[Sticky] Martin's OPINION on the Unwritten Rules

Posted by: @storysinger

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Does anyone ever get so frustrated with spell-checker they just turn it off?

There are times when I get caught re-writing a phrase so many times that I turn SC off so I can get back to the story.

I turn off spelling and grammar checking during a first draft. It is too distracting. The first draft is where my writer brain is let loose. 

I turn it back on for editing when the editor brain comes out to play. 

Posted by: @pdblake

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Posted by: @storysinger

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Does anyone ever get so frustrated with spell-checker they just turn it off?

There are times when I get caught re-writing a phrase so many times that I turn SC off so I can get back to the story.

 

I turn off spelling and grammar checking during a first draft. It is too distracting. The first draft is where my writer brain is let loose. 

I turn it back on for editing when the editor brain comes out to play. 

 

Whereas I barely have one brain

Posted by: @gideonpsmith

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Posted by: @pdblake

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Posted by: @storysinger

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Does anyone ever get so frustrated with spell-checker they just turn it off?

There are times when I get caught re-writing a phrase so many times that I turn SC off so I can get back to the story.

 

I turn off spelling and grammar checking during a first draft. It is too distracting. The first draft is where my writer brain is let loose. 

I turn it back on for editing when the editor brain comes out to play. 

 

 

Whereas I barely have one brain

 

Now, I never said either of my hypothetical brains were fully functional...

Posted by: @pdblake

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I turn off spelling and grammar checking during a first draft. It is too distracting. The first draft is where my writer brain is let loose. 

I turn it back on for editing when the editor brain comes out to play. 

 

Man, I would LOVE to be able to turn off those features while I'm drafting. All those red and green squiggly lines are distracting. On the other hand, I'd never be able to interpret what I wrote when it came time to start the next draft.

"Catch," Gary said, and tossed the s[pejcgfgj to Freckles.

Me, scratching my head during my read-through, wondering what in the world a s[pejcgfgj is. And who the hell is Freckles?

If you found these OPINION(s) helpful, here's an older post from Martin as well. It's written with Dave in mind, but much of the advice would carry over to Jody.

https://writersofthefuture.com/writers-of-the-future-playing-the-odds/

Hi Marin,

I was about to enter a story and read your great advice. I have a couple questions:

First, Not published is understandable, but how long would someone need to hold off from publishing? Are you buying first rights? 

Second, PG-13 ratings mean no sex; I get that.  Does that include a scene where two people are lying in bed after? Or lying there, and the scene fades as they kiss?

And finally, the word count. How hard of a limit is the 17K? My MS is 17,155.  Would that disqualify it?

Thanks!

-Will

Posted by: @rw-span

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Hi Marin,

I was about to enter a story and read your great advice. I have a couple questions:

First, Not published is understandable, but how long would someone need to hold off from publishing? Are you buying first rights? 

Excellent question! The Contest will purchase first rights to winning stories only (top 3 in each quarter) and publish them in the annual volume. You get prize money and you get pro word rates for your story. In addition, they sometimes publish a Finalist story as well. They won't know until they know how long the winning stories are. If they think your story could be a Published Finalist, they will ask you if you're willing to leave it for their consideration until the volume is laid out. (I highly recommend yes. A Published Finalist author gets the same free workshop and gala as the winners, just no prize money--but they pay pro rates for the story).

And after that, the Contest is seriously the most generous publisher when it comes to rights. Do you know how long their exclusivity is on your story?

Zero.

Zero. And they confirm that this is intentional. One minute after your story is available for purchase (not preorder) at major retailers, you can republish it anywhere. You just have to let them publish it first. They believe that your republishing helps to market the volume.

Second, PG-13 ratings mean no sex; I get that.  Does that include a scene where two people are lying in bed after? Or lying there, and the scene fades as they kiss?

No actual sex on the page. Implication is good, parts touching is bad. Describing parts is bad, unless you stick to very discreet metaphor. We're not pretending sex doesn't exist, just leave specifics to the imagination.

But as a reminder: No matter how the real world works, no underage sex. You might note that it happened, but don't even get close to it happening. And no nonconsensual sex. Again, it might be part of a character's background or the story's background, but not the foreground. A character seeking revenge for what happened to them, or shying away because of what happened to them, is a powerful character; but find a way to let us know what happened without details.

And finally, the word count. How hard of a limit is the 17K? My MS is 17,155.  Would that disqualify it?

OK, here I have three answers: The formal rule, the informal rule, and the good advice.

The formal rule: 17,000 is a firm limit. No exceptions.

The informal rule: Different word processors and different versions sometimes count words differently. Your word processor might undercount compared to ours. So we're probably going to allow a little slack. (155 words is probably too much slack.) But we're going to look more closely.

And the good advice: Aim for 16,900. Especially if you submit a PDF. (Did I mention PDFs are a pain?) PDFs can be hard to get a word count on our end. Sometimes artifacts of PDFs count as extra words; and because it's so long, we don't have time to search out those artifacts. So if you get too close to the limit, you might go over and not notice. Aiming just a little under is a precaution.

And one more piece of advice for long stories: Make sure they end. It's OK if the reader can tell that there are more stories coming, but this one has to stand on its own. Sometimes this means making the story even shorter! Here's a superhero example. (I haven't seen any superhero stories in the last two quarters, so none of you should think this is yours.)

