Writers of the future have issued a press release stating that this year’s L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future international Contest has seen an unprecedented quality of entries that has resulted in judges dishing out a record number of ‘Honorable Mention’ certificiates.
Coordinating judge and first reader Dave Wolverton explains: “The quality of the stories being entered has been on the rise in recent years but this year it jumped significantly. The number has averaged in the past at around 80 per quarter, or around 300 per year. This year we awarded a total of 492 Honorable Mentions. The quality of the stories submitted just keeps getting better in general. An Honorable Mention means that the story was better than average with no major flaws in structure or had a very original idea.”
Other judges of the contest agree. Kevin J. Anderson said that: “It is increasingly difficult to choose winners for the quarterly judging. Many years ago there would be three or four stand-out stories in the batch of eight that I must vote for three winners. Now that process is harder.”
Certainly this seems like good news. Either more writers are turning to Fantasy / Science-Fiction (perhaps due to the increased awareness as a result of numerous movie/television adaptions) or maybe online writing groups, blogs and forums are meaning that the writers sending in entries are making the most of the extensive resources at their disposal.
For those unfamiliar with the workings of the competition, WOTF receives thousands of entries each quarter… Upon reading them the judges place them into one of the following categories: No-placement (no win), Honorable Mention, Semi-Finalist, Finalist and out of the eight finalists, three winners are eventually chosen. The judges have no idea who wrote the story they are reading. Manuscripts do not have the name attached. The stories are selected for the quality of the writing and the originality of the story idea. It is not who you know or what your gender or race is. Those factors are not involved in the process. The best story wins, period.
The no-win category writers are encouraged to enter again and are offered writing tips. The Honorable Mention category receive a certificate and are of course encouraged to enter again. Semi-finalists are given a certificate and a critique of their story by the coordinating judge. Finalist stories, of which there are eight each quarter, are sent to four of the judges and three winners are chosen out of the eight.
Wolverton praised the contest’s success and explained that the way they are managing things is obviously working because: “The contest keeps growing. In fact we had our highest ever entries also this year, which makes me very happy and very proud.”
Now in its 31st year, L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future is one of the most known and respected vehicles for supporting new and fledgling authors. The free to enter is one of the most enticing to enter because in addition to being completely free and offering a good prize to the winner, agents and editors do keep a close eye on it and many of its winners – Patrick Rotfuss, Myke Cole and Stephen Baxter – have gone on to become some of the genres most reputable names.
Quite simply, The Writers of the Future Contest is that break new writers can use to launch the career they’ve dreamed of. In fact, in total, the contest has launched the careers of twelve New York Times bestselling authors. To learn more, including details on how to enter the contests, visit the website at http://www.writersofthefuture.com.
Jennie Ivins