posted
The last day of September is the last day for submissions to WotF Q4.
"The Contest has four quarters, beginning on October 1, January 1, April 1 and July 1. The year will end on September 30. To be eligible for judging in its quarter, an entry must be postmarked no later than midnight on the last day of the quarter."
So the quarters end on the following dates each year.
Q1: Dec 31 Q2: Mar 31 Q3: Jun 30 Q4: Sep 30
Anthony
[This message has been edited by AWSullivan (edited September 03, 2008).]
posted
Y'know, postmarks are an unreliable way of telling when something is mailed. And a lotta flats (that's anything larger and thicker than a letter, but too small to be a parcel) don't get canceled at all, whether they have stamps on them or not...
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posted
They have to have some kind of cut-off point for quarterly judging, though, and by saying "postmark" rather than "received" they do allow for the vagaries of the postal system to some extent.
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posted
Let's talk length again, please. I know we covered this a month or two ago, but I'm still on pretty shakey ground about this.
On the one hand longer stories have an advantage because you can tell a more thorough story and demonstrate your writing for a longer space, however, not too long right? Because really long stories hog pages and are expensive to publish. So what's the sweet spot?
What are the shortest stories that win? 3,000 words? How about the longest? 12,000? And where's the sweet spot? 7,000?
I'm sitting on a project that hits about 8,000 or 9,000 words. That's well under the 17,000 requirement but let's face it, that's a pretty long short-story. It would be hard to sell elsewhere, I imagine, because it's so big.
Does it still have a chance? I guess everything has a chance, but is it hitting the table with a disadvantage?
posted
Longer stories do better at WOTF. All the stories for Volume 24 were novelettes. 8-9K should be fine.
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posted
Thanks. That's what I was hoping to hear. Unfortunately selling them elsewhere is tough isn't it?
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posted
Very true. Other markets prefer 3-5K from newbies. From experience, if you do end up in finalist row, though it's supposed to be publishable quality, it's by far no guarantee that it will get published.
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posted
The one previous time I entered WOTF, I got an Honorable Mention. I sent the story out immediately to another (pro-rate) market and it sold. That one was about 8000 words.
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posted
ChrisOwens: It was an anthology - Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel - from Fantasist Enterprises. Submission window closed a long time ago, I'm afraid.
This time I'm trying the other way round - my current WOTF entry (still waiting to hear back) has actually been to other markets and been rejected by them. My next entry will probably be the same kind of thing.
posted
OK: I just completed my short story WotF entry draft, and it sits at almost 9,000 words. I'm pretty happy with the manuscript overall, except one thing has me second guesisng myself.
It's too climactic.
No I don't mean it's over the top melodrama (at least I hope it's not) but the climax stretches on for a while. Namely there are two major fights one after the other before the story is resolved. I think they are interesting, but together they make up about 27% of the overall text. Too much?
I'm wondering if the flow of the story up until that point has been relatively quick moving (in terms of time passing) and then slows way down for two long battles (2500 words in all) if that's a disqualifier.
[This message has been edited by Zero (edited September 17, 2008).]
posted
It's hard to say! Maybe you should send it out to readers and see what they say.
My instinct is to say it will be difficult to pull off. The other question is, what story questions are the climaxes supposed to be addressing? If the same one, then I think it would be better to minimize one and up the second one, or even consider cutting the first. Does the first set up the second? Ask yourself why the first climactic incident is even necessary.
A classic construction for novels is the inciting incident which starts the adventure, a rising point, a brief respite, and then The Climax, and then the end. It sounds like you're going for that structure, but I think it's tricky for short stories.
posted
Well, also hard to say. The story has 3 "battles." The first is at the beginning, which establishes that the group our MC is involved with has some opposition. The second is near the end when the MC ends up fighting his best friend. (When he decides to destroy the organization.) And the third battle is them fighting together to complete our MC's goal. Yes, no?
Edited to add: They are interesting battles. Not the usual point and shoot, smoke and grenades area, type. I think my mechanism is quite fresh and clever. But then again, I'm a sucker for action.
[This message has been edited by Zero (edited September 18, 2008).]
posted
OK it's officially 9,200 words. So... kinda long. Anyone think this may be too long for WotF, realistically? I know Chris mentioned some 7K and 8K winners. But what about 9K?
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posted
Scott M. Roberts won with a story that was very close to the word limit of 17000. I believe Jay Lake did, as well. As long as you're under 17000 words, let the story be whatever length makes it the best story.
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