Discussion: Q3 Volume 38

Posted by: @earthkeeper78

@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.

Thank you for your kind words, earthkeeper78. It means a lot. I'm not staff, just a volunteer that won the Contest, doing my best to help all of you as you run the writer marathon. Keep up the good work. Rewards do come to those that persevere. I'd just like to see each of you receive those rewards a little bit sooner than I did.

@lost_bard Thank you! I've attended several of Dave's classes where he's taught about the importance of matching emotional beats to age and gender of the target market if possible for best emotional results. Makes me curious what the primary market is in terms of purchase and reading for WotF anthol, seems like "schools" is a good answer. Within that group, I am curious whether adventure beats and humor beats might be a good focus, understanding that the judges are adults and they are the gatekeepers. These are my musings Would love any more thoughts on this.

Posted by: @laselby

@lost_bard Thank you! I've attended several of Dave's classes where he's taught about the importance of matching emotional beats to age and gender of the target market if possible for best emotional results. Makes me curious what the primary market is in terms of purchase and reading for WotF anthol, seems like "schools" is a good answer. Within that group, I am curious whether adventure beats and humor beats might be a good focus, understanding that the judges are adults and they are the gatekeepers. These are my musings Would love any more thoughts on this.

 

The one comment that Dave does frequently make is that he doesn't see enough humor in WotF. But we've also been told to make Dave cry, because any story that can make a jaded editor cry is a winner. So...make him laugh so hard that he cries? 

My latest r had elements of humor in it. I totally did not jump right into the action. I provided a build up to the action. I guess I will have to learn to conform to the rules in place at the moment.  

@lost_bard Excellent.

Got the R for Q4 today, still nothing for Q3 - that one had to go in the "grinder's" Never Responded bin.

Posted by: @lost_bard

Posted by: @laselby

@lost_bard Thank you! I've attended several of Dave's classes where he's taught about the importance of matching emotional beats to age and gender of the target market if possible for best emotional results. Makes me curious what the primary market is in terms of purchase and reading for WotF anthol, seems like "schools" is a good answer. Within that group, I am curious whether adventure beats and humor beats might be a good focus, understanding that the judges are adults and they are the gatekeepers. These are my musings Would love any more thoughts on this.

 

The one comment that Dave does frequently make is that he doesn't see enough humor in WotF. But we've also been told to make Dave cry, because any story that can make a jaded editor cry is a winner. So...make him laugh so hard that he cries? 

 

If you can make the beginning and middle of a story funny enough that the reader laughs and the ending poignant enough to make them cry, you've got it made. (I know, this seems like a tall order--and it is--but I've read stories that did it for me before.)

Posted by: @storysinger

My latest r had elements of humor in it. I totally did not jump right into the action. I provided a build up to the action. I guess I will have to learn to conform to the rules in place at the moment.  

You don't necessarily need action so much as something that will hook a reader's interest. I always try to get my character, my setting, and a source of conflict into the first paragraph of my story. HOWEVER! While conflict is always a good thing to include off the bat, it doesn't have to be the main conflict of your story (although it is wise to have it lead into that somehow).

In case it's helpful, I'm going to provide some examples of the types of openings that I wrote that did best in the contest for me:

My first SF began with a character listening through a door to an argument between his parents. (While this was not the main conflict, what happened a few pages later as a result of this argument was.)

My first F featured a sentient construct whose house was being approached by a mob. (This was intimately related to the main internal conflict, and led into the main external one.)

My second F opened with the viewpoint protagonist--an animal spirit--lightly possessing a human he's best frenemies with, so of course an argument ensued immediately. (The human was in pursuit of a character that turned out to be the primary antagonist at the time, and the nature of the argument gave me a great way to give the reader important info without hitting them over the head with unnecessary exposition.)

My second SF began with angels raining down on Detroit like meteors. (I was sad that one got SF, let me tell you--I tried to pull out all the stops--but it broke my SHM streak, which made me feel like I was going in the right direction.)

Unfortunately, I can't yet give details about my winner--but it's only four months until April, so I won't have to keep silent too terribly much longer.

What I can tell you is that all of these stories clearly delineated a character in a setting with a problem on my first page (generally within my first paragraph, unless said paragraph was uncommonly short).

...Also, I just realized that in the examples I provided above, my SF's established an external conflict. My F's, on the other hand, established both an internal and an external conflict. (The internal conflicts were the ones that would be featured in the story as a whole. The external conflicts weren't the main conflict, but they were catalyst points that led into the story's main external conflicts.)

Posted by: @angelslayah

Got the R for Q4 today, still nothing for Q3 - that one had to go in the "grinder's" Never Responded bin.

I'm sorry last quarter was so rocky. I've been empathizing with everyone on that really intensely. Q3 really isn't the standard experience, I promise. (This Q4 isn't, either--results for that one are usually fastest, coming in at the end of November or beginning of December, but they had to rush things to manage that this time around.) There's a reason Kary encouraged everyone who gets an R this quarter to resubmit--she didn't have time to give the stories as thorough a first read as usual, and I'm under the impression that she wants those stories to have a fair shake.

Ah, got my Q3 email today. Request returned for my certificate. Gotta get that vision board built!

#LEVELUP

A story I previously submitted in v37 got an HM, came back today for Q3 in vol38 with a SHM! 

Posted by: @rnichols

#LEVELUP

A story I previously submitted in v37 got an HM, came back today for Q3 in vol38 with a SHM! 

Nice! Did you make any changes or just resubmit as-is?

@morgan-broadhead I tightened my intro and ending so they aligned and did a that/was crawl, removed some repetitive and unnecessary exposition. I'm going to give it a pass with my writing group and look at some more developmental things and resubmit again for Q2

Last Wednesday I received notice of an Honorable Mention for Q4.

This was welcome news. In so many ways 2021 has been a struggle.

I've had a pretty serious case of writer's block since May or so but have managed to dust off old stories for some updates and submit every quarter. I'd forgotten to record my Q4 entry with Duotrope and spent a very confused hour this morning checking and re-checking what I submitted when. I'd totally forgotten which story I'd submitted and to be honest, while the idea is good I'm not sure I did a good job of telling it. But someone liked it.

Anyway, Wednesday night was welcome news, but Friday, the news of an HM for Q3 was the best ever! I'd assumed that Q3 was a goose egg like Q1 & 2 were! The Q3 submission is a story I'm proud of and I feel good about that HM!

I'm happy for all of us who keep submitting. Whether you can stay positive or not, stay in the game!

If you have to take a break, WotF will be waiting for you when you're ready.