Something NEW This Way Comes!

Can't wait!

!

Sounds interesting.

Have you been enjoying the Writers of the Future podcasts? They are now easily viewed from the Writers of the Future homepage. BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! You may not know that each of us had studio-styled video interviews in Hollywood as well! Author Services' Emily Jones turned up the lights and sweated the truth out of us! Would you like to see the kickoff of the Writers of the Future Hollywood Interviews? Perhaps learn a few secrets to winning you will hear nowhere else? Then go to writersofthefuture.com and click on the main topic BLOG and read my debut article: "HERE BE DRAGONS!"

Here's the link, if ye dare enter these uncharted waters...

https://writersofthefuture.com/here-be-dragons/

Awesome! Read every word of your story. Er, your story's story, that is. I'll watch the interview soon with my headset. Thanks for sharing your personal history. Sounds like an uphill battle... I'd like to ask how you continued to imagine during all the down times. I hit a little speed bump and I'm out of the game. Big speed bump, forget it. I feel like, without serenity, I'm blocked.

So, any tips on blocking out the noise of life and getting butt in chair anyway? (Besides the every quarter goal)

I just read HERE BE DRAGONS, Wulf.

A moving and touching story. I don't know many people who could have dealt with your family health issues, and not physically and mentally collapsed.

Even fewer people who have reached your position and stature in life after facing down the genesis you had in early childhood development.

I sincerely hope your wife has recovered and is doing well.

I sincerely hope your novel gets not only represented, but picked up by an acquisitions editor.

Your story is amazing.

All the best,

Barry

Awesome! Read every word of your story. Er, your story's story, that is. I'll watch the interview soon with my headset. Thanks for sharing your personal history. Sounds like an uphill battle... I'd like to ask how you continued to imagine during all the down times. I hit a little speed bump and I'm out of the game. Big speed bump, forget it. I feel like, without serenity, I'm blocked.

So, any tips on blocking out the noise of life and getting butt in chair anyway? (Besides the every quarter goal)

Hey, Dustin. Trust me, I hear you. And I've owned many businesses, and if you have people working for you, unless you have a brilliant manager you can hand the day to day stuff to that's supremely honest, you're going to have a hard time. A successful business will require lifeblood to keep it thriving. Usually, yours. And I do believe you're running two business, plus a hobby business. You've got a tough nut to crack for writing full time.

So, you write part time. You write with whatever time you can find. You carve out moments and you keep working with your personal and business life to find ways to get more. Ultimately, to become a professional writer, you're going to need to write full time. John Goodwin told me that secret. It's mind-blowing. How do you accomplish that when you're the breadwinner for your family? Pretty tough, so you do your best, and here is the secret, and I said it in my HERE BE DRAGONS article:

"I decided then...I would find a realistic goal for my writing I could achieve within my circumstances."

There's the key. Work within your circumstances. And keep working to simplify your life so your circumstances get better. This world, especially the business world, likes to complicate our lives. You, on the other hand, have to simplify, so you can find more time to do your heart's desire--writing. To become a professional writer, you have to write A LOT. That means finding more time.

Buy the latest EAT THAT FROG book. Study it and apply it and study it some more and apply it some more. If you can't make more time, you can make the time you have count.

So there's my point on time that can help. But what if you actually are up to your eyeballs in sea serpents and they are snapping at your jugular? You can't ignore those dragons, because they'll gobble you whole if you do. Beat them back best you can, and if one of your blows stuns them, gather up your energy in the lull and divide it between fighting them and grabbing the rudder and getting your ship back on course. Yeah, they're going to jump you again. But you're still inching toward your goal. And if you can't defeat them--chronic health problems are like that, and so are giant organizations like the SEC--you can stand your ground and fight to the bitter end. Maybe you'll tire them out and they'll slink back to the sea, or maybe you'll build up your coping skills like muscles and eventually, the battle won't seem as bad. You'll have more mental energy to divert to your writing.

It's not easy when you are in the midst of real life battles. Do what you can, and don't bemoan what you cannot. That's my advice. If you've got too many dragons to write a fresh story, dust off an oldy goldy. If you absolutely have no energy to write, read your favorite novel. It's still engaging your mind with word and plot structure.

