Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS Workshop & Challenge!

With today's sad news, I don't feel like working on my main projects today--but I do want to write. Somehow feels like not writing would be exactly wrong. So, I'm going to start with my 1k flash for this prompt, then KYD the hell out of it. Maybe I'll get something good out of it.

Posted by: @doctorjest

With today's sad news, I don't feel like working on my main projects today--but I do want to write. Somehow feels like not writing would be exactly wrong. So, I'm going to start with my 1k flash for this prompt, then KYD the hell out of it. Maybe I'll get something good out of it.

Great plan, Dr Jest. 

April, 2019. Hollywood. Writers of the Future Workshop for the Volume 35 anthology. This photo captures the best fanboy moment of my life. Dave had just signed my copy of Runelords, Tim Powers my copy of Anubis Gates. And then Tim said 'Wait!' and switched them before the shot.

I wanted to look up a Dave Farland writing prompt this morning and this Writing Excuses podcast came up in the search. I thought I'd share because it's so nice to hear his voice: https://writingexcuses.com/tag/dave-wolverton/  although the prompt is more of an exercise. (Do a 15 minute sprint.)

Maybe I'll sprint here in a bit. 😀 Thanks, Dave.

@empressed Wonderful, Vickie. Let’s start our KYDs using that exercise in honor of Dave today. You do know I titled my exercise “Kill Your Darlings” in honor to him for the advice he once gave to me, right? You can hear about it on the WotF Mentorship podcast Brit and I did.

Here’s your Monday prompt:

From dust to dust, yet rising from the ashes.

@wulfmoon Oh my, I love this prompt! Thanks, Moon!

@wulfmoon That's a good prompt to get back into things after a weekend of grief. @empressed: Joining you in sprints in 3... 2... 1... 

Posted by: @mikewyantjr

@wulfmoon That's a good prompt to get back into things after a weekend of grief. @empressed: Joining you in sprints in 3... 2... 1... 

Yeah, I figured it might help. It’s cathartic to write about powerful feelings—when we’re capable of handling them.

@wulfmoon Exactly what I hoped to find from my writing prompt search. I've now put out over 1,000 words for the day and it's time to dust. For the first time since...last winter.  

Since this is where Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS Workshops began, it's fitting I share this announcement here. As posted to my Facebook account on January 18, 2022:

Two cool things happened yesterday! The Wolf Moon rose bright in the night’s sky, and the shiny 2021 Critters Readers’ Choice Awards were announced! Each year, 2500 from around the world vote in forty-one publishing categories for works published in the prior year. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees for their excellent works! I’m happy to announce I won in SIX categories:

1. Best Author: Wulf Moon

2. Best Positive Future Story: “Shaken, Not Stirred” in DreamForge magazine.

3. Best All Other Short Story: “Sophies Parisian Stationery and Parfumerie Magnifique” in the anthology THINGS WITH FEATHERS: STORIES OF HOPE by Third Flatiron Publishing.

4. Best Nonfiction Article: “Character Agency: I Need a Hero!” in DreamForge magazine.

5. Best Writers’ Workshop: Wulf Moon’s SUPER SECRETS

6. Best Writers’ Resource: Wulf Moon’s SUPER SECRETS

In addition, “Shaken, Not Stirred” took Second Place in Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story.

Many thanks are in order. Thank you to Andrew Burt and Critters dot org for sponsoring a contest that focuses their awards on the readers’ choices. Your contest is aptly named!

My deep appreciation goes to publishers Scot and Jane Noel for making “Shaken, Not Stirred” not only free to read, but also the featured story on their DreamForge Anvil website for 2021. Such visibility truly helps! Thank you for publishing my Super Secrets of Writing articles in every issue of DreamForge Anvil as well!

Heartfelt thanks go to publisher Juli Rew of Third Flatiron Publishing, who chose “Sophies Parisian Stationery and Parfumerie Magnifique”–my 24-hour story from the Writers of the Future Workshop–as the “anchoring story” of her anthology. And thanks to reviewer Eamonn Murphy at SFcrowsnest for reporting that the story was “damn good” and “an original idea and well-handled.”

