Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS Workshop & Challenge!

Year 4:

Back in May, when I first started really digging into the Super Secrets thread, @wulfmoon challenged me to get an SHM. Challenge accepted and completed, but I realize that this is only the beginning. There's still a lot of mountain to climb. Onward and upward!

Year Three:

I got a SHM. Congratulations to everyone!

Year 3 (Top Gun):

HM in Q4 for me.

Checking in for Year 3, Top Gun.

• Q1 - Semi-finalist
• Q2 - SMH
• Q3 - SHM
• Q4 - HM

Posted by: @wulfmoon

Assignment.

To those on the roster of Year Four: I said this year would be self-directed; I did not say you’d have no assignments. Go to the Writers of the Future Podcast and listen to the Dean Wesley Smith interview. Dean was my mentor, and is a big reason I’m writing today. Few know more about the current state of the publishing industry than Dean. After listening, share a point or two you learned. You have one week to do this.

Good to see everyone checking in! Nice job keeping up, challenge beasties! And congratulations to a certain beastie from Year One that I mentored and edited that went from unpublished writer to pro! His third pro sale just happened! Not the first here that’s done that, but it’s so good to see. Keep applying the Secrets and doing the exercises. There’s a good reward for your hard work!

Beastmaster Moon

 

Just wanted to respond to this Assignment task. Sorry it is a couple of days late, but I had my first holiday since 2019 in the past couple of weeks.

This was a fantastic podcast. I don't listen to podcasts very often, and my experience with the folk from WotF and Apex has expanded the way I use tools like podcasts and YouTubes and sprints.

I loved two things about this conversation: the insight into writing, and I am kicking myself that I never continued entering WotF in the 1990s ... but life, right?

Firstly, I am in awe of the prolific nature of his writing. I was kind of taught to slow down, that writing takes time--lots of it. The thing I have learned mixing with folks in the WotF/Apex scene is that if you have the tools, writing can be both fun and somewhat speedy.

I also loved hearing about how the business has changed in the last 30 years. I still have an old school print mentality, and hearing people like Dean Wesley Smith talking about self-publishing/indie publishing just makes me leap for joy. I mean, there are still things that likely need the big wigs in the publishing industry, but the fun to be had in indie writing is a huge release for me.

My two major take-aways: 

1. Advice to early authors: write books, build a back list. Website, Amazon, Kobo, D2D, and maybe your own publishing house as an indie house. Don't worry about things like Bookbub until you get 20 books under your belt. 

2. Write fast, write free, and find the balance you need to make it work financially. There is a balance we all strike between writing for market and writing what you love. It's great when you can hit both at the same time. Also, you can be versatile and shift up the genres and markets. 

Year 4. Self reject for Q4, but I'm chipping away at what I need to do this month to keep up with Moon's year 4 challenge. I'm hoping that between Moon's master classes, Dave Farland's 318R class, fyrecon, an awesome writing group, and more time for writing, I'll do much better in Q1 and beyond. I've never managed to send out a Q1 entry before, but this time I'm definitely going to! Anyway I need to craft 3 stories: 2 to submit to respectable markets and 1 to send to WOTF Q1. Also need to do some KYDs to help focus my 3 stories. 😉

And I should add... an awesome mentor.... 

@physa If that mentor you’re referring to is me, thanks, Amy! Just because of that, you’ve made me generate another ASSIGNMENT to continue mentoring all of you. Maybe you won’t be so quick to commend me next time. ?

I know you are all pressed to get Q1s out, so this is a reading assignment. But if you’d like to share a salient point or two you learned from the reading, please do. It helps the Pack. Scot Noel of DreamForge magazine told me the number one issue he sees in submissions he rejects is lack of character agency. Naturally, I wrote a Super Secret to address the issue. Read it. Take notes. Go back to your Q1 and ask: Does my protagonist stand at the threshold and CHOOSE the journey? Or is he or she just swept along by the problem? Go to your climax. Ask: Does my protagonist actively battle it out against the opposition, or do they watch someone else take the blows for them? Do they make any sacrifices to beat the opposing force (or lose to them if it’s a tragedy)? Passive characters are not the stuff of heroes. They have to rise up even if they’ve been passive in their own world (think Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit) and grab destiny by the horns. 

After shuffling their feet, make sure your hero cries out, “I’m going on an adventure!”

You have to the end of the month to study this. Which, by the way, is when your Q1 is due. 

?

Click HERE for the Super Secret!

Beastmaster Moon

The bloody scroll has recorded your successes. Congratulations to our Year 4 Challenge Members on 4th Quarter, Volume 38! Let the records also show that several team members are leveling up with first time achievements:

@jennyperrycarr SHM (First Time Silver!)

@lost_bard SHM (First Time Silver!)

@empressed SHM

@jarrodkwilliams HM (First Time HM!)

@scribblesatdusk HM

Raise a great huzzah for the rewards of perseverance! Three cheers!

Posted by: @lost_bard

The bloody scroll has recorded your successes. Congratulations to our Year 4 Challenge Members on 4th Quarter, Volume 38! Let the records also show that several team members are leveling up with first time achievements:

@jennyperrycarr SHM (First Time Silver!)

