Wulf Moon's SUPER SECRETS Workshop & Challenge!

Posted by: @wulfmoon

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Don't miss Wulf Pack Writer Robert "Fred" Lowell's wonderful blog post "The Second Spring" on the WotF Blog! Excellent advice to not let age hold you back from achieving your goals and dreams!

https://writersofthefuture.com/the-second-spring/

Age? Did someone say something about age? According to Fred's essay, when I win WotF I'll set a new record.  

Posted by: @ehonour

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Posted by: @wulfmoon

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Don't miss Wulf Pack Writer Robert "Fred" Lowell's wonderful blog post "The Second Spring" on the WotF Blog! Excellent advice to not let age hold you back from achieving your goals and dreams!

https://writersofthefuture.com/the-second-spring/

Age? Did someone say something about age? According to Fred's essay, when I win WotF I'll set a new record.  

 

Go forth and conquer, Doc! We look forward to seeing you on that stage!

Moon

A quick KYD prompt because life got in the way today:

Ransom note

Have fun! One day left to meet the Q2 deadline!

Beastmaster Moon

Your KYD "Kill Your Darlings" Weekly Prompt

A missing girl was recently found in Arizona using new technology to solve a cold case. She had been missing for decades and was now thirty-two years old. 

Finding the victim alive after that many years? That rarely happens when cracking a cold case. But new science advances CSI, and science helps detectives solve cases where clues and leads have gone cold.

What scientific advancements will help detectives solve cases in the future? Another avenue to explore ... in your science fiction!

Here's your KYD prompt: 

Cold Case

Want to read a great SF detective story to give you some ideas? Read my buddy Steve Pantazis' winning story in Writers of the Future Vol. 31. "Switch." And here's a link to his article about the win, and some advice for you as well!

https://writersofthefuture.com/the-win/

Have fun! Your Q3 won't write itself. Get an early start on the quarter and move to the head of the class! Neener, neener, neener!  

All the beast!

Beastmaster Moon

Just a celebratory note that my room block for Wulf Moon's St. Augustine Writers' Workshop and Retreat has now sold out. After I was the keynote speaker for the Southeastern Writers Association Seminar in St. Simons Island, Georgia last year, I drove down to St. Augustine for research. Wow! This oldest city in the US was packed with historical events, with many of the historic sites still standing, like the Spanish Castillo de San Marcos fortress! I quickly recognized it would be the perfect location to hold a short story or novel generation workshop, and rented the Hilton Garden Inn's conference room to conduct one in. I negotiated a fantastic discount for attendees as well. 

And now our room block has sold out. I've taught many sold out workshops, some with as many as fifty registration slots. But this was the first time I've taught the Super Secrets at a physical location outside of teaching in association with a convention or seminar. And the Hilton Garden Inn has a beautiful conference room. I'm looking forward to this new venture with the Super Secrets of Writing workshops, started right here after I won Writers of the Future!

All the best!

Moon

Dang, wish I could make it this year. Hold next year's on the West Coast!

Oooh! COLD case....right up my alley. Thanks!

Posted by: @robertflowell

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Dang, wish I could make it this year. Hold next year's on the West Coast!

I hope to hold one in St. Augustine annually, Fred. It is such an inspiring place, perfect for the retreat-like atmosphere I want attendees to experience. The Hilton we’ve chosen enhances that even further.😊

West Coast would have some great supporters for sure, like you! It’s something we are seriously talking about, as it’s easier to get to and less expensive for ones out here. One step at a time …

Thanks!

Beastmaster Moon

Posted by: @glenda-thompson

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Oooh! COLD case....right up my alley. Thanks!

 

It is! Just put a speculative twist on your detective knowledge and you’ve got a new WotF entry, Glenda! And I know you’re married to the perfect resource to help you add those realistic details to make your story seem real.😊👮‍♂️🚔

Make it so!

Beastmaster Moon

Your KYD "Kill Your Darlings" Weekly Prompt

You're SF fans; I'm certain all of you kept up with the Artemis II mission aboard the Orion spacecraft. I watched NASA's live broadcasts as much as I could each day--I was a boy again that watched the Apollo missions when men landed on the Moon. No landing this time, but the crew did travel to the far side of the Moon where they were completely cut off from radio transmissions for about forty minutes. 

And there's your prompt. Use it in any way you see fit:

Blackout

Remember: Boldly go in your writing where no writer has gone before!

All the beast!

Beastmaster Moon

Lots of ways to go with this prompt. Good one @wulfmoon!

Posted by: @crlisle

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Lots of ways to go with this prompt. Good one @wulfmoon!

My mind drifts to space travel (as in extreme gravitational fields of a blackhole), or time travel (as in the sudden extinguishment of all stage lights in a theater to indicate the passage of time, which could also mark the end of a scene.)

