Jibber Jabber - Q1 - 29

Well Q4 Volume 28 is over for the ones who did not win. So perhaps those of us who are once again running for the gold should start posting in the current quarter's topic. Not that I have much to say, but I've decided to try and take a more active part on the forum this quarter. At least that's what I was thinking, don't know if I actually will.

I'm working up two possible stories for Q2. One is fantasy, one is SF. Some days one of them yells the most to be written, some days it's the other. Not much more I can say on that score.

I would love it if folks from Vol 28 would tell us who their judges were, assuming that's allowed, of course.

Happy writing.
Kary

Well Q4 Volume 28 is over for the ones who did not win. So perhaps those of us who are once again running for the gold should start posting in the current quarter's topic. Not that I have much to say, but I've decided to try and take a more active part on the forum this quarter. At least that's what I was thinking, don't know if I actually will.

If a form rejection is sent and nobody is around to put it into duotrope, has the quarter even started yet?

If a form rejection is sent and nobody is around to put it into duotrope, has the quarter even started yet?

It's like the damn tree in the forest. It makes a sound, I tell you. Just because us humans are too conceited to believe that if we weren't there to hear the sound, we question that sound's existance. Come ON people. Are we that vain?

No wonder we haven't been visited by aliens. 😛

hee. <img src="

If a form rejection is sent and nobody is around to put it into duotrope, has the quarter even started yet?

It's like the damn tree in the forest. It makes a sound, I tell you. Just because us humans are too conceited to believe that if we weren't there to hear the sound, we question that sound's existance. Come ON people. Are we that vain?

No wonder we haven't been visited by aliens. 😛

hee. <img src="

If someone voices a perfectly legitimate ontological complaint, but my teleology invalidates it, has anybody spoken?

... *goes back to refreshing Duotrope*

Well Q4 Volume 28 is over for the ones who did not win. So perhaps those of us who are once again running for the gold should start posting in the current quarter's topic. Not that I have much to say, but I've decided to try and take a more active part on the forum this quarter. At least that's what I was thinking, don't know if I actually will.

If a form rejection is sent and nobody is around to put it into duotrope, has the quarter even started yet?

Does that mean you received a rejection already for Q1?

Sir,

Your telos is odd.
Rejectomancy
continues to be
practiced on Duotrope's flaws.

Yours formally,

Lawd

Well Q4 Volume 28 is over for the ones who did not win. So perhaps those of us who are once again running for the gold should start posting in the current quarter's topic. Not that I have much to say, but I've decided to try and take a more active part on the forum this quarter. At least that's what I was thinking, don't know if I actually will.

If a form rejection is sent and nobody is around to put it into duotrope, has the quarter even started yet?

Does that mean you received a rejection already for Q1?

Only in my mind. Only in my mind...

Sir,

Your teleology's odd.
Rejectomancy
continues to be
practiced on Duotrope's flaws.

Yours formally,

Lawd

Duotrope's flaws
reflect its users' own--
a light summer rain
- Matsuo Basho

(ETA: I edited this haiku about 8 times before I was happy with it, and I'm still only about 80% there. However, I have not written more than a page of story in the past 2 weeks. Something is clearly wrong with me.)

Sir,

Your telos is odd.
Rejectomancy
continues to be
practiced on Duotrope's flaws.

Yours formally,

Lawd

Duotrope's flaws
reflect its users' own--
a light summer rain
- Matsuo Basho

Letters swirl like leaves
on river's moonlit water.
It's still lunacy.

- Kuan Yin

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one checking Duotrope from time to time these days for word on Q1. There's one other hopeful of mine that sucks me to that addicting site for now, too, but I'm getting back to editing my novel now and maybe that will keep me distracted.

Leaves upon the wind
No life of their own, perhaps
Are life to the skies
~Batou Aramaki

I merely bide my time while I work on homework...and write my latest story. Gonna be a long one this time.

As far as Q2 goes, for once it appears I might have to make a decision between two stories. One is mythic fantasy (and fairly short), while the other is more gritty and urban, but still predominantly fantasy (with some imaginary science) and will likely be significantly longer. The former is awaiting revision, and the latter is 7/8 still in my mind, but progress has been good, so we'll see.

I'm curious how some of those who've done this contest a bit more than me choose what to submit. Is it the one that seems to fit the contest's/anthology's "vibe" best, even if that isn't the one you think is the better of the two pieces? The other way around? Or does it, as I sort of suspect, come down to an individual choice each time, with no guiding principal one can generalize?

What I'm sort of getting at, I guess, has to do with the fact that, while the initial reader is always the same, those who actually choose winners from among the finalists (as I understand it) are a rotating panel of judges. So, how much thought goes into giving KD what you are fairly sure will get you at least an HM (by following the helpful advice she and others have provided), as opposed to sending in the best possible piece you have (even if it takes more of a risk of being rejected for not adhering as closely to the aforementioned helpful advice) in hopes that it will get into the hands of the contest judges, whose tastes are perhaps less consistent, but who also get to spend more time with the finalist stories and therefore might be wowed by something KD might not have even gotten to if the story got rejected early on for doing something she tends to dislike?

I know there isn't some big secret that will get anyone into the winners' circle just like that, but the fact that in a blindly judged contest some writers tend to "work their way to the top" and then manage to fairly consistently reach the semis implies that there isa learning curve. Much of it, I suspect, has to do not so much with learning to write for the contest as it does with learning what to actually submit. Of course, practice makes writers better, but it may also be about learning to choose between two or more pieces, and getting a better feel for what has a chance, and what doesn't.

Just tossing it out there. Thoughts?

I go for "vibe," because, as has often been said, sometimes we're bad judges of our work. What we think is best might not actually be the best in anyone else's eyes.

And it's good to note that if you don't wow KD, you've got no chance of wowing the other judges because they'll never see your work.

^
/agree

I often say I write for one reader, KDW. But the truth is, my story has just as much chance as any other story. What do I know, right? She may dislike a story I thought was great.

All I can do is:

Come up with an original idea.
Mold that idea into a story.
Write to the best of my ability.

Meghan once said that the essence of everything you've read comes out in your writing.

I've read a gazillion how-to books on writing, characters, setting, plot, heroes journeys... Now I read the anthologies. I'm learning by osmosis, and trying my best to knock the socks off the first reader.

She is the Black Knight.
"None shall pass! Oh wait, this one's pretty good. This one can pass."

After that - the judges - well, there's no point in speculating about them because as Marina said, if you're not a finalist, they aren't going to read your story.

"So, " she says, affecting nonchalance, "does anyone know when rejections start coming out?"

Will they trickle out as read, or will they come out as one great singularity of mass destruction?

"So, " she says, affecting nonchalance, "does anyone know when rejections start coming out?"

Will they trickle out as read, or will they come out as one great singularity of mass destruction?

That all depends. In most previous quarters, they have been sent out en masse.

For Q4, though, there were several waves of mass destruction.

Only time will tell.

And while we're speculating, what is the likely effect of planning for the gala and workshop on the airspeed of an unladen swallow? Er, I mean - on the judging and rejection process?

And while we're speculating, what is the likely effect of planning for the gala and workshop on the airspeed of an unladen swallow? Er, I mean - on the judging and rejection process?

ELVES ON UNICORNS!

Oh, sorry. Wrong "speculating."

I haven't really been submitting regularly enough to know for sure, but I've seen it bandied about that it usually slows things down a bit.

Argh I still haven't received a confirmation on my entry yet. At which point do I panic and start pelting Joni with emails? TwT Probably like, March, so I have time to resubmit for Q2 in case of a flub. . .

It's probably just my paranoia.

I keep coming up with these GREAT SCI FI IDEAS but I can't sustain any of them for a novel. Short story, sure, but as a fantasy novelist... it feels really incongruous to start a career with a scifishort. 's kind of why I'm relieved my finalist didn't get picked up, in hindsight.

Still get the strong impression that KD does not like Airships. XD But I could be wrong.

Argh I still haven't received a confirmation on my entry yet. At which point do I panic and start pelting Joni with emails? TwT Probably like, March, so I have time to resubmit for Q2 in case of a flub. . .

It's probably just my paranoia.

I haven't received confirmation, either. That doesn't bother me. I submitted by snail mail, so I'll probably receive word of how my story placed (or didn't) before I find out whether I'm actually entered.

