WotF Facts & Figures

So what does it all mean? I've been trying to figure out exactly how I stacked up to the competition in Writers of the Future. For those of you don't know, its the most prestigious writing contest for new writers of science fiction and fantasy. Its judged by the best science fiction and fantasy writers in the business (some of whom were winners, finalists and honorable mentions themselves).

I entered the contest twice, (actually three times but I won't know the results of that quarter for several months), and I got a honorable mention twice. I started writing science fiction for the first submission. (I wrote it in three weeks, before the deadline, and sent it on the deadline).  So, if it weren't for the contest I wouldn't be writing SF.

There contest has four quarters every year. Basically, its ongoing. If you miss the deadline for one quarter, you'll make the next one. You're only allowed one submission per quarter and submissions can be up to 17,000 words. No nonfiction, poetry, etc... just original science fiction and fantasy. L. Ron Hubbard started the contest to help young writers break into the exceeding hard business of professional writing (i.e. getting discovered and published). (It has nothing to do with Scientology).

There are three winners each quarter. 1st prize is $1,000, 2nd prize is $750, 3rd prize is $500. All winners are published in the yearly anthology, which gets more industry attention than most anthologies. (Sometimes finalists are published in the anthology, as well). At the end of the year there's a ceremony in Hollywood, where a Grand Prize winner is selected, whom receives an additional $5,000. (Plus all the winners get nifty trophies). There are also a week of writing classes conducted by some of the leading science fiction and fantasy writers. And there's a book signing by the winners. Agents, publishers and the like attend the ceremony. Oh, did I mention that there's no entry fee to the contest!

No exact figures are available as to how many submissions there are every quarter. Some say it's in the thousands. I heard that it more like 1,200 to 2,000 per quarter. I spoke (emailed) to Joni Labaqui, the contest administrator, and she said that the quarter I just got my honorable mention, Q2 2010, had more submissions than they ever had before. So, let's safely assume that it's over 2,000 submissions. She has also stated in the past that the top 10%-15% get a honorable mention or better.

I tallied the honorable mentions for this quarter; there were 95. There were 3 silver honorable mentions, which is a new category created due to the increased volume of entries. The coming quarters are sure to see a big spike in entries as they now accept electronic submissions. (No more trips to my awful post office, at least not for this contest). There were 10 semi finalists and 8 finalists. I feel like I did pretty well for a fledgling author.

Snow Day

Thank G*d for the snow! Fortunately, I don't have a house anymore so no shoveling. If class is cancelled tonight I won't have to go there either. Wrote last night before bed, actually stayed up late because I was writing. Will get back to it after this post. But you don't need to have time to write.

Picked up some little tidbits from L. Ron Hubbard on his thoughts about that (it's in Writers of the Future XXII):

"That is a queer mental quirk with people. If a man is a writer, he is doing something everybody thinks they can do."

I found this also to be true about teaching, which I did for five years. I knew a guy who came from the corporate world to teach... he lasted three days. Another guy lasted a couple weeks.

As a filmmaker you don't get a lot of respect either.  People would say it was easy because they thought it was all fun and games, but I've worked on set twelve to sixteen hours a day with just a 15 minute lunch break. I was on set before anyone showed up and left after everything was put away, and before and after I was writing or editing videos. (I also worked with a lot of so-called "professional" crew who couldn't shoot worth a sh*t, or didn't know how to do their particular job and had to be lead around by the nose).

This is what L. Ron has to say about people saying they could write if only they had the time...

"It's their way of an apology, I guess. Nearly everyone makes that remark and, to be brutally frank, it is a source of much merriment in the professional ranks... I have a law around the house here which says that writing comes first and the hell with everything else. The lawn grows into an alfalfa field, the pipes drip merrily, the floors need paint but I turn a deaf ear to pleas and go right on writing."

He goes on to say that his writing pays for all those chores to get done and covers all the other expenses. When times are tough you just got to push yourself to write. You make the time.

WOTF Results 4th Quarter 2009

I just saw on the Writers of the Future blog that I got a honorable mention. Not bad considering this was my first science fiction story and there were literally thousands of entrants. While I was hoping for a better finish, this will only serve to motivate me to continue writing. I have some stories that I am currently writing that I believe will get me to the next level. Better luck next time!

Writers of the Future 4th Quarter 2009

I spent one month writing my first professional sf story. I entered it into L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future just in time for the last quarter of the contest, which ended on September 30th. Now the wait begins.