So, I recently spent a week in Los Angeles hobnobbing with the likes of Kevin J. Anderson, signing books with S. M. Stirling and making a bunch of brand new friends. Why? Because I was lucky enough to win first place in Q2 2025 of the Writers of the Future Contest, and the prize includes a week-long workshop held in central Hollywood led by Tim Powers, Jody Lynn Nye and a host of guest stars. Flights and accommodation included.
How Did I Win?
I first heard about the competition from listening to the Writing Excuses podcast, back when I was first taking writing seriously. It’s a quarterly competition, free to enter. All you need is a speculative fiction short story of 17,000 words or less, and to be an emerging writer. If you’ve had a novel published or sold three stories to professional markets, then you’ve pro’d out.
I’d submitted six times before (with some titles you may recognise: Foretold, And Colour Shall Set Her Free, Homecoming, A Symmetrically Tentacled Friendship) and gotten some confirmation I was on the right track without ever getting close. This time, though, was different.
I submitted a story called Form 14B: Application for Certification of Consciousness Transfer (Post-Mortem). And then, after a four month wait, I received a phone call from California. At 3am. Then an email, telling me to answer my phone. It was Joni, the contest co-ordinator, trying to let me know I was a finalist.
Then, about a fortnight later, I got another call, where Joni told me I had won.
What Happened In Between
Once I’d floated back to earth, it was time to get into the mechanics of whipping Form 14B into shape. First came the line edits from Jody Lynn Nye (along with a nice little note at the twist, which she didn’t see coming). Then copy edits. Coming up with a marketing pitch. Writing a bio, reviewing proof copies, answering questions from the PR team and interviews at multiple fan sites.
Then, the highlight, getting a proof copy of the anthology to read, which I did as soon as I got the chance. Partially to check out the competition for the grand prize (and I was soon to learn that that competition was very, very good), but mostly so I could get to know my new friends a little before I met them.
Workshop Week
The workshop was held on Hollywood Boulevard, which is a crazy place. A bizarre mix of grift, trash, desperation and faded glamour. The Walk of Fame was lots of fun, though. Every time you walked somewhere, to lunch, dinner, the movies, or just back to the hotel, you’d see a name you hadn’t spotted before. We even saw a couple of stars in construction.
The workshop itself was a lot.
Seven days, from 9 in the morning til 8 o’clock at night, a pure fire-hose of information from the likes of Larry Niven and Katherine Kurtz, Lezli Robyn and Mark Leslie Lefebvre.
There was the insanity of the 24 hour story (a story for another time, but suffice to say I had to come up with something based on a broken sea shell, a born-again Korean street preacher and the concept of military strategy, write it and submit it the next day). It was… not good. But the story has promise, and I’ll write about it here one day, when I’ve found the time and inspiration to go back and do it properly.
But the absolute highlights of the workshops, apart from getting to meet and spend time with my fellow cohort, were Nancy Kress and Nina Kiriki Hoffman.
Nancy Kress is a 6 time Nebula Award winning author, and she gave us an hour of power, her 50 year career distilled into 60 minutes. Highlights included:
- New writers have to be 20% better than she is to sell a story, basically forcing the editor to pick a great story over the story from a writer they know will sell magazines
- You can get away with a slow scene if you put it after an exciting scene, but you can make that scene stand out if the exciting scene makes the reader want to learn by reading on
- There are three aspects of a manuscript that make it marketable: Character, Plot and Idea. Picking one and making it spectacular will make your manuscript sellable. Two out of three that are pretty good will do the same, as will making all three serviceable. But don’t settle for serviceable.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman is one of the original winners of the Writers of the Future competition, and she ran a very different workshop to all of the other judges and special guests. Instead of talking, she gave us a D20, a handout with characters, attributes, plot points and obstacles and got us writing. Six dice rolls gave us the parameters for a story, and that was it. Don’t think too hard, don’t stress about quality, just write.
Not only was it a nice break from note-taking, it’s changed the way I begin stories. Now when I have an idea, I’ll start by just writing about my characters or my setting and seeing what comes out as I go.
The Art Reveal
About halfway through day three of the workshop, all of us writers got gathered together and sent downstairs with an air of secrecy. When we arrived, we found a room full of people, and twelve works of art propped up on easels and arrayed in a semi-circle.
This was, of course, the art reveal.
None of us really knew what to do, and I was closest to the door so somehow ended up being the first to walk into the spotlight. Everyone was watching, and suddenly I realised there was an artist standing beside each easel. Oh god. My eyes flitted from artwork to artist, artwork to artist, none of them seeming like they fitted my story, until I reached the last one.
Shit. I must have missed it.
Turns out, my artwork and artist, the supremely talented Art Ikuta, were the first pairing, and I was so flustered I walked right past! Once I found it, though, I couldn’t have been happier. Who knew you could make paperwork foreboding?
Image credit: Meliva Koch
The Book, the Award and the Ceremony
The craziest part of Writers of the Future, however, is the fuss.
We had a marathon signing session, where all the judges, the writers and the artists formed a giant snake and worked our way through signing 300 copies of the Vol 42. Luckily my signature is only five letters, so I wasn’t the bottleneck!
Then there was the reading, accompanied by a drummer on the Tabla. The tuxedos. The gala. The speeches. The enormous awards. Another marathon signing session at the end. It was all totally over the top. Lots of fun, but hard to square with what is essentially one professional story sale.
Image credit: Meliva Koch
The Most Important Part: My New Friends
Putting aside the hype and the hard work, the most important and long-lasting part of the whole experience is without doubt getting to spend a week talking writing, science fiction and fantasy with eleven other dorks like me.
As enlightening as the sessions with legends of the field were, the most critical thing for new writers is finding a community of peers. A rising tide lifts all boats, after all.
I’m lucky enough to already have one at home with Meridian Australis, and even luckier to have found another group of narrative obsessed weirdos on the streets of LA. Can’t wait to see what we get up to next.
Image Credit: Meliva Koch
The Disclaimer
So. The elephant in the room.
The Writers of the Future Contest is founded by, and funded by, L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. The Contest is also organised and managed by Author Services Inc, a subsidiary of the Church, charged with managing Hubbard’s back catalogue. The workshop is held in the Author Services offices, which doubles as a museum and time capsule of Hubbard’s work.
The people who run the competition are lovely, enthusiastic and hard working. The judges and speakers are genuine and generous with their experience and their time. It was an amazing experience, but unfortunately the influence of Scientology on the whole event was impossible to ignore.
We got taken on a tour of an actual museum of Hubbard’s life, and learned many ‘alternative’ facts. We got books of his essays on writing and philosophy. We got wined and dined, pampered and feted, and asked to thank Hubbard in our speeches.
Why? Because we wrote fantastic short stories? A little, but not really. The reason for all the fuss is that it helps Hubbard’s, and by extension the Church’s, reputation.
Which is a shame, because the competition really is wonderful. It’s great for new writers, and there’s nothing else like it. I would still recommend it to anyone who’s just starting out. Just entering will help you get better, and if you make it to the workshop week it’ll help supercharge your development.
Be warned, however, because nothing comes for free. As my cousin Zoe says, welcome to the arts. Unfortunately, the money’s got to come from somewhere.