Posted by: @toddsjones

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Posted by: @crlisle

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Lots of ways to go with this prompt. Good one @wulfmoon!

My mind drifts to space travel (as in extreme gravitational fields of a blackhole), or time travel (as in the sudden extinguishment of all stage lights in a theater to indicate the passage of time, which could also mark the end of a scene.)

 

All great ideas, Todd! I was thinking about the blackout in communications with the Artemis II crew myself: first when they went behind the Moon, second when the plasma from entry into Earth's atmosphere cut off their communications. Those were incredible moments for us all to witness live. And I'm glad they got back alive. 

Your KYD "Kill Your Darlings" Weekly Prompt

You're SF fans; I'm certain all of you kept up with the Artemis II mission aboard the Orion spacecraft. I watched NASA's live broadcasts as much as I could each day--I was a boy again that watched the Apollo missions when men landed on the Moon. No landing this time, but the crew did travel to the far side of the Moon where they were completely cut off from radio transmissions for about forty minutes. 

And there's last week's prompt. 

Blackout

Guess what? I think we need a 'There and back again' prompt to go with that last Artemis II mission prompt. Here you go, my happiest moment from the entire mission:

Splashdown

All the beast!

Beastmaster Moon

Monday KYD prompt, here we come!

Veils. They can be literal or figurative. They are the nebulous dividers that separate one realm from another, one person from another. How do we see past the veil, and what lies on the other side?

Tell us ... with a winning story!

Show me the ... magic!

Piercing the veil

I'm off to Florida to teach Wulf Moon's St. Augustine Writing Workshop and Retreat at the Hilton Garden Inn. I'd invite you but it's SOLD OUT! 😀 

See you next time!

Beastmaster Moon

Monday KYD prompt, here we are!

The workshop I held at the Hilton Garden Inn in St. Augustine was a success--everyone went home saying they had a great time. They certainly have the jump on some exciting stories that nailed their openings!

Today, I was at the Spanish fortress and saw a display explaining a feature of its star-shaped structure and discovered today's prompt.

Crossfire

Don't get caught in it!

All the beast!

Beastmaster Moon

I'm back from St. Augustine, Florida, and the writing workshop and retreat I held at the Hilton Garden Inn there. We had a wonderful time with the attendees, and had so much fun exploring that historic city for story ideas. Amazing story openings were written, and I'm hoping with the guidance given we'll see a few winners come out of that workshop. They all showed great promise, and what an uplifting place to refresh and rejuvenate our souls. Maybe that's because many of us drank from the Fountain of Youth! I'm definitely hosting this workshop/retreat again there next year--we already have three signed up and I haven't even locked in the new contract yet!

Never fear, there's plenty you can do virtually for free in the Super Secrets of Writing, including reading the many posts over the years to help you write a winning story! You don't even need to get the book--I just did that to make it easier for all of you. Study hard, write smart, understand what makes a story work, and you'll speed up the process!

Speaking of speeding up the process, that's what my KYD Kill Your Darlings exercise does! Many WotF winners said it's what helped them break out and finally win--in fact, some winning stories were created from these very prompts. Try it! Here's today's prompt:

Zoonotic infections

If you've been keeping up with the news, you know why! 

All the beast!

Beastmaster Moon

HAPPY KYD MONDAY!!!

I'm writing beside the sea right now finishing up a novel, and since it's Monday, that spawned today's Super Secrets of Writing Kill Your Darlings prompt. KYD for you home gamers! 

I teach an entire Super Secrets of Writing Workshop on how to write winning titles--after all, my Writers of the Future winner came about when I noticed many Hugo and Nebula winners had crazy titles and it made me realize why they work: done properly, they hook the reader before they even read your story! So I developed an exercise to come up with my own wild title, and when I got done, I had "Super-Duper Moongirl and the Amazing Moon Dawdler." No story. Just a wild title.

After I believed I had nailed the title, I asked myself who is this Moongirl, and what's a Moon Dawdler? No clue, so I looked at Moongirl and said the equivalent  of "Talk to me Goose" like Maverick did in Top Gun. And I did what I like to do when launching stories--I wrote a 250-word introduction where the girl I named Dixie talked to me, and I had her tell me who she is. Want to read what I wrote? It's the opening to my Volume 35 winner, go get it! After writing what I believed were decent stories for twenty-five years of entering Writers of the Future, it was my crazy title story that finally broke through.

Coincidence? When my story was introduced from the award stage, Dr. Gregory Benford said, "The title alone makes you want to read this story. At least it does for me." The audience roared. But what nobody knew, including Dr. Benford, was that I had developed a title exercise for that story to make it win--it wouldn't have existed without doing that. Mission accomplished!

