Discussion: Q4 Volume 41

I also couldn't post before, I got an Honorable Mention! 😃✨

This story is very dear to me, so I'll keep working on it in another format and see where that goes!

Big congratulations to everyone for the great results and to all who submitted! 👏👏👏

Excited to see what Q1 brings! 😃

Posted by: @toddjones

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Posted by: @kz_richards

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Sooooooo close. 

@bethpowers Good Lord, Beth! Your credentials are amazing. Keep it up and sooner or later you will win this contest. Amazing!

Congratulations everyone. Looks like the forumites did very well this quarter. Keep it up. The real trick to winning this contest is persistence. Very happy for all of you. Keep entering. You will submit!

@toddjones Wow! That's amazing! Congratulations!! 😃🥳👏✨

@kz_richards That's so awesome, congratulations!! 😃🎉👏✨

@toddjones congratulations! Especially inspiring as I see from your signature it was a resubmitted RWC! 

Congratulations too @kz_richards. You guys are knocking on the door. Bitter sweet but you know how good those stories were to get Finalist. 

A lot of HMs and SHMs for forumites, which is great to see. Vol 42 beckons!

Well done to everyone who submitted and to those who placed.

@joel-c-scoberg Thank you.  Yes, it was a resubmit.  I told myself I would do anymore resubmits, but I knew I must have missed something, or several somethings, with this story and couldn't let it go.  So, my new rule is no more than one (1) resubmit for a story if I figured out a major hole in the story.

@patricia-a Thank you.

@preston-e-dennett Thank you. I didn't win, but getting a Finalist is a step forward for me. The people I've met in this forum have been a huge help with growing my writing skills.  Thank you WotF and the Wulf Pack.

Posted by: @toddjones

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@preston-e-dennett Thank you. I didn't win, but getting a Finalist is a step forward for me. The people I've met in this forum have been a huge help with growing my writing skills.  Thank you WotF and the Wulf Pack.

Posted by: @toddjones

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You know I'm super-duper happy for you about this, Todd! WAY TO GO!!!!

Posted by: @kz_richards

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Sooooooo close. 

You know I'm super-duper happy for you about this, K.Z. WAY TO GO!!!

Posted by: @wulfmoon

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Posted by: @kz_richards

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Sooooooo close. 

You know I'm super-duper happy for you about this, K.Z. WAY TO GO!!!

 

Thank you so much!

Posted by: @sandy

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Congratulations to all who entered. It takes courage to hit submit. The Forum results are amazing this quarter. Personally, I think this is the toughest quarter since so much of the anthology has been chosen. Congratulations to all!

Fourth quarter *is* the most competitive, for several reasons. One reason being the one you listed. Congratulations to any that placed in Q4. You are up against the best in your weight class from around the world. Keep going for that knockout punch!

Cheers, everyone! There's always another quarter.  

Posted by: @mgamblesee

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Thanks @gideonpsmith! I enjoyed the online workshop. I'm going to start working my way through Moon's tips next. What do you think was the biggest change you made in your submissions from your first two entries to your first SHM in 2023? Was it the same story that you kept improving? Or something new each time?

I can't recommend enough writing new for every quarter you can. I'm a firm believer that we humans learn not by doing, but by finishing. At least, for the most part. 

And I know you asked the amazing Gideon, and not me, but I carry this soapbox around with me everywhere so I'll look for any excuse to jump on it: 

What elevated me from HMs (five in a row!) to SHMs was to stop writing "a cool idea," and instead write a story about a character with a flaw. Sure, I'd add a fun setting, an interesting (to me, at least) concept, a high-stakes plot, but the core was always someone tangling with their own demons and either definitively overcoming or succumbing to them. 

The results are online! I was curious so I started counting them (why, yes, I do have a life, why do you ask?) and there are 3 winners, 5 finalists, 10 semi-finalists, 65 SHMs and 231 HMs. Congratulations everyone!

Also @patricia-a, we both live in Spain instead of Sweden, apparently. Good to know

Posted by: @marius

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The results are online! I was curious so I started counting them (why, yes, I do have a life, why do you ask?) and there are 3 winners, 5 finalists, 10 semi-finalists, 65 SHMs and 231 HMs. Congratulations everyone!

Also @patricia-a, we both live in Spain instead of Sweden, apparently. Good to know

rather than counting, if you just hit "itemize" in word and then copy and paste into the word file it makes line numbers for you and then theres no counting required 😉

don't ask my neurotic brain how I know this.....  

Congratulations to all the finalists, semi-finalists, SHMs and HMs this quarter!

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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rather than counting, if you just hit "itemize" in word and then copy and paste into the word file it makes line numbers for you and then theres no counting required 😉

don't ask my neurotic brain how I know this.....  

I used an Excel spreadsheet for that 🤓 and I feel kinda stupid now for giving the impression I counted them by hand. I actually do have something that almost resembles a life

Posted by: @marius

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Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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rather than counting, if you just hit "itemize" in word and then copy and paste into the word file it makes line numbers for you and then theres no counting required 😉

don't ask my neurotic brain how I know this.....  

I used an Excel spreadsheet for that 🤓 and I feel kinda stupid now for giving the impression I counted them by hand. I actually do have something that almost resembles a life

 

I have a life, too, but I still usually count them by hand. 😆

Posted by: @kz_richards

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I have a life, too, but I still usually count them by hand. 😆

 

I don't have a life, and I do think sometimes the manual way is just easier

means I dont have to open programs etc

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Posted by: @kz_richards

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I have a life, too, but I still usually count them by hand. 😆

 

 

I don't have a life, and I do think sometimes the manual way is just easier

means I dont have to open programs etc

 

Gideon, I’ve read your bio. If you don’t have a life, nobody does. 

Posted by: @preston-e-dennett

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@bethpowers Good Lord, Beth! Your credentials are amazing. Keep it up and sooner or later you will win this contest. Amazing!

ha! You would think so, right?

But seriously, I enjoy submitting because it keeps me writing or thinking about writing/revising (depending on what I submit). I haven't missed a quarter since 2008, even though I usually submit on the last day  

So I got a RWC. I think I know why - because it was a more literary story, the ending didn't resolve anything, leaving what happens next to the readers' imaginations. I'm hoping that the RWC is them telling me "we like the rest of it, make an ending that matters; we didn't send it up so that Jodi hasn't read it yet and you aren't going to annoy her with a resubmit." So I'm adding to it, making the ending mean something, and counting that as writing new because it's a substantial change to the original story.

I've got a good idea of where it's going and I like it a lot

Wish me luck!

@amstard Look over the RWC reasons and take them to heart. I turned an RWC into a Finalist by understanding what holes I had in the story.

Posted by: @toddjones

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I turned an RWC into a Finalist by understanding what holes I had in the story.

Something tells me this/you will now go down in legend  

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Posted by: @toddjones

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I turned an RWC into a Finalist by understanding what holes I had in the story.

Something tells me this/you will now go down in legend    

I recruited @wulfmoon to help me identify the holes and after fixing asked forum members to read. I also started using the method of reading the story out loud to myself. Huge help for awkward sounding/reading sentences.

Note: I have implemented a rule to not resubmit a story more than once, and only if I have identified the holes in the story.  Otherwise, write new.