If you can, try to--like in WHAT ABOUT BOB--take a vacation from your problems. Duck into a quiet little harbor even if it's for a day or two, just to refresh yourself. You'll be rested up and stronger when you go back out to sea, and you might even see new ways to defeat that dragon that you couldn't see when you were in the thick of it.

I hope that helps. Find what you can do within your circumstances ...and do that.

All the beast!

Wulf Moon

I just read HERE BE DRAGONS, Wulf.

A moving and touching story. I don't know many people who could have dealt with your family health issues, and not physically and mentally collapsed.

Even fewer people who have reached your position and stature in life after facing down the genesis you had in early childhood development.

I sincerely hope your wife has recovered and is doing well.

I sincerely hope your novel gets not only represented, but picked up by an acquisitions editor.

Your story is amazing.

All the best,

Barry

Thank you, Barry. Your words are most kind. And my wife is doing better, but it was very scary for many years. And this wasn't her first trip down that path.

You work within your circumstances, and if you find a lull in the storm where you've got a moment before getting battered again, you check your charts and compass and reset your course. Over and over, if you have to.

Never give up.

All the beast,

Wulf Moon

Awesome! Read every word of your story. Er, your story's story, that is. I'll watch the interview soon with my headset. Thanks for sharing your personal history. Sounds like an uphill battle... I'd like to ask how you continued to imagine during all the down times. I hit a little speed bump and I'm out of the game. Big speed bump, forget it. I feel like, without serenity, I'm blocked.

So, any tips on blocking out the noise of life and getting butt in chair anyway? (Besides the every quarter goal)

Oh, Dustin, forgot to say thanks and glad you enjoyed "HERE BE DRAGONS" on the Writers of the Future Blog.

I found Dave's tips on overcoming writer's block similar to my suggestions I offered some days back to your question. I hope you read Dave's tips yesterday. Here's some parallel thoughts that he wrote:

"Of course, that money doesn’t just come from writing. I have a number of friends who wanted to be writers when they were young, but they took jobs that paid well in order to support their families. Those high-paying jobs led to careers and stability, and after many years they look back and say, “Wow, I let my dream slip away.”

So what do you do? Set a goal to chase your dream. Visualize what you really want. Tell yourself, “This is my dream, and I’m going to make it come true, even if it means that I can only take an hour a day for my writing.”

Then write every day for two weeks, and use your enthusiasm to motivate you until writing becomes a habit. It’s like exercise. At the end of that two weeks, writing will have a part of your routine, and you will notice that you don’t feel satisfied if you don’t get some writing done on a given day.

4) You’ve got too much stress in your life. You may be worrying about family issues, or finances, or job-related issues, and suddenly you find that the added “stress” of writing just feels like too much.

If that happens, de-stress. Sometimes you may need to put other things before your writing, but usually you can de-stress while writing.

Just tell yourself, “I’m going to write for an hour or two. I don’t have to do it well. After all, it’s just a draft of my novel, and no one will see it anyway, because I won’t show it...."

I hope that helps!

~Moon~

Heh-heh. More new things coming from Writers of the Future!

I'm finding regular writing is the key for me ... grammarly app told me yesterday that i've knocked out around 200,000 words in the past few years ... that is writing for an hour or so in the mornings when I can manage (most effective when it is every day) ... trying to ramp up the writing now, so hoping the next few years will take me a way to the magic million 😛

wotf009 I'm finding regular writing is the key for me ... grammarly app told me yesterday that i've knocked out around 200,000 words in the past few years ... that is writing for an hour or so in the mornings when I can manage (most effective when it is every day) ... trying to ramp up the writing now, so hoping the next few years will take me a way to the magic million 😛

Excellent! Becky is logging her words over time as well. I'll be curioius to see how sales correspond to accumulated word count.

Cheers!

I recently broke 400,000 words! I’ve gotta be getting better, right?

I recently broke 400,000 words! I’ve gotta be getting better, right?

At least twice better than me 😉

I recently broke 400,000 words! I’ve gotta be getting better, right?

Awesome, Becky! We get better with every story we write! And that's some serious word count. You just got an HM Q2 as well, and others in the past. Those certificates are like mile markers on the road to professional writing. It means Dave already recognizes that what you're writing has professional potential. You should be seeing personal rejections coming back from pro paying markets as well. That's another marker on the path. And that means a good sale can be just on the horizon.

