Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS Workshop & Challenge!

@rjklee Thanks, Ryland! I’m more happy for our challenge beastie than for me! So fun to share TOC with the Pack! Congratulations on your first respectable sale! And that crisp dollar they sent you to frame! Business owners frame the first dollar they earn on opening day. It’s a cool idea to do this with writers! Congrats! I’m proud of you getting in that Cryptids anthology! Cheers!

This is separate from the sale above I announced. Signed the contract and emailed it back, so it's official now. I have an SF story that will be published in Galaxy's Edge, the late Mike Resnick's magazine. Mike was a WotF Contest judge, loved by all. He created this magazine to help aspiring writers, and published many WotF winners. I told the publisher that appearing in these pages means a great deal to me, and here's an excerpt:

"I am most pleased to have a story appear in the pages of Galaxy’s Edge. I wrote to Lezli [the editor] the reason why, and would like to share it with you:

“Thank you for the wonderful news! You have made me very happy. Mike Resnick was one of the four judges that chose my “Super-Duper Moongirl …” story for Writers of the Future, creating wonderful lift to my career. I always wanted to thank him in person, but it was not meant to be. But this feels like he’s helping me again, through one he loved and trained.

Thank you.”

Speaking of the great Mike Resnick, we have two, count them, TWO TOP GUN Super Secrets Workshop members that are FINALISTS in the Mike Resnick Memorial Award!!! Winners are about to be announced this Sunday at DragonCon! Best wishes and godspeed to Zach Bright and Christopher Henckel!!! You make us proud!

Best of luck Zach and Christopher!
You're already gun writers.     

MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION! You heard about Ari Officer and Elizabeth Ticknor achieving FINALIST in the Baen Adventure Fantasy Award. Both are alumni from Year Two of the Super Secrets Workshop, and we couldn't be more proud of them! EXTRA CONGRATULATIONS to ELIZABETH TICKNOR who WON FIRST PLACE this weekend at Baen's award ceremony at DragonCon! Well done, Liz! That's a mighty award!

Here's another mighty award, and we'll give it some fanfare because this is for the current TOP GUN Super Secrets Workshop. TWO OUT OF OUR EIGHT WORKSHOP MEMBERS THIS YEAR MADE FINALIST IN THE MIKE RESNICK MEMORIAL AWARD FOR NEW WRITERS!!!! CHRISTOPHER HENCKEL AND ZAC BRIGHT! 

RESULTS JUST ANNOUNCED! DRUMROLL PLEASE! ...

CHRISTOPHER HENCKEL TAKES THIRD PLACE!

This honor includes includes prize money, respectable pay for his story, and publication in the esteemed GALAXY’S EDGE magazine founded by Mike Resnick! Not only that, Christopher also earned FINALIST recently in Writers of the Future. WELL DONE, CHRISTOPHER!

ZACH BRITE TAKES FIRST PLACE!!!

This honor includes includes $250 prize money, respectable pay for his story, and publication in the esteemed GALAXY’S EDGE magazine founded by Mike Resnick! Well done, Zeet! You have made the Wulf Pack proud. Why? Because you proved it CAN be done, and you showed us HOW it’s done. Humble writer, accepting counsel from his mentor, working with the Pack, and doing smart practice by writing fresh stories and sending them out.

This is the way.

WELL DONE TO BOTH OF THESE SUPER SECRETS CHALLENGE BEASTIES!!! WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU! CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR FIRST RESPECTABLE SALES, A MAJOR GOAL OF THIS WORKSHOP!!!

So MANY congratulations to Liz, Zach and Chris! You inspire us.  

The successes being witnessed on this forum are amazing.  

Your Monday Writing prompt is here!

“My god, what have I done?”

Courtesy of our forumite David Hankins! Thank you, David! Eternal glory! ?