Special thanks go to Fyrecon for inviting me to their convention last year as a master guest, and for featuring four of my Super Secrets master workshops as part of their programming. And I will always be grateful to Writers of the Future for creating a forum for writers to share their knowledge, which is where the Super Secrets began. Congratulations to Writers of the Future for winning Best Writers’ Forum! And to David Farland, my mentor. He would have been so happy to know the anthology he edited, Writers of the Future Vol. 37, won Best Anthology. He took great pride in that anthology.

Finally, my greatest thanks and happy howls go to the Wulf Pack–my workshop and fan club members that have supported me in my publishing endeavors. And to all of you that read my work, that supported my workshops, that voted in the awards, or just took the time to read this post. You’re on my friends’ list for a reason. It means “you’re one of my kind.”

THANK YOU, FRIENDS!

All the beast!

Wulf Moon

@wulfmoon Congratulations to you Wulf Moon and to all of the other winners! You earned it

Good day, Super Secrets’ challenge beasties! Today’s Monday prompt is:

Running from yourself.

Have at it! May you discover your winner by exercising your writing muscles through the creation process! 

Beastmaster Moon

@wulfmoon 

I don't think I want this one.

My first story just got picked up by DreamForge Magazine!

It's weird to think that I'll get paid actual money for words I wrote. Weird, but exciting.

I know that we normally post publications to the "Success" folder, but I wanted to use this opportunity to plug the value of doing KYDs. This story was expanded from a KYD I did during Wulf Moon's KYD Workshop back in August. It wouldn't have been nearly as strong if I hadn't forced it down from 1000 words of interesting ramblings to a powerful 250-word vignette with a true beating heart. Then I expanded it up, sent it out for a couple rounds of rejections, then got picked up by DreamForge.

KYDs work when you do them right. @wulfmoon--thanks for sharing this powerful story building tool with us.

Time to go write another one.

Posted by: @lost_bard

My first story just got picked up by DreamForge Magazine!

It's weird to think that I'll get paid actual money for words I wrote. Weird, but exciting.

I know that we normally post publications to the "Success" folder, but I wanted to use this opportunity to plug the value of doing KYDs. This story was expanded from a KYD I did during Wulf Moon's KYD Workshop back in August. It wouldn't have been nearly as strong if I hadn't forced it down from 1000 words of interesting ramblings to a powerful 250-word vignette with a true beating heart. Then I expanded it up, sent it out for a couple rounds of rejections, then got picked up by DreamForge.

KYDs work when you do them right. @wulfmoon--thanks for sharing this powerful story building tool with us.

Time to go write another one.

Congratulations. That’s so exciting.

@lost_bard Congrats!!!  That's so exciting!   

Maybe we will share ToC... I have another story coming out with them sometime this year (don't know which Issue yet).  Scot and Jane are wonderful to work with -- so excited for you!

Huge congrats on the sale!  

Fantastic news @lost_bard! Congratulations!

Great work @LostBard !! Lots of people loved that one!

How terrific that you've been working really hard and are now seeing results. Really happy for you. 

@lost_bard congratulations!

Posted by: @lost_bard

My first story just got picked up by DreamForge Magazine!

It's weird to think that I'll get paid actual money for words I wrote. Weird, but exciting.

I know that we normally post publications to the "Success" folder, but I wanted to use this opportunity to plug the value of doing KYDs. This story was expanded from a KYD I did during Wulf Moon's KYD Workshop back in August. It wouldn't have been nearly as strong if I hadn't forced it down from 1000 words of interesting ramblings to a powerful 250-word vignette with a true beating heart. Then I expanded it up, sent it out for a couple rounds of rejections, then got picked up by DreamForge.

KYDs work when you do them right. @wulfmoon--thanks for sharing this powerful story building tool with us.

Time to go write another one.

You are most welcome, David! So many have turned out stories from my KYD exercise that have gotten published and won awards that I’ve now lost count. But you’re the first to do it directly in my KYD master workshop; I knew you had a winner as soon as you read your finished product to the class. Congratulations for completing the assignment, which is phase four of the exercise—to expand the potent 250-word vignette out into a working story focused on the beating heart discovered in the exercise. The system really works, as you and others have proved over and over again. Well done!

