I'd made finalist, because I was WAY too excited to cook.

Who'd have thought that one of my proudest achievements would be earning an F? 

Great job, everyone! Fingers crossed all around for quarter 4!

Whoop Whoop. 

@jeschleicher is your wife a writer? 

Posted by: @corbin-maxwell

The HM list alone is pretty long. 

I did a count. There were just under 500 listed names, including winners, finalists, SHM, and HM. If WotF received "thousands" of entries, as Wulf has said, then this means even an HM puts you in close to the top 10-20% of entrants.

Posted by: @folkloremipsum

I am that lucky wife! And this wonderful man of mine dashed out to buy the whole family lunch the day I learned I'd made finalist, because I was WAY too excited to cook.

Who'd have thought that one of my proudest achievements would be earning an F? 

Great job, everyone! Fingers crossed all around for quarter 4!

Nicely done, Cara! Sounds like you have a great husband. Congratulations on both counts!

Posted by: @ehonour

Posted by: @corbin-maxwell

The HM list alone is pretty long. 

I did a count. There were just under 500 listed names, including winners, finalists, SHM, and HM. If WotF received "thousands" of entries, as Wulf has said, then this means even an HM puts you in close to the top 10-20% of entrants.

Yep. That's what I usually figure: HM and above represents the top 10% of quarterly entries. Those are the stories you're REALLY competing against.

Another HM for me. It was an edit of a previous HM, and I thought I might have done enough to level it up, so I'm disappointed. I'll be very happy with an HM for Q4 though!

Congrats to everyone who placed, WON ? and got an entry in. ? 

Congratulations all!

Great to see the forumites kicking rear-ends out there. Some VERY impressive smilies being hoisted.

It sounds like it's going to be an emotional couple of weeks with the double results, so steel thyselves everyone. You are awesome.

HM for me this quarter - off to markets and all that.

@nvhaskell Speaking of rejections I have gotten out of the habit of sendings stories to any place but WotF so my rejection count will be four if I send in a last one for 2021.

Congrats to all the winners. And those from here who received HMs and SHMs . 

I got another total rejection. Not surprising but disappointing. This is a habit. 

Congratulations to all the winners and everyone else who placed!!

Which I am chuffed with because I departed from the three act structure for a head-hopping POV-fest, and the humour element outweighed the speculative. .

Posted by: @henckel

Congratulations everyone!!!! 

You are SOOOO Close! Regularly getting great honors! And I've read your work. It is excellent! Your time is nigh, @henckel.  

Posted by: @nvhaskell

@rschibler thank you!  

So the proverbial feline has been out of the bag for a little while for some of you. I am excited and still a bit shocked that I'm a winner for the third quarter. 

I already had a market selected for this story to submit to but thankfully waited for the results. When Joni called me to tell me that I was a finalist I thought it was for my Q4 submission and was confused that it was this story. I honestly wasn't sure that this story, which was different than anything else I've ever written, would be a good fit for WOTF. But it only proves that sometimes it pays to take a gamble. 

When Joni called to tell me that I had won third place I was sitting in the workshop on imposter syndrome at Fyrecon. I didn't believe her. That is the truth. I was stunned, I still am.

But I am incredibly grateful for this forum, which has meant more to me than you guys know.

And, seriously, you all work your asses off and put your hearts into your stories. Congratulations to everyone who gets a certificate, but an equal congratulations to all of you who got an R and are hard at work at your next story. Your perseverance will pay off.

And just because I will never get to post this again...  

WooHoo!!! You Did It!!!   
Congrats!!!

Posted by: @ldwriter2

@nvhaskell Speaking of rejections I have gotten out of the habit of sendings stories to any place but WotF so my rejection count will be four if I send in a last one for 2021.

Me too, but I am trying to get out of that habit. Good Luck to you going forward!

@jvashley Thanks. First I need to send something to WotF this month. I have stories to send. Five or six I can choose from fo this one. Plus maybe 20 I could send to other markets. 

Posted by: @jvashley

Posted by: @henckel

Congratulations everyone!!!! 

You are SOOOO Close! Regularly getting great honors! And I've read your work. It is excellent! Your time is nigh, @henckel.  

Thank you ❤❤❤❤. My Q4 wont be a winner. But who knows ... maybe Q1 ?

Posted by: @corbin-maxwell

@jeschleicher is your wife a writer? 

nope, she's a voracious reader, so an invaluable first reader for my stuff.  

@ehonour yeah the HM list has been stated as being the top 15%. Which means some pretty solid writing I think. 

@laselby Not sure about reader demographics, but Writers of the Future aims for PG-13 or cleaner on their stories. I've seen comments before about the anthologies being given to schools, so I'd say write for an adult audience (tough choices, painful sacrifices, etc), but keep the sex, profanity, and violence to a minimum and only what genuinely progresses the story.

Reading through the anthologies, I've found some swearing, but no F-bombs. Sex tends to be merely referenced when it occurs (not often), though there are a couple of stories out there that surprised me - and the more explicit references were indeed necessary to the plot. Violence in the stories definitely happens, but it's not overly graphic. 

