Discussion: Q4 Volume 42

Posted by: @chuckt

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Someone please remind me. It has been a couple of years. Is it still true that an SHM means the story probably was read all the way through and was in contention to be considered as a finalist?

When I was entering regularly, I submitted a couple HMs and one SHM at least once more (with revisions) to see if I could break it upward. (I don't think it ever worked and one SHM went down) Thoughts? I don't think I ever submitted the same story more than once. 

I think SHM is read all the way through by Jody.

BTW guys, I’m flabbergasted that the story got rejected, but I still intend to send it somewhere else. Should I look at it and completely rework or just do some simple edits before I send it? The only major-ish issues I can think about are very slow beginning (the main conflict starts at around page 5-6), grammar plus general stylization of the text and some issues with the ending, although I’m not sure if it was read all the way through for them to actually be seen by the reader. 

Another HM. Can't seem to crack that ceiling. Oh well on to the next story.

@kz_richards Congrats!

Woke up to  

Congrats to all those who submitted!

Admittedly (arrogantly), I was expecting something even higher but rereading it I can see there are some areas for improvement   now I'm wondering if I should improve it and resubmit or go with something completely new 🤔 I've never resubmitted but I'm quite attached to this story

@theocarr Well, I was expecting at least an SHM/semi finalist, sooo 😅😅😅… But I’m guessing in both of our cases it can be also market mismatch. I will try some other markets for mine before resubmitting here. Maybe you can try that as well?

@theocarr While I don't consider my opinion to carry much weight, I have some thoughts on this:

I'm quite attached to this story

I believe this is exactly the reason you should write a new story. Your potential career won't be carried on the back of any single story. At most, it will get you a leg up where you'll still have to generate additional tales of equal or greater quality.

Every story is a building block for the next. Take whatever you did in this one and roll it into the next. Earlier this year, I decided that I wouldn't give this contest 2 shots at any given story. That's six months of waiting for a verdict on a single story. More if you submit early in the initial quarter. There is far more to be gained by rolling your experience into a subsequent story, while revising the present story to submit elsewhere.

That's what I would do.

Posted by: @jtwrites

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Your potential career won't be carried on the back of any single story. At most, it will get you a leg up where you'll still have to generate additional tales of equal or greater quality.

Every story is a building block for the next. Take whatever you did in this one and roll it into the next. Earlier this year, I decided that I wouldn't give this contest 2 shots at any given story. That's six months of waiting for a verdict on a single story. More if you submit early in the initial quarter. There is far more to be gained by rolling your experience into a subsequent story, while revising the present story to submit elsewhere.

That's what I would do.

I concur. When possible, write a new story. If you are going to resubmit, only do it once with a story, and only if you have identified/fixed a huge hole that would impact rating.

I'm so excited!  This was my first entry, and I thought I'd flubbed it! I'd already started revising it to re-submit, thinking I'd be RWC or or just flat-out rejected. Now I'm debating whether I should re-submit or move on.  I feel like the fixes I've done are fairly minor, so I'm not sure they'd push it up out of HM territory.

Posted by: @haganenoedward

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The only major-ish issues I can think about

If you're already pointing these things out to yourself, it sounds like you already know what you need to work on!  The major conflict appearing on page 5/6 definitely sounds like it might be in the "failure to launch" category of RWC. 

Congrats to all the HMs, SHMs, SFs, Fs, and winners! Happy and excited for all of you!  

Posted by: @bootzenkatzen

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I'm so excited!  This was my first entry, and I thought I'd flubbed it! I'd already started revising it to re-submit, thinking I'd be RWC or or just flat-out rejected. Now I'm debating whether I should re-submit or move on.  I feel like the fixes I've done are fairly minor, so I'm not sure they'd push it up out of HM territory.

It's good that you looked at it, identified possible flaws, edited - but I recommend taking the lessons to a new story. Each one is a new awesome waiting for you to discover it.

Posted by: @haganenoedward

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BTW guys, I’m flabbergasted that the story got rejected, but I still intend to send it somewhere else. Should I look at it and completely rework or just do some simple edits before I send it? The only major-ish issues I can think about are very slow beginning (the main conflict starts at around page 5-6), grammar plus general stylization of the text and some issues with the ending, although I’m not sure if it was read all the way through for them to actually be seen by the reader. 