THAT will be your proof positive that you are now writing at professional level, at least some of the time. You'll have a good, career building sale.

Hopefully right here!

On with Q4!

All the beast,

Wulf Moon

John Goodwin just wrapped up another podcast interview with me today. He said it shold be released tonight, I'll have to go look. This one focuses on what I've been doing after the workshop and gala ended, and advice on branding and marketing. But I also share some important points I learned in the workshop, which I hope can encourage you to stay the course. So do check the WotF homepage and click on the Podcasts sidebar and have a listen!

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

I just got off the phone with Joni. Q3 is going to be awhile yet, so hold that twitching. And no, she doesn't do early release of stories already rejected, because then everyone buries her in emails saying their friend got notice but why haven't they heard on their entry? So those trickles you've been seeing on Grinder are false alarms. The reading and judging process is still ongoing. And if you're one of those people burying Joni in queries, stop that! She's a very busy lady, often working until midnight trying to keep up with everything. Go easy on her.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! AND JONI SAID I CAN NOW ANNOUNCE IT!

Writers of the Future is in the process of bringing you online HOW TO WRITE STORIES lectures and courses! David Farland and Tim Powers have already signed on! You get to learn from the masters, actual WotF workshop instructors, helping you learn the elements of a good story and how to write one! This can really help you soar ahead in your writing, guiding you toward your goal of winning this contest and becoming a professional writer!

Something NEW this way comes!

Stay tuned!

All the beast!

Wulf Moon

John Goodwin just wrapped up another podcast interview with me today. He said it shold be released tonight, I'll have to go look. This one focuses on what I've been doing after the workshop and gala ended, and advice on branding and marketing. But I also share some important points I learned in the workshop, which I hope can encourage you to stay the course. So do check the WotF homepage and click on the Podcasts sidebar and have a listen!

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

I just got off the phone with Joni. Q3 is going to be awhile yet, so hold that twitching. And no, she doesn't do early release of stories already rejected, because then everyone buries her in emails saying their friend got notice but why haven't they heard on their entry? So those trickles you've been seeing on Grinder are false alarms. The reading and judging process is still ongoing. And if you're one of those people burying Joni in queries, stop that! She's a very busy lady, often working until midnight trying to keep up with everything. Go easy on her.

BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! AND JONI SAID I CAN NOW ANNOUNCE IT!

Writers of the Future is in the process of bringing you online HOW TO WRITE STORIES lectures and courses! David Farland and Tim Powers have already signed on! You get to learn from the masters, actual WotF workshop instructors, helping you learn the elements of a good story and how to write one! This can really help you soar ahead in your writing, guiding you toward your goal of winning this contest and becoming a professional writer!

Something NEW this way comes!

Stay tuned!

All the beast!

Wulf Moon

Got to start sending her E-mails so I can stop.
The last part sounds good. Any talk on cost?

I posted a picture on Facebook today of a wide angle view of the banquet hall and stage as I gave my acceptance speech at the WotF 35 gala. Here's the post that followed:

For me, this picture never gets old. After 25 years of trying, I had made it to the Writers of the Future stage with my story "Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler." I wrote that story in 36 hours, 5,000 of those words on the last day of the contest year. As I pushed submit on their portal at 11:56 pm, I knew I had written my winner and began composing my acceptance speech. It might sound odd, but the feeling I had about this story was so strong, it was as if I could see the future.

And now, here I am, back home on the Olympic Peninsula. Gregory Benford isn't around to hand me awards. No crowds are cheering me on as I tell my story. Hundreds of people are no longer lined up to get my autograph and say "Well done." After having so much energy pushed into our writing sails, one could easily feel shock as that wind dies down. We could let the wind spill out, lose all momentum, even ... enter the doldrums.

How do you continue to keep your writing career under close-hauled trim? How do you maintain that forward momentum? I can't answer for others, only myself. But I can tell you my own story, which might just inspire you if you're feeling a wee bit in the doldrums. Stay tuned! Something new is debuting at Writers of the Future!

Been meaning to say this for a while but Wow 25 years. You made it, very good.