Sale! AT LAST, I've signed the contract and can tell you that my story "Invasion" will be appearing in Daily Science Fiction. This is my first pro sale and I am thrilled beyond belief! The story idea came to me while watching tourists visiting the Arch in St. Louis. I will let you know when my story is published on their website. I think they will let me post a link, but anyway ... YAHOO!!!

It is a flash written from a KYD.

Posted by: @crlisle

Sale! AT LAST, I've signed the contract and can tell you that my story "Invasion" will be appearing in Daily Science Fiction. This is my first pro sale and I am thrilled beyond belief! The story idea came to me while watching tourists visiting the Arch in St. Louis. I will let you know when my story is published on their website. I think they will let me post a link, but anyway ... YAHOO!!!

It is a flash written from a KYD.

CONGRATULATIONS, CANDICE! YOUR FIRST RESPECTABLE SALE! WELL DONE!

This was a major goal I had for the Top Gun year, that each of you would achieve at least one respectable sale. That's on top of seeing more of you achieve finalists and wins in WotF ... and that story has two more quarters for additional happy endings! How thrilled I was to hear this was crafted from my Kill Your Darlings Exercise, a monthly challenge requirement for the workshop this year. Well done!

This deserves a howling! Congrats again! We look forward to reading your work!

WOW! @retropianoplayer I just saw your post. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks everyone for your kind words!!!!!

And congratulations to @wulfmoon @crlisle, @retropianoplayer, Liz, Brittany, Ari, Zeet, Ryland. 

.... I feel like I'm missing more people...    There's a lot of successes going on here!

And to Catherine B who takes the prize for the most beautiful non-writing success 

Posted by: @henckel

Thanks everyone for your kind words!!!!!

And congratulations to @wulfmoon @crlisle, @retropianoplayer, Liz, Brittany, Ari, Zeet, Ryland. 

.... I feel like I'm missing more people...    There's a lot of successes going on here!

And to Catherine B who takes the prize for the most beautiful non-writing success 

And Emily with her first pro paying sale, soon to be announced. And Crystal with her first respectable sale to DreamForge Anvil, coming out next month! Candice with her first pro sale at DSF! And Becky as Finalist, and assistant editor at Apex, a pro magazine, is no small thing! EVERYONE in this Top Gun year Super Secrets Workshop has knocked the ball out of the park! WELL DONE! AND IT'S NOT OVER!!!

Thanks everyone!

I’m just one of a long string of successes for this group. Proud to be amongst so many great writers!

All those stories of success are very enticing. So much so that I'm thinking about taking part in this. But I confess I'm a little overwhelmed; where do I start?

Posted by: @alexvss

All those stories of success are very enticing. So much so that I'm thinking about taking part in this. But I confess I'm a little overwhelmed; where do I start?

Alex. I did open call for forumites at the start of each contest year for two years. But, while I’m happy to help, the large group was demanding too much time last year, and I missed out on my own deadlines helping workshop members make theirs. This year, it’s still forumites as it should be, but they had to qualify by certificate rank. Whittled the size down for me, and my editing business has grown so I’m still trying to keep up with this hard-working group of Top Gun year members. The results you are seeing are the result of hard work and guidance, both from myself, the WotF Online Workshop, and my own Super Secrets. I have also encouraged each to use this group to find their writing partner, and to run as a Wulf Pack as one member named us, using the training to form writing rings to critique one another’s work before sending it in to the contest or out to market. They push one another toward excellence.

I conduct it in the open so anyone can follow along. Some even commit to the annual challenge privately, though not officially enrolled. A handful of this year’s finalists are among that group. How do I know? They write to me, telling me they’ve been following along silently. Good. That’s why I created this in the open, and didn’t close it off to some pay site. It’s here to help, and you don’t need to be in it to win it. You just have to do the work.?

My advice? Everyone does at least one KYD exercise a month, based on one of the Monday prompts. Start with that goal. Many have won doing those. Even Zac’s Resnick Award win was created from a KYD. The exercise is linked in the very first post of this thread so you can learn how to do it. Follow the instructions exactly, or you will gain minimal benefits.