Hope that helps!

Posted by: @laselby

Is there a resource for the demographics for who purchases and or reads the anthologies? I’m looking for primary age and gender.

What David said, LA. 

Did emails get sent out or was there just the blog post? I still haven't actually gotten an email.

Whoo! Finally got a chance to catch up here. (I wanted to comment on Thursday, but this week has been abnormally busy in some very weird ways.) For the record, I'm very proud of everyone who entered, no matter what your individual results may have been. This has been a rough quarter, and everyone deserves kudos for putting in the effort and making that submission.

@rschibler Congratulations on your Finalist! Second one this year. I'm hella impressed.  

@scribblesatdusk Congratulations on your Finalist as well! (And it's not a fluke. Trust me.)  

@cs_hadebe I'm sorry about the R, but writing on is definitely a solid answer. Shoot me a PM at some point--I'd like to chat a bit and see if there's anything I can do to help out.

@wren That's a solid first showing! I get the mixed feelings, but I think being proud of yourself is a good outlook to have on the situation.

@storysinger Try not to get down on yourself--I understand the frustration, but I know you're putting in the effort. Shoot me a PM at some point and we'll talk about some things.

@chwalter Getting an R doesn't automatically mean this story is worse than your HM--it just means that it didn't work for Kary or Dave, and there are lots of potential reasons for that to have been the case. Shoot me a PM and we'll talk about things.

@dnorthmartino Congratulations on your Semi-Finalist! Don't forget to update your signature. 

@scott_m_sands I understand the frustration. PM me if you get the chance.

@nvhaskell Congratulations on the win! Great job--and that's a hell of a place to get an acceptance call!

@folkloremipsum Congratulations on your Finalist! Great work.  

@jeschleicher and she won the contest first time out? 

HM this quarter. A little surprised because I really put everything I had in this one. But it’s okay. Too 15% ain’t bad.  Never got an email though, had to scroll through the list. I hope I still get a certificate. My wall needs more motivation. 

Congrats to you all! 

I wondered if the emails went out individually to SHM and above to clear the decks, then the general email to everyone. I picked up an HM and also got no individual email--and it would be a pragmatic way to get past some of the problems without holding everything up for ages.

Posted by: @kellabella

HM this quarter. A little surprised because I really put everything I had in this one. But it’s okay. Too 15% ain’t bad.  Never got an email though, had to scroll through the list. I hope I still get a certificate. My wall needs more motivation. 

Congrats to you all! 

Kellabella, 

An HM is a BIG deal. Thousands from around the world enter every quarter, and it means your writing was at a high level and was considered for selection for the three awards. We just make it look easy here because the Forum collects writers dedicated to winning this Contest, and we share Contest and writing knowledge that gives us an edge. So be proud of your accomplishment. You hit the target. That means you can also hit the bullseye--if you keep aiming for it. You'll see in many people's signatures their learning curve as marked by those certificates. Most started at R, then started getting HMs, and worked their way up to their eventual win. Or they pro'd out. Either way is a major win.

As for individual email notices, same comment I've made before. Q3 has to be done by hand because of technical issues that were not WotF's fault. The official announcement went up ahead of many of the emails as a kindness--Author Services knows you've been waiting a long time, and they felt it best to get the announcement up so you could figure out where you're at, allowing you to move those stories on if needed. You will get an email, and your certificate, for Q3 results. But if they somehow miss you because of the issue peculiar to Q3, after a couple months go by, email  Joni. It normally takes a couple of months to receive your certificate--this is nothing new. Do frame it and put it on the wall. It's wonderful validation. In fact, Brandon Sanderson has said he was getting quite discouraged by all the rejections on his work, and then he got an HM in WotF. That validation gave him the boost he needed to continue on. And look were he is today. 

Q4 will not have these issues. Look for results soon.

Much of what I have written here is for the benefit of all, so please take this as a kindness. I leave you all with the one word that seemed to be the theme through every presentation at the WotF Workshop this year. Perseverance. It was cited as the #1 quality new writers must have to succeed in their quest.

Or as I like to say, "Perseverance yields rewards."

Success to all of you that never give up and stay the course for the long haul.

Wulf Moon

@wulfmoon 

Thanks for all the feedback and information. I can't speak for the other forumites, but I'm sure others will agree with me that we appreciate everything you and the rest of the staff do to help us on this journey.

Posted by: @wulfmoon 

It normally takes a couple of months to receive your certificate--this is nothing new. Do frame it and put it on the wall. It's wonderful validation.

I echo this! I had my first SHM framed until it was eventually superseded, and now my finalist cert sits in its frame alongside my framed demo mission patch in my office.

The SHM cert sat near my writing desk for a long time, and was a great reminder of the fact that I can write, in those moments now and then when it started to feel like I couldn't. Which happen far more often than they probably should. I'm pretty sure that there are stories I only found the gumption to write because I had that certificate out on display.