@lost_bard SHM (First Time Silver!)

@empressed SHM

@jarrodkwilliams HM (First Time HM!)

@scribblesatdusk HM

Raise a great huzzah for the rewards of perseverance! Three cheers!

We still have the TOPGUN Year Three graduation ceremony to do, but I believe we’re good to go for Year Four results. Thank you, Keeper of Records! And congratulations to every one of you in this Super Secrets Challenge! Huzzah!

@wulfmoon: "@physa If that mentor you’re referring to is me, thanks, Amy! Just because of that, you’ve made me generate another ASSIGNMENT to continue mentoring all of you. Maybe you won’t be so quick to commend me next time. ?"

Noted, :). I've, of course, read this a while ago, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded that a hero acts, makes choices that drives the story to its conclusion. A hero doesn't just let the currents of circumstance carry him or her to the story's climax and watch as the situation is solved by others OR at the last moment realizes that he or she should act after being passive for much of the story.

It's a good lesson that bears study.

Year 4

a HM for me.

I found your pointy toothed rabbit Wulf.

Posted by: @scott_m_sands

Year 4

a HM for me.

The Keeper of Records blew his horn, announcing for all to hear as another name scrawled itself in blood upon the scroll.

"@scott_m_sands achieved an Honorable Mention! This brings the Year 4 challenge up to three Silver Honorable Mentions and three Honorable Mentions for the fourth quarter. Huzzah!"

The crowd cheered and he stepped back from the cave entrance, pulling his fur-lined cloak close against winter's chill. So much success, and with more to come! He rubbed his hands in anticipation.

Year three:

If this isn’t proof these secrets work, idk what is. Thanks to Moon for all his effort and time. Thanks to my writing friends in the pack who have helped me improve.

Keep reading, keep studying, keep writing, keep critiquing each other!

@zeeteebeez you get another trophy?! First the Mike Resnick contest and now this!!! You totally rock! Congratulations!!  

Posted by: @zeeteebeez

Year three:

If this isn’t proof these secrets work, idk what is. Thanks to Moon for all his effort and time. Thanks to my writing friends in the pack who have helped me improve.

Keep reading, keep studying, keep writing, keep critiquing each other!

Super proud of you, Zeet! You studied hard, did the work, listened to counsel, remained humble, and earned the reward. In fact, Two major ones this year! A mentor could not ask for more. We’ll celebrate as the Wulf Pack, but let me say right now …

WELL DONE, ZEET! YOU’VE DONE THE WULF PACK PROUD!

@zeeteebeez 

Amazing news, ZT! I'm thrilled for ya!

And I'm sure there's so much more success to come!

Ok. Now that I can reveal all, I can drop in here.

Q3: Finalist

Q4: Finalist

I'm also a published finalist for Vol. 38

I joined Moon's challenge in Year 1 on the heels of Dustin's 4 in 35 Challenge. I am eternally grateful to him and all of my challenge buddies for sharing writing insights, helpful advice, crit swaps, support, cheering, sympathy, and so much more. I'm so excited for ZT Bright, and stunned I get to meet him in Hollywood next year. Never give up, never surrender! There were (many, many) days I was certain I would never achieve anything like this, and I certainly never thought of Published Finalist!

Posted by: @rschibler

I'm also a published finalist for Vol. 38

WOOOO!!! I am so so so happy and thrilled to read this. You deserve it so much. Congrats!!!

@rschibler Well deserved! You have been a stalwart presence on this forum and have helped a lot of us level up.

Congratulations!

Posted by: @rschibler

Ok. Now that I can reveal all, I can drop in here.

Q3: Finalist

Q4: Finalist

I'm also a published finalist for Vol. 38

I joined Moon's challenge in Year 1 on the heels of Dustin's 4 in 35 Challenge. I am eternally grateful to him and all of my challenge buddies for sharing writing insights, helpful advice, crit swaps, support, cheering, sympathy, and so much more. I'm so excited for ZT Bright, and stunned I get to meet him in Hollywood next year. Never give up, never surrender! There were (many, many) days I was certain I would never achieve anything like this, and I certainly never thought of Published Finalist!

Becky,

Well this is certainly an exciting conclusion to the Year 3 TOPGUN Super Secrets Workshop & Challenge! CONGRATULATIONS! This is treated just like a win in the Contest, because it IS, so be proud of your accomplishment. We certainly are! One of my favorite stories in all of the volumes was a Published Finalist. What's cool about these stories is that they are stories David Farland felt should have been in the anthology, and he uses his power as coordinating judge and editor to bring them back in. It happened for Brittany in Volume 37, and now it's happening for you in Volume 38. WELL DONE!