Next, commit to writing fresh stories. Top Gun year members write two per quarter of 3000 words or more. And they send them to WotF AND to other respectable markets. We are about excellence in craft while seeking to see our works published in respectable markets. We believe writers should be paid for their work, and we know the higher the pay, the more the readership likely is. We want our stories to be read. Seeing them published in respectable markets is the key.

There is also a folder for those not enrolled to share in getting feedback on the exercises. Liz started that. Some are using that to good advantage.

Many read through the Secrets through the TOC at the start of this thread. Leah Ning won WotF on her second try after finding those and studying them like a hawk. I think she knows the Secrets better than I now.? Jason Toth from Author Services spent a great deal of time working on those, linking them back up for your benefit. Study them. Add them to your knowledge from the WotF Online Workshop.

Practice is great. 

Smart practice is better.

I wish you much success in your writing. I wrote the Super Secrets to help.

All the beast!

Wulf Moon

@wulfmoon Will do. Thanks for the help!

Just tuned in.

Thank you, Christopher Henckel! You've come a long way, and will continue to reach the stars! I still remember when the 17 of us were 37th Challenge Beasties. And the KYD exercises are extremely useful in crafting a novel – not only in editing, but in maximizing descriptive prose, and power verbs. Took damn near 7 years, but I got the A story to sync with the B story (the Action Story/Character Arc story) as far as Plot Points, Midpoint, Low Point, Climax, and Resolution, lol.

Anyway, best of luck to your continued success!

Regards,

Retro

Congratulations Wulf Moon!

I honestly didn't think I could make a sale. Even the weekend before I got the email, I was talking to my husband about how I should maybe quit writing. I talked often about quitting writing over the last five years, I didn't though. When I told my Mom about it, she said I didn't seem very excited. I still can't believe it actually happened. Years of submitting, getting a rejection and finding somewhere else to send stories finally paid off.

The story is called "The Soul of Trees", maybe sometime in the next month I'll actually believe that this is happening!

I'm so thankful for Wulf's guidance, and to the group here in the Wulf pack as well as on the forum for reading my stories, and letting me read their stories as well. 

Posted by: @ajzach

Congratulations Wulf Moon!

I honestly didn't think I could make a sale. Even the weekend before I got the email, I was talking to my husband about how I should maybe quit writing. I talked often about quitting writing over the last five years, I didn't though. When I told my Mom about it, she said I didn't seem very excited. I still can't believe it actually happened. Years of submitting, getting a rejection and finding somewhere else to send stories finally paid off.

The story is called "The Soul of Trees", maybe sometime in the next month I'll actually believe that this is happening!

I'm so thankful for Wulf's guidance, and to the group here in the Wulf pack as well as on the forum for reading my stories, and letting me read their stories as well. 

Emily. So wonderful to hear your words and how this workshop helped, as well as our Wulf Pack that was formed to keep you running strong. It really helps not to go it alone. But as time goes on and others get sales and honors, it’s easy to question if you have what it takes. It can get painful, even debilitating. I know ... it’s the reason I created this workshop, to significantly reduce that painful learning curve so you’d stay in the game.

I’m overjoyed to see it’s helped so many. Once you hold that book in your hands—next month!—your belief in yourself will increase tenfold. As Dean Wesley Smith once said to me, “You’re a published writer!” It’s a big deal to make that first sale, for so many wonderful reasons.

<salutes you> Carry on, Top Gunner.

Now gear up and get back in those skies! I better see some amazing flying out of you pilots this month! Top Gun school is almost over! Write another fresh story and get your mates to help you pick your winner.

Dismissed.

ATTENTION, Naval Aviators. Your Monday prompt, on TUESDAY. : )  I was a little distracted yesterday, as you'll see by a following post.

KILL YOUR DARLINGS.