I am so happy to see unpublished workshop members apply the principles, do the work, and use the Secrets to achieve their first respectable sales. It is a hallmark of the Super Secrets Workshop. To all of you that accepted and are now in the Year 4 challenge, this is why I require the monthly KYDs. Take note of what David here just did, what Crystal has done, what Zac accomplished with his (turned a KYD into his Resnick Award winner). There is a good reward for had work, but rewards come faster when you do smart practice.

David Farland wrote that it takes seven years of practice on average to achieve your first sale. This group has been doing it between one to three years. So stay the course! There’s a good reward for doing smart work.

I look forward to seeing all your wonderful results in this coming year, including seeing more of you win the greatest talent search for speculative fiction writers in the world—Writers of the Future.

All the beast!

Beastmaster Moon

Congratulations to David. I loved the gingerbread story. I think we all knew it was a matter of time for that one to be picked up. Bask on your first pub, partner

Reporting for the TOP-GUN challenge January 2022:

1. 3 Fresh stories (word counts: 2300, 5500, 4500) 2 fully edited.

2. Agressively edited a past story for WoTF Q2 submission, it's ready (I think).

3. 1xKYD

4. Submitted to 10+ markets (lost the exact count)

Did some other editing stuff besides and binge-watched Farland's courses to feel he's still there.

I'll send in my report for January Workshop Challenge requirements:

1. x1 story, edited (currently 6300w approx.)

2. No submission to WotF Q2 yet. It will likely be the story I just finished.

3. x1 KYD on the 'War Pig' prompt. Oink, oink.

4. Submitted to x3 markets. (A slow start, given my goal of 100+ subs for the year, but I've been readying/editing quite a number of my stories. I hope to get many more next month)

I'm currently doing the 318R course, so I've been watching a fair few of the 'lectures' and doing those assignments, too.

Love hearing how you’re all doing in meeting, and exceeding!, this year’s Challenge. Keep up the great work. 

This is the way.

January check in for Year 4.

1. Wrote 3 novel chapters (>3000 words)

2. 1 KYD written for Dust To Dust prompt

3. Working on my Q2 WotF submission, still have time there

4. Submitted 2 stories so far this quarter to pro markets

I'm also doing the 318R course.

January isn't over! Stop these early posts, they're freaking me out!! Hah but seriously I did everything (new story at 6.8k words) except rewrite my KYD back up to 1000 which is what the next 2 days will be for. 

Well, since we’re all reporting early:

—Challenge members report your mighty deeds for January! Scrawl your names in blood upon the scroll.

At a minimum, you should have written one fresh 3K+ story/chapter and completed one KYD. Quarterly requirements are to submit to WotF and three respectable markets.

I have written one fresh story (5K), completed a KYD on ‘Dust to Dust,’ submitted to three markets, and got my first acceptance.

Year 4. I did 1 kyd and wrote >3,000 words on a new story so I'm good for now. I have yet to submit anything to a paying market, but hope to do better next month.

I'm hoping to work on a second kyd tomorrow.

All three of my submitted stories for Q1 were rejected, I received a personal rejection with feedback (and promise of feedback) for 2 of them.

Obviously we are all still waiting to hear about our Q1 entries. I think I know what my Q2 entry will be.

I had planned to be more productive this first month of Q2, but Dave Farland's untimely death took a lot of the wind from my sails. I was literally reviewing one of his fall 318R videos when I saw folks posting about his horrible fall down the stairs. I had hoped to receive his feedback on the last 2 story assignments for his class but alas... In honor of Dave, I purchased all 8 books of his Runelord series and plan to read them all.

@jennyperrycarr 

I'd love to message you (probably on discord) Jenny when we get a little further into the 318R we're both doing. See how your group/progress (and mine, too!) is going. 

@scott_m_sands How does the 318R class work this spring? I took it last semester and we had biweekly meetings with live lecture, assigned groups, assignments. It was a great class and I got a lot out of weekly meetings with my writing group.