And here I thought-at least here on the forum-I was the one in the lead for rejections now that is after the passing of someone else. But I have only been sending in stories for somewhere around 12 years-most would be 15. I can not recall the first time. And there was a period in there that I stopped for a while, again can not recall exactly how long, so it wasn't straight through either. But for you that is big determination, again Wow. Got to read that story.

LDWriter2 wrote: "Been meaning to say this for a while but Wow 25 years. You made it, very good.

And here I thought-at least here on the forum-I was the one in the lead for rejections now that is after the passing of someone else. But I have only been sending in stories for somewhere around 12 years-most would be 15. I can not recall the first time. And there was a period in there that I stopped for a while, again can not recall exactly how long, so it wasn't straight through either. But for you that is big determination, again Wow. Got to read that story."

Thanks, LD. It was indeed 25 years in a row of entering. I never gave up, but some years were so bad, it was down to "I have to get one entry in for the year." I have honor certificates going all the way back to AJ (Algis Budrys). I came close to winning a couple of times during that period. I know this because of the semfinalist critiques you get where judges often tell you how close you came. But I also spoke to KD at a convention about a year after her giving me a semifinalist, mentioned the title of my story, and she said, "You were the one that wrote that?" Holding thumb and forefinger together, she said, "You came THIS close to winning! If you hadn't written a story so close to the 17K max word count, you would have won. I've been trying to get them to lower the max word count, and I just couldn't justify recommending a story as winner after being so vocal against the contest word count. But you wrote a great story."

I was both encouraged and discouraged at the same moment. So close. So far. But it's always good to know you are so close to hitting the bullseye. Alas, I kept getting HMs and rejections after, and then had some major life battles I talk about in my "HERE BE DRAGONS" article in the recent WotF homepage blog article. It was when I brought my wife home from cancer surgery and she was so radioactive from treatment I couldn't be within ten feet of her that I said to myself I have to set a goal toward professional writing that I could reach within my circumstances. And that's when I decided I would without fail enter WotF every quarter, come what may. It took four years of living by that goal to get my win.

The point? Never ever give up. Find ways to keep resetting your course as the storms and sea serpents of life throw you off course. As soon as you slay a dragon, adjust heading again toward your dream. Even tiny course corrections add up over time. And if you hold fast and never give up, you will make your dream a reality. I encourage everyone to read that blog post on the WotF website. It's meant to help you.

As for the online WotF workshops, they are coming. Tim Powers and David Farland have already signed on. There is no discussion of charging for them, however, they may need participants to cover a text book fee or something similar. Author Services is simply applying their mandate--to help new writers get discovered. One way they can advance that directive is to help writers learn the elements of a story and how to write professionally. It will be a very good thing to learn from some of the best authors in speculative fiction.

Stay tuned!

All the beast,

Wulf Moon

I just wanted to state I recently purchased L. Ron Hubbard's Writers Of The Future Anthology, Volume 35 at Barnes and Noble.

The first story I immediately read was SUPER-DUPER MOONGIRL AND THE AMAZING MOON DAWDLER by Wulf Moon.

It was thoroughly enjoyable, well written in the strongest first tense I've ever seen in science-fiction. It exhibits a complete mastery of setting human emotions down on printed page. Another level of expertise for female, young adolescent tween who is the epitome of sympathetic, flawed protagonist.

With this type of skill set, I'm astonished Wulf did not win Writers Of The Future previously, even though I understand he almost did.

A quarter of a century does set a record for sheer persistence, determination and grit. A character trait that's extremely admirable.

All the best,

Retropianoplayer

LDWriter2 wrote: "Been meaning to say this for a while but Wow 25 years. You made it, very good.

And here I thought-at least here on the forum-I was the one in the lead for rejections now that is after the passing of someone else. But I have only been sending in stories for somewhere around 12 years-most would be 15. I can not recall the first time. And there was a period in there that I stopped for a while, again can not recall exactly how long, so it wasn't straight through either. But for you that is big determination, again Wow. Got to read that story."

Thanks, LD. It was indeed 25 years in a row of entering. I never gave up, but some years were so bad, it was down to "I have to get one entry in for the year."
Stay tuned!

All the beast,

Wulf Moon

Not life so much interfering as my writing. I have said this many times but I am not getting better no matter what I do or learn from. Wonder what anyone there would say about my writing, but your circumstances make your success even more amazing. That is something to be proud of and rejoice over.