I received my certificate for Honorable Mention in the mail recently. This was for my short story “What the Stone Gives” I entered into the Writers of the Future contest. According to the judges, that means it held their interest enough to read the entire story; a compliment!
I wondered if the honorable mention was a participation award, but I researched and found an article on their site (link) and one about how it’s only awarded to 5-15 percent of participants. I feel good about that, especially since this was my first time entering. It means I was close. From WotF:
So you know, we receive thousands of entries for the Writers Contest. So for you to receive an HM, is quite an accomplishment. The problem we now have is that there are so many entries with great stories, we created the HM system to recognize and validate writers who are almost there. We had one winner this year who had entered 47 times before winning and had stacked up several HMs. You will find that by adding this to your pitch letter to editors, they will have a tendency to pull your submission out of the slush pile ahead of others.
June 26, 2018 at 5:18 pm
So, congratulations and I do hope you do not stop now.
Best, John Goodwin
This story was significant to me because it was the first short story I had written in several years – mainly because my focus has been on novels and I had birthed a child (which is a whole new adventure and time-management puzzle). It also had received a “no thank you” from an anthology submission previously, so hearing that the judges thought I was almost there was a real morale booster.
Here’s my certificate. Even the small wins should be celebrated. Celebrate with me and let me know what small successes you’ve had!
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