My Contest Judge is an Idiot!