Kary wrote in her intro to RWC:

For Q1, the RWC category is small, fewer than a hundred stories, and mostly for Failure to Launch. We expect to use RWC more heavily in future quarters.

This is a small sample size, but the first time they did RWC the most common reason was failure to launch. If that's the case, I'm sorry I missed it as I read your 450 and remember finding it interesting. However, it may have more to do with bigger plot issues than I identified. I'll try to be better about that going forward. 

I'll prioritize working on my 450 cheat sheet. Hopefully some will find it useful...

Posted by: @bootzenkatzen

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I'm so excited!  This was my first entry, and I thought I'd flubbed it! I'd already started revising it to re-submit, thinking I'd be RWC or or just flat-out rejected. Now I'm debating whether I should re-submit or move on.  I feel like the fixes I've done are fairly minor, so I'm not sure they'd push it up out of HM territory.

First, congrats on the HM. 

Second, keep the updates if you like them and submit the story to a different market.

Third, write a new story for next quarter WotF.

Remember to have fun and let the ideas fly and be free.

@mgamblesee I've got my fingers crossed for you! I hope the wait means you'll get a call with excellent news!

@tj_knight No worries. I actually found your feedback as well as reactions of my beta readers quite fruitful and encouraging, so I KNOW I have a good story in my hands. It just probably isn’t for this market. Plus I think that the issues with my start is mostly that I didn’t introduce the speculative element (aside from establishing the world) at all until very, very late. Like, I thought I hinted at it when the conflict starts, but on reread it just simply isn’t there.
But there are some key issues you pointed out that I want to explore in my next short story/novelette.

Posted by: @toddsjones

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Posted by: @jtwrites

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Your potential career won't be carried on the back of any single story. At most, it will get you a leg up where you'll still have to generate additional tales of equal or greater quality.

Every story is a building block for the next. Take whatever you did in this one and roll it into the next. Earlier this year, I decided that I wouldn't give this contest 2 shots at any given story. That's six months of waiting for a verdict on a single story. More if you submit early in the initial quarter. There is far more to be gained by rolling your experience into a subsequent story, while revising the present story to submit elsewhere.

That's what I would do.

I concur. When possible, write a new story. If you are going to resubmit, only do it once with a story, and only if you have identified/fixed a huge hole that would impact rating.

 

Normally I'd agree but @theocarr has had 4 finalists - so he clearly has figured out what this competition likes/wants, so @theocarr if you think its close... why not

@haganenoedward My inbox is always open to 450s.

@gideonpsmith point taken.

Got an RWC email last night.

So just now I removed a potentially unnecessary section at the beginning and corrected a few present tense words to past tense that I'd previously missed (it's 1st person past POV) and submitted the story to Clarkesworld.

I'm swinging for the fences 🤣 

Posted by: @pmg

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Got an RWC email last night.

So just now I removed a potentially unnecessary section at the beginning and corrected a few present tense words to past tense that I'd previously missed (it's 1st person past POV) and submitted the story to Clarkesworld.

I'm swinging for the fences 🤣 

Sorry to hear about the RWC.

Congrats and doing some edits.

Can't sell if you don't submit.

@pmg If you aim, aim high! 😀

SHM this round whoo hooo!  <3 A big congratulations to everyone who placed! Onward

I got my results a few days ago, and forgot to post--RWC for me.

Posted by: @bethpowers

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I got my results a few days ago, and forgot to post--RWC for me.

Sorry to hear. The rollercoaster of writing. You'll get them next time.

Posted by: @szadok

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Another HM. Can't seem to crack that ceiling. Oh well on to the next story.

You and me both. My very first submission was an HM. In 17 responses, I once got an SF...

  And so here I am again. Eight HMs now. This story got two professional edits and a lot of extra work, but there's still "something" that I'm not quite getting. Try, try, try, try again. The goal isn't particularly to win WotF (though that would be fantastic), but rather to write in such a way that readers "get it."