In my workshop, I cite several epic novels and ask the audience if they can do a better job on the titles than the authors did. I've conducted this workshop several times over the years and all the participants try to best them. I've only seen one substitution that possibly could have been better. Normally, the entire class is stumped. They can't think up any better titles, and these are highly creative people!

Guess what? So were the epic writers that came up with those titles. They knew this secret and worked it like a boss.

Here's a title I have writers in my workshop try to best: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. They can't. Anything else they suggest sounds cheap.

But I can use it to spawn a KYD prompt idea for you today!

Undersea adventure

Dive deep!

Beastmaster Moon

@wulfmoon Thank you for continuing these prompts.

I wrote a story about a civilization under the sea, but the water was more of a background environment than a foreground element. Interesting to think about Nemo (the fish or the captain) on another planet under the sea or a sea on Earth. Even more interesting is a short storing using a more obscure definition like, "A wave or swell, especially a large one." As in, "a 40-foot sea that broke over the stern."

Thanks for appreciating the steady supply of KYD prompts!

Now … Dive! Dive! Dive!

Write the tale, Todd! You’ve got this! You’re a WotF Finalist! That’s big stuff! 😊

Cheers!

Beastmaster Moon

Your KYD "Kill Your Darlings" Writing Prompt

I confess I'm a day late because I decided not to work on the holiday yesterday. But I'm here today with your next writing prompt for the week! Speaking of confessions, as my mia culpa, I offer two prompts for you to choose from today!

I need to confess 

OR

Confessor's con

Why all this talk about confessing? I dunno, I've done nothing wrong. You?  

I do know as soon as someone says, "I need to confess something," our ears perk up and our adrenaline surges. Confessions automatically come with levels of drama. And drama? That's what makes page-turners and winning stories!

May your writing be blessed with no hail Mary's at the end of this quarter. Write now so you have time to let your story sit before checking it over. Editing--or worse, rewriting--just after you've finished the act of creation is a terrible time to evaluate your work. You're usually exhausted, and everything looks lousy when we're tired. Rest a bit, even overnight will help, before going back to look over your work. 

Best of success!

Beastmaster Moon

Excellent advice!

1. @wulfmoon no Hail Marys...Great advice!

"Wulf Moon SUPER SECRETS – Say What You Mean and Mean What You Say"

That's right! The latest in my award-winning Super Secrets of Writing series is out in DreamForge Magazine!

Here's the editor's comments:

Good prose lands with precision. Wulf Moon shows how trimming filler, filter words, and weak adverbs can turn shaky flybys into bullseye splashdowns for editors.

I write these to help writers like YOU to advance! Don't miss it!

To read the article for FREE, click HERE!

In other news, this topic where the Super Secrets of Writing began just passed 1.2 million views! Awesome! Thanks for reading, everyone! To your good writing!

Cheers!

Beastmaster Moon

Monday KYD prompt, here we are!

I've been swamped making arrangements for another writing workshop and retreat in St. Augustine, but I haven't forgotten you, and it's only 11:33 pm, plenty of time to make Monday's deadline! But let's get this posted before it's Tuesday!

Shadow Box

Here's a quick internet definition to get your artsy wheels turning.:

@wulfmoon Great prompt. My mind is spinning through situations from trapped souls to afterlife memory castles. A shadow box could be any size.

Brilliant! So many ways to go with this one! Thanks!

@wulfmoon hmm mm, this is an interesting challenge. I will have to work on it.

Monday KYD prompt, here we are!

These come around so fast, it feels like I just posted the last. Cue the Twilight Zone music! I think I'm caught in a time loop!

You know, last year's Volume 41 anthology had several time travel stories in it. I think the judges luvs them! So let's make this your Kill Your Darlings prompt this week!

Loopy time loop

And remember: In space, no one can hear you scream. Not that the phrase has anything to do with a time loop, but it was a loopy thing to say!

Cheers!

Beastmaster Moon

Monday KYD prompt, here we are!

I've been swamped taking registrations for next year's Wulf Moon's 2027 St. Augustine Writing Workshop and Retreat. Don't worry, I'm not promoting it--it's sold out! Before I ever got a chance to make it public! And I had added 5 more registration spots for next year since I reserved a bigger hotel conference room with 1660 sq. ft.. Crazy! 

My workshops normally sell out, even when I open for 50, but I've never had one sell out this fast before, and writers are travelling across the country and even Canada to attend it. It's an exciting new era for my Super Secrets of Writing Workshops. I wanted to share the good news because it all started here, after I won WotF and began this thread to help emerging writers. So cool!

How can I help YOU today? With a killer KYD KILL YOUR DARLINGS weekly writing prompt!

Here's a fun one. 

Collective pharmaceutical joy.

Peace, brothers and sisters!

Beastmaster Moon