You know the exercise, now know the prompt! There's just got to be a way you can make a story out of that! And if you can't figure it out, there's a story in the next issue of DreamForge Anvil that did with that very title! And I've been commissioned to write an article on this subject in that October 15th issue as well. If that's not enough, I'm teaching a master workshop on my famous KYD writing exercise at Fyrecon on Sunday, November 21st, 11 AM to 4 PM Mountain Time! You've sweated over this saying doing the exercise, now sweat over it as the genesis of the exercise!

And a reminder to all in this workshop (and to those looking on). Two weeks left before this contest year ends. Get something in, even if you have to throw a hail Mary! But let's face it, two weeks is plenty of time to write a fresh story, even to get it critiqued and spit shined before the contest close. Don't get caught with your pants down! You still have time to create your winner! YOU ARE TOP GUN WARRIORS!

Additional bonus counsel. An editor recently told me the two most common things he rejects stories for is lack of character agency and INFODUMPS! Don't take a dump in your story! ESPECIALLY in the beginning! Try to hold it, will ya? And if you need help with understanding character agency and why it's important, I'll post my latest DreamForge article to help you. 

You have your orders. Fortune favor the brave. Dismissed.

Commander "Beastmaster" Moon

The editor's comments:

"This Super Secret is on proactive vs. passive heroes. In many submissions from beginners, the protagonist is swept along by circumstance, passively reacting to events instead of exercising their will over events to change their circumstances. It’s a big problem among hopeful writers, often creating a weak internal character arc and failing to engage the reader!"

I am quite certain first reader Kary English and coordinating contest judge David Farland feel the same about this issue. Here's how to fix it once and for all so your Q4s can soar instead of snore!

CLICK HERE TO READ THIS SUPER SECRET

Southeastern Writers Association was founded in 1975. Their co-president Amy Wethington is actually one of our WotF Forum members! The organization hosts a writing contest every year. Blind submissions, just like WotF, but unlike WotF, any writer can enter, so professionals also submit their work. This year had ten categories. I entered four, and was notified I was a finalist. The award ceremony was held last night, and I'm pleased to announce I won in each category I entered! Here were my results:

1. Second Place in the Microcosm Award for a fantasy flash story.

2. First Place in the Vega Award for Speculative Short Fiction--weird Western for the win!

3. Second Place for Historical Fiction with a new short story based on the world of my Spanish Captain Capricho.

4. Third Place in the Southern Pen Bookshop First Novel Award.

 

Winners receive certificates and nice cash prizes for each award. Cheers!

 

 

@wulfmoon Holy Schamolies! Where's my wolf howling emoji? Congratulations!!!  

@empressed Thank you, Victoria! It was a wonderful night.

Contest coordinator Joni called me this morning. Solid COVID protocols in place for the October workshop and gala; I am relieved. I'll be writing the WotF Blog on what the winners are up to each day. I'll also be teaching in a one hour panel on Marketing Day. That's the day after the gala where they select from the attending pros to talk about the marketing/promotion side of the business. These are lightning one-hour rounds where you drink from the firehose of assembled knowledge. I look forward to helping the new winners with their careers! I invite all to keep up with those blogs and to watch the livestreamed award ceremony. Picturing yourself there can give you strong motivation to stay the course and make your turn a reality. Joni said they spend $30,000 on each winner, and ASI president John Goodwin has told me the same. Keep seeking this honor, it is worth every effort.

You know the way.

See you in Hollywood!

@wulfmoon  Congratulations on your Southeastern wins. That's a great deal of awards! And best of luck on your upcoming October galas. 

Best,

Retropianoplayer

@retropianoplayer  Thank you, Retro! I bought your book when you announced it. I now need to find the time to read ...

Moon, that's an impressive sweep of wins. Congratulations!

@henckel Thank you, Christopher. Congratulations on making the front page of your New Zealand newspaper! Nice!!!