#HLS2017 Hook, Line, & Sinker Writing Challenge Round 2 Results Complete
A few notes before we get to the results: You may notice that the judges gave a number of submissions the boot this round. Here are some reasons why: many of our anglers are onto 125 words. That, believe it or not, is a pretty tall order – did your first 125 words stand out enough or generate enough curiosity from the fish to warrant reading more? In 125 words, the fish can detect a lot about how your work compares to others and are happy to decline your bait if there’s something shiny just a few inches away that catches their attention.
Here are specific reasons the judges may have given entries the boot for first lines or 125 words.
a) they were confused and had to re-read the submission too many times to understand it clearly
b) the premise was clear but may not be as ideal when compared toother entries for the target market (particularly in the case of PB)
c) For PBs, the work may have been written with too many words that don’t significantly move the plot or character forward (e.g. extraneous details, minor movements, heavy descriptions, etc.). See this Revision 911 for PBs article to help you identify what might have given your work the boot.
d) the voice AND the premise didn’t feel compelling enough when compared to other submissions. If your entry was weak on one but not the other, Carrot and Fire vouched for your entry, even when Tiger was happy to give the work the boot. Do not rest on your pebbles; get to work and make your bait as shiny as possible if your entry was HOOKED! when you proceed to the next round.
And that’s the thing, as writers, we must consider that there are many fish in the sea (agents, editors) but a whole lot more bait (competing manuscripts). Did you do enough to make your work compelling enough to stand out, be it, premise or voice or the mechanics of writing itself in those few lines that you submitted?
If your entry passed this round, we hope that if you received feedback on any of these things, you will revise as needed if you passed the round. If you did not receive feedback for this round since we are trying to cover everyone at least once, then please review feedback we have given to others on Twitter and ask yourself the same things (for the format that you submitted for: PB, MG, YA, etc.). Polish as needed before you submit again.
For those of you who had entries that did not pass a round, we have an exciting announcement: one of the beautiful things about WFCAT.com free-tique challenges is we here at WFCAT believe in the power of revision BEFORE you submit to agents and editors or fish, for that matter. We will give you a chance to revise your work and re-enter the work that was booted. The catch is, you won’t be able to win a challenge prize since the entry had been booted before, but you will get results like everyone else.
We’re calling this a Bait Swap. If you want to submit a previously booted entry again – REVISED – you can do so if you do the following: First, you may not have more than two entries in play in any given round at any time (regular cast, bonus cast, or bait swap cast). To earn a bait swap cast, you must via Twitter, send the judges a giphy of bait they might like better to @cynthealiu on Twitter. To find a giphy, go to giphy.com. If you don’t know how to tweet a giphy to @cynthealiu, seek out help from your friends or relatives, not our team. Unfortunately we are all so busy that lessons on giphy sharing and Twitter is not in our list of duties.
The judges love giphys as you may have noticed on Twitter already. Your giphy could be anything–a shiny coin? A tasty bug? Something that symbolizes your work? Whatever it is, make it good, and if you can make the fish bubble with gurgly laughter in their bowl, even better. Next, email the challenge email address, and title your email: BAIT SWAP, Entry Number, Format, Manuscript Title (e.g. Bait Swap, #99, MG, IF YOU GIVE A GOLDFISH A SECOND CHANCE). In the body of your email, tell us what you did and give the pooches enough info that verifies you did the Bait Swap. E.g. My username is X and I tweeted the fish a giphy of Y. Then paste in your revised version of the submission that was booted. (For example, if your entry was booted on a first line, then re-do your first line. If you were booted on the first 125, then give us a revised 125 for that work, and so on and so forth.
When our pooches process your BAIT SWAP submission, they will let you know your entry # and it will begin with an S for SWAP.
Official Round 2 Results
Please note: If the entry # result is Bobbing, this means the entry had passed the previous round but we did not receive your the next submission before the deadline. Your line is still out and you may submit the next part of that entry whenever a round is open. We will process your submission in the round it is received.
Entry #
Format
Round Result
101
PB
Hooked!
102
PB
The boot.