I'm going to say more in your congratulatory post than I did Zeet's, because I want to show the rest of the workshop members the value of a mentor and why the system I've constructed here works. Why? So they'll stick with it, of course! I'd like everyone to enjoy such rewards! But there are certain things involved to gain them, as your record reveals. So forgive me if I do a little teaching in this. Mentor's privilege in the last class before the graduation ceremony. : )

This is something to note about smart practice with the proper tools, which is what this workshop has always focused on. When you began in Year 1, like most that joined, you had a smattering of rejections and HMs. I edited your writing, as I did for everyone in the workshop that year. We all have issues we have to work on, especially when starting out, and because we don't have the experience yet, these errors are very hard for us to see. This is where a mentor helps. They did the same things, wandered about, but eventually found their way through the forest. That person now has knowledge gained by experience, and perhaps even help from their own mentor if they were fortunate along the way. They can then turn around and show you a clearer path, hand you a compass, and offer guidance along the journey. You still have to do the work. All of it. The mentor just helps you work smarter instead of harder. It can save you a lot of time, as your results have proven. You went from HMs and Rs into Silver HM at the end of Year 1, and you never received a rejection again. In fact, smart practice helped you keep leveling up, and Silvers became as common as raindrops. 

I encouraged you (and others here in the Forum and this workshop) to come to Superstars, where you could gain more knowledge from those ahead of all of us on the path. I had been there, and I knew it would help you. We talked about how to get you there, and I wrote one of your letters of introduction. You were awarded a special WotF Superstars Scholarship, the first of its kind. And I know that seminar opened your eyes to a wider world of publishing. You may recall at the end I encouraged you to form a writing circle from the Forumites that had attended, and told you I believed this group would become a power group if you did so. You listened, formed the group, worked together to level up, and you have all enjoyed tremendous success. Again, the mentor does not do the work for you, they just show you a way that worked for them that they believe will work for you. You did all the work, and enjoyed the fruit of your labors. All of you did, and have accomplished amazing things in record time. You even became an associate editor at Apex, a professional magazine. Well done!

Year 3 was the most remarkable of all. Not only because of what you were accomplishing personally--three Finalists in one year is likely a record--but because of all the giving back you did for others. You were willing to critique for everyone, sharing your valuable knowledge and experience with them. This is what this Contest is all about, this is what my Wulf Pack is all about. I strongly encourage this. There is always someone behind us on the path that could use a helping hand. You have helped many on this Forum. That, more than anything else, makes you a winner.

Of course, this is a writing contest, not a mentoring contest, so your work still has to shine. I have watched your work grow these three years from the early rough diamonds into faceted gems, and I am very happy the Contest has recognized you for what you have achieved through your labors. I look forward to seeing you and four others from the Super Secrets Workshop in Hollywood next year (there would have been FIVE, but Brittany should be having her baby right about then!). I promised you if you did the work, achieving this honor would be within your grasp. 

You did the work and beyond. Belief becomes reality. 

CONGRATULATIONS, REBECCA, GRADUATE OF THE TOPGUN YEAR 3 SUPER SECRETS WORKSHOP! YOU ARE A PUBLISHED FINALIST IN VOLUME 38! WE SALUTE YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENT! SEE YOU IN HOLLYWOOD!

Congratulations Becky, Z.T., and everyone else who placed! 

@rschibler so thrilled for you! You are Top Gun! So honored to have flown with you this past year! 

Now for my news. Year 3 Top Gun cadet:

contract on the way. I wish to encourage you all not to give up. The Super Secrets and Online course work! You can do it too! You will surprise yourself.

Posted by: @zeeteebeez

Year three:

If this isn’t proof these secrets work, idk what is. Thanks to Moon for all his effort and time. Thanks to my writing friends in the pack who have helped me improve.

Keep reading, keep studying, keep writing, keep critiquing each other!

Well done! That is brilliant. I am so completely amazed for you. Enjoy the wonder of this experience, and do share the insights it brings you. I would love to hear how this opens up your writing career.

Posted by: @rschibler

Ok. Now that I can reveal all, I can drop in here.

Q3: Finalist

Q4: Finalist

I'm also a published finalist for Vol. 38

I joined Moon's challenge in Year 1 on the heels of Dustin's 4 in 35 Challenge. I am eternally grateful to him and all of my challenge buddies for sharing writing insights, helpful advice, crit swaps, support, cheering, sympathy, and so much more. I'm so excited for ZT Bright, and stunned I get to meet him in Hollywood next year. Never give up, never surrender! There were (many, many) days I was certain I would never achieve anything like this, and I certainly never thought of Published Finalist!

That is most excellent. I am so very excited for you. What a brilliant outcome. Enjoy the wonder of you win, and let us know how it changes you. I wish you all the good things.

To the Year 4 Challenge Beasties, your Monday KYD prompt is: 

Underground Paradise

Happy writing! Don’t forget your monthly and quarterly requirements! You have to meet them to stay in the challenge. First quarter is about to end! Don't miss your deadline!

Cheers!

Beastmaster Moon

Posted by: @rschibler

Q3: Finalist

Q4: Finalist

I'm also a published finalist for Vol. 38

That is phenomenal! Two finalist stories in a row!!

I've had the great privilege of reading some of your stories- the imagery and characters simply sing.

Congrats!!

Posted by: @crlisle

Now for my news. Year 3 Top Gun cadet:

contract on the way. I wish to encourage you all not to give up. The Super Secrets and Online course work! You can do it too! You will surprise yourself.

Congrats on the sale (@crlisle). 

@rschibler so happy for you! ♥️