I'm old enough to recall the first L. RON HUBBARD PRESENTS: WRITERS OF THE FUTURE anthology. I saw it on a shelf at Walden Books (that's pre-Borders for you young'ins). I think I browsed through a copy, and was impressed by a story about witchcraft and child abuse, but the anthology was next to a massive new SF volume by Hubbard himself entitled BATTLEFIELD: EARTH. I chose to spend my shekels on a proven master, and was not disappointed.

However I wistfully admired the idea of an anthology to discover and showcase talented new sf/fantasy authors. "Wistfully" because I had recently made the career choice to let go of my dreams of being a writer and teaching British Literature at a university and to, instead, become a physician. I had just started medical school. Over the years, I've seen the parade of consecutive volumes of WOTF on bookstore shelves--and I've passed them by. I had a family, grew a practice, held two Department Chairs, taught residents, gave lectures (nationally and internationally), held state and national societal positions, etc. No time for old dreams.

And yet...

Time passed and my daughter is a college senior and half a continent away, I've got younger partners acting as Department Chairs, and one-by-one I've let go of my other local and national positions. Then, two years ago, after editing my father's fifth self-published mystery novel (at 83 he's on number eight), I got the urge to write again. A novel, a few short stories, and a couple flash pieces later, I find I'm having fun and ever so slowly have come to believe (perhaps delusionally) thatI am getting better at it. I even deemed myself ready to submit a story to WOTF this quarter--and did. Then, today, on a sudden whim, I downloaded WOTF vol. XXVII onto my recently acquired Kindle and read the first two stories...

[ oy! ]

I found them wondrous. Masterful story-telling. Flawless prose.
I've also had a peek at the opening of Nick Tchan's newest tale (not the WOTF winner which I look forward to reading in Vol. XXVIII) and felt similarly. The experience of reading the work of these well-deserved newly-acclaimed talents is very very humbling.

I think I made the correct decision twenty seven years ago.

Okay. Enough kvelling, I've got another 3000 words to write on my WOTF 2012 Q1 entry.

Respectfully,
Dr. Bob

None of us know what we're doing on those first few stories. Not really. And that includes writers who are now winning WotF and making pro sales. The main difference between them and us mere mortals is that they have been writing -- probably every day -- for years, have learned from what worked and didn't work, and never ever ever gave up. So keep at it, and someday, aspiring writers will read your stories and feel the same way.

I think the first one I noticed was around 18 or 20. Even though I didn't get in number 27 I at least voted on which cover to use.

I've noticed that no book store around here carries it on display. I know could order one. A couple of years I thought seriously about buying a copy from WotF. Once or twice they had a set you could get. The anthology and one or two books on writing. But I never got to ordering it.

Personally, aiming to be a professional writer has required me to have a peculiar mix of arrogance and humility. The arrogance comes from harbouring the thought of I can do that. The humility comes from recognising that I needed vast improvement to reach the standards I wanted and that the need to improve would never stop.

Jennifer’s had the dubious pleasure of reading some of my stories from a few years ago. If you’d read my work back then, believe me, you wouldn’t be overcome by feelings of humility (not to suggest that you should feel humbled by my work now; I’ve read enough of your work to know that you can do the same). Sometimes it can take a while to “click” as a writer, but it will happen sooner or later.

I’m at the start of my journey. I want to reach the heights of Patrick Rothfuss, Dave Wolverton, etc. I have long way to go before I reach the heights of our own Brad Torgersen or Adam Colston. I worry that WOTF will be my only publication, but the journey of an author is one of faith and the only thing I can control is my own productivity and determination to improve.

Carl Frederick is one of the past WOTF alumni and he set his sights on the competition at, I believe, the age of 63. He’s since had 70 stories published (35 of them in Analog, the biggest market in terms of circulation amongst the pro-paying hard copy magazines).

EVOK, enter, enter, enter. The process of hitting a regular deadline is important for your writing and if you win, the benefits are huge. Brad Torgersen has adroitly outlined the non-financial benefits of the workshop and you only need to look at his career to see what winning has done for him.

Regards,

Oddly, the ones by Hatrackers seem to be my favourites.

Hmm, these comments may be for other writers too.

I'll add that I agree with Jennifer, this process is daunting and takes a while before we know what we are doing. But so is most anything we attempt in life. Even though I never played the game I relate writing to golf. From what I hear, it takes a lot of dedication, practice and the right teacher to get that swing right and one year you can win something like the Masters but the next year not even place. But you eventually get there.

Some of us master the skills- I think Dr. Bob you're one of those- of writing sooner than others but it's still a journey. And can be done for the vast majority here. There are a couple of pros who were told to give up but they kept going and eventually learned enough to sell- obviously they are still learning so as frustrating as it can be at times (picture a twisted golf club) we keep going.

I think, for me, it depends on how many different writers there are in a certain magazine or anthology. Some I will love and some I will wonder how they got in, and some I know were well done even though I disliked the story.

Generally there'd be one really good story that I loved reading, one that was really different conceptually but not necessarily so great as a story, and a dozen "meh" that just didn't have professional-strength innards.

However, I still applaud the concept, as it's really been a kickstarter for new writers, and we can never have too many new writers. Even if most are "meh" there will always be a few new gems.