Any word yet on rejections or HMs? Probably not since they're busy planning the workshop and stuff. But just wondering when results will begin to surface.

At this point, I'm not expecting any news for at least the next 30 days. This is prime writing time... because you know, once those results start rolling in, we're all going to be hawks across the net...

I anticipate an early rejection due to subject matter. "Oh, not, not another story about unicorn monkeys on motorcycles..."

Yes, prime writing time before I get discouraged!

Occurred to me that I should add this smiley: ...because even if I become discouraged, it doesn't last and I bounce back more determined than ever! <img src="

I anticipate an early rejection due to subject matter. "Oh, not, not another story about unicorn monkeys on motorcycles..."

Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Martin?

AN

THO

LO

GY!

I anticipate an early rejection due to subject matter. "Oh, not, not another story about unicorn monkeys on motorcycles..."

Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Martin?

AN

THO

LO

GY!

You are an evil, evil man! Stop doing that to my brain! I have other stories I'm supposed to be working on!

A week ago, I was very excited by my latest story idea. I still am, I love the idea. Six days ago I woke from a dream in which I had envisioned three very clear, very coherent scenes for a time travel story. Despite the fact that it was a dream and despite the fact that it was time travel, it really made a lot of sense as a story. (My normal dream logic shouldn't be called logic at all.) So I wrote down the initial scene in its entirety. (It was a very short scene.) I wrote down notes on the next two scenes. I discussed the idea with a friend to see if it still made sense when awake. And I resolved to write it as soon as I finished the other story.

Last night, the second scene of the time travel story beckoned me. And then the third. And from those I knew the opening line of the fourth; and once I wrote that opening line, the rest of the scene just came gushing out and wrapped up a surprisingly moving story that was nothing at all like I had expected. (And of course, it didn't wrap until 4 in the freakin' a.m.!)

So stop giving me ideas! Even joke ideas! Now I can see one of the monkeys, stomping around the garage, smoking a cigar!

Anthologies, like astronomical-metaphor-of-choice, are usually content to wait.

Hey guys, first post. I've submitted four times to WOTF and each time I become more and more confused about the way results are disseminated and the way the contest is organized. Can you help me figure this out?

I submitted a story on 10 December: That means I'm competing in Q1, Vol 29, right? When I submit again sometime before 1 April, I'll be competing in Q2, Vol 29, right?

Also, randomly checking the forums and scouring for posts seems like a really strange way to find out information about the finalists. I've submitted 4 times and never gotten an email back saying "Sorry, you didn't win", but I always find myself looking at these forums for information. How DO you find the list of honorable mentions, finalists, and winners?

Thanks everyone. Keep writing!

Hey guys, first post.

Welcome aboard, permanentnovice! (That handle, by the way, is a very healthy approach to writing. When you think you know it all, that's when you stop learning.)

I submitted a story on 10 December: That means I'm competing in Q1, Vol 29, right? When I submit again sometime before 1 April, I'll be competing in Q2, Vol 29, right?

Yes, and yes.

Also, randomly checking the forums and scouring for posts seems like a really strange way to find out information about the finalists. I've submitted 4 times and never gotten an email back saying "Sorry, you didn't win", but I always find myself looking at these forums for information. How DO you find the list of honorable mentions, finalists, and winners?

If anyone has found a better way, they've kept it secret. Watching here, watching the WotF blog, watching KD's blog, watching the Herald, and watching PRWeb are what we all end up doing; and sometimes it's a total crapshoot as to which one will have the announcements first.

But if you've never gotten ANY email back, you might want to email Joni and make sure your stories are getting in. Also, check your spam filter settings and see if the messages are getting blocked. It would be horrible to learn you've "submitted" four times but never really got through; but on the other hand, that would give you stories for the next four quarters! (Assuming you haven't yet sold them elsewhere.)

But if you've never gotten ANY email back, you might want to email Joni and make sure your stories are getting in. Also, check your spam filter settings and see if the messages are getting blocked...

Agreed. Lately you should be getting one soon after submitting, to confirm that it was accepted, and then (if you're me) the sad one that says "Sorry," and encourages you to keep on submitting.

Good luck!