Sometimes it's a thrift shop pair of shoes that pulls the outfit together and sometimes it's a discarded receipt with a coupon for a free milkshake: you never know what HIDDEN TREASURE you’ll find.
Send your entry in 1,000-6,000 words by email to submissions@writersworkout.net OR upload your document through our DropBox app before 12 am on the cusp of Tuesday, UTC. Remember to include your Title Information specifics: Name, Title, Event Name, Word Count. May the words flow to your victory.
Core Concepts: perspective; show, don't tell
OOOOHHHH! So exciting!
First impression question: on the Events page it reads "For this Event, an unassuming object is worth its weight in gold." Does that value have to be literal, or just valuable to the character for some reason?
Great question! The object just has to be valued by the character.
Can the item be valuable in the world the story is in? Or can it only be valuable to the character?
Interesting question. The object (not a living thing) must be considered valuable by the character.
Ok, but can the object be considered valuable by other people in the story or only the main character?
@Sarah Perchikoff The object can be valued by other people in the story, so long as the main character also values the object.
The object can be considered valuable by other people, but the main character has to be one of the people seeing the object's importance. It has to be found by at least the main character and be considered valuable by the characters in any way you could think of.
Channeling the Junk Lady from Labyrinth. Excuse me while I go drool over David Bowie in tights...
With the core principle of perspective, are you focusing on POV?
The Core Concept of perspective does focus on POV, though the specific perspective (1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person) is up to you! The perspective needs to just be clear, and leave the reader with a sense of the main character's narrative voice.
Perspective refers to how a character views and processes what’s happening in the story.
Does the object need to be tangible or can it be like the character finds happiness or strength?
It does need to be a tangible object for this Event.
Cool! Thanks!
@Sarah Perchikoff Of course! Looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with!
Thank you Sarah for asking all the questions! (And thank you judges for answering them)
Though its been asked before I still want some more clarification. Does perspective as a core concept means POV or strong viewpoints of a character ( Protag or secondary) in the story which is starkly presented throughout?
My reading of both of the above replies is that it is about perception/viewpoint: how the protagonist views things; not POV in the narrow technical sense of which narrative style and voice is used.
Exactly what feydun said. The judges are looking for clear expression that the found object is valued by at least one character. Perspective is about how the character sees and experiences things in the story.
Hi there! So I understand the MC has to find the object in question. Does he or she have to have been looking for it (or something like it)? Does the "find" need to be purely serendipitous? Or does it not matter, as long as the MC "finds" the item and the item shows itself to have some value to the MC and perhaps others?
Good question! The object just has to be found, it doesn't matter how the finding happens. Go wild!
Okay... so it can‘t be a gift and has to be found. But could it be gifted after it is found to another character?
Yes, the character doing the finding can do whatever they like with the object after they find it.
So the item has to hold value for your MC (obviously), but does that value have to be entirely positive? Like, is it okay for the object to be highly significant to your MC but in a complicated and not entirely happy way?
This is a great question! Following for the answer...
Hi Ivy,
You're correct, the character does have to value the object but that value doesn't necessarily need to be positive. The object's value can be negative. I'm sorry you had to wait 11 hours for a response :/
No the value doesn’t have to be necessarily positive as long as the object is significant
Can you please elaborate on the don't tell part of the perspective core concept?
Hi Moniks,
Every Event has two Core Concepts. The Core Concepts for this Event are 1, perspective, and 2, show, don't tell. The "don't tell" is part of the name of the second Core Concept and is not attached in any way to name of the first Core Concept.
@The Writer's Workout Thank You! This helps a lot!
Could it be something that was lost that gets found? Or must it be a new find?
It could be whichever! The object does not have to be a new one. Just something which has value to the character.
Hi! Can you please elaborate on the show, don't tell Core Concept please?
Sure! "Show, Don't Tell" is about how you present information in the story. Instead of just stating a fact in the narrative and leaving it there, show us how that fact affects the characters or environment. For example, "John was sad" is telling. "John walked along the sidewalk with his head down, his body shaking from muffled sobs" would be showing. Hope this helps!
@Gray Flint-Vrettos Thank you, this helps so much!
Hi everyone! Can the object be magical or have some kind of special powers (therefore making it more valuable to the MC)?
Sure!
I am *really* late to the ballgame, but two questions:
1) Can it be an actual treasure hunt?
2) Does the protagonist know or not know what they're going to find, or does it matter? That question is phrased awkwardly, but I can't figure out a non-awkward way to word it. The verbiage in the event explanation says "you never know what HIDDEN TREASURE you’ll find", so I don't know whether that means, literally, the main character can't know what treasure they're going to stumble upon or whether they can intentionally be looking for something.
Thanks! :)
It's okay! So, to answer the first question, it could be an actual treasure hunt of some kind, if you'd like. As to the second, the protagonist only needs to find the object while the story is going on. The details of how and why they find it are completely up to you!
Hope this helps!
@sfriedla Thank you!
So I know this is not really me, but question:
The event email reads: "By request from the judges, entries containing *erotica or pandemic fiction will not be judged."
What is the stance on sexy times? Not smut. Not erotica. Not explicit. But mature, adult interactions that are required to further the story?
WW has no stance on "sexy times" or romantic genre/situations that further the plot. Let your characters fall in love!
We cannot accept erotica (specifically) because it changes how we're legally allowed to publish and market the anthology. With erotica in the anthology, we cannot also include authors who are minors.
This story is so...."me" it's not even funny.
I felt the same way when I was writing my piece!! 🙈
The dropbox still says we're submitting to WG P1. I assume it's still fine to submit there and the name of the dropbox just hasn't been switched to P2?
It’s the same folder, it’s still good.
Well that was painful to write.
And in case anyone didn't know this, moving to a new time zone is extremely stressful when submitting. I thought I had submitted an hour late, not an hour early. 🤣😓
@K.M. Shapiro omg I can only imagine 😱
That sounds traumatic but! You made it on time!