Side Kicker faces the challenge of his life. His mentor, the superhero Big Kick, has been killed by The Association, and they now run The City. Everyone lives in terror, especially the friends and family of Big Kick. The Association penetrated his cyberfortress, and so now they're hunting his loved ones. It's all Side Kicker can do to keep his friends alive. Everyone tells him to leave The City. It's beyond him, and no one will blame him.

But he will. He owes Big Kick this and so much more. He drives off an attack on Big Kick's family. He stops an assault on a high school where the kids attend. And he finds the trail of three of Big Kick's kidnapped allies. Against all odds, he pursues the lead deep into the bowels of the warehouse district. And there he finds... Big Kick! His death was faked by Mimic, a traitorous ally, and his powers have been suppressed. Now he and a powerless Big Kick must infiltrate The Association's headquarters and rescue the real hostages. The tables are turned: Big Kick is now mentor but also sidekick; and Side Kick must become a true hero to save the day. When the hostages have been rescued, Mimic has (apparently) died in a fire, and Big Kick has his equipment back, they make their escape through a rain of fire and bullets.

The next day, Big Kick and Sidekick (now partners) plan to dismantle the entire world-wide web of The Asssociation. They gather a new team and start training for battle. They wage war in the streets, mopping up small-time crooks in hopes of learning big-time secrets. Sidekick starts a tentative new romance with Big Kick's daughter. But in the shadows, a new enemy arises...

It's obvious (I hope) that everything here is the opening act for a much bigger novel. Yet if you had left off everything in bold at the end, it would stand as a complete story in its own right. Sometimes authors say, "Well, I still have word count left, so I'll add another chapter." But the cliche is true: Sometimes less is more.

I hope this helps!

Sorry in advance for the silly question, but I'm ESL and I have no idea: is "Shut up" consider as bad language in English? I would say, in French, I can think of a translation of this that is pretty rude. As to English, I personally would not use "Shut up" in any professional, social, or family context as a rule, but I'm unsure if it's me being generally polite (lol) or if it's because it's definitely not acceptable language. 

I'm revising my entry for Q4 and there are a few "Shut up" in there due to the dynamics between the two characters and the broken world in which they live. Can I keep them there or is it too much?

@hannya I'm just a fellow contestant and in no way an expert on the rules, but I'm willing to bet good money and some of my body parts that "shut up" is absolutely fine to put in your story

As a slush reader, I wouldn’t even notice “Shut up” unless it was drastically out of character—say, one fluffy bunny saying it to another with no explanation or context.

Thank you both 😍 

Shut up - to me - is a harsh thing to say. Not a swear word by any means, but something that would spark an emotion in the receiver. It's like telling someone to calm down when they are freaking out. Dude, don't tell me to calm down!!!

Friends or siblings who talk with long-familiarity to each other might say shut up casually. They're used to hearing it. But if you say it to someone new, they might react.

You have to ease into these things. Like, Shhh or Hush. Or maybe Quiet now. Shut up is more like a smack.

If you have familiar characters in a harsh world, I imagine they'd say it plenty.

My neighbors literally don't know how to speak to each other without saying the F word in every sentence. I'm not kidding. "Did you let the F'in dog out?" "It's your F'in turn to do it." "F..."

Posted by: @tj_knight

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My neighbors literally don't know how to speak to each other without saying the F word in every sentence. I'm not kidding. "Did you let the F'in dog out?" "It's your F'in turn to do it." "F..."

🤣 🤣 🤣 

Sorry if this was already answered elsewhere. If something is definitely in public domain (think Shakespeare or The Bible level public domain, no question about copyright at all), is it okay to use as a quote in a story for WOTF?

Posted by: @wahlquistj

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Sorry if this was already answered elsewhere. If something is definitely in public domain (think Shakespeare or The Bible level public domain, no question about copyright at all), is it okay to use as a quote in a story for WOTF?

As a quote? Absolutely.

@martin-l-shoemaker yes, as a quote with attribution. Thanks!

@martin-l-shoemaker This is a bit overdue but really want to thank you for both this post and the podcast episode. It has been so helpful and valuable to me. Thank you!

Posted by: @tj_knight

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My neighbors literally don't know how to speak to each other without saying the F word in every sentence. I'm not kidding. "Did you let the F'in dog out?" "It's your F'in turn to do it." "F..."

I grew up "down river" (Wyandotte/Taylor/Dearborn) in lower Michigan in the 80s and "F..." was a staple word in our vocabulary. Verb/Noun/Adjective that could in some cases be all three in the same sentence.  

I've learned to "simma down" (old SNL ref) my stories and come up with creative words in place of "F..."

Posted by: @toddjones

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"F..." was a staple word in our vocabulary. Verb/Noun/Adjective that could in some cases be all three in the same sentence.

There's something magical about that though, isn't there. Given a context, being able to say "that F-ing F is F-ing it up again" and everyone knows what you're talking about. Kinda like The Smurfs

@marius haha. 

That and when I'm working on a car and I grunt or nod and my friend gets me the exact wrench I need or puts his hand in the right spot to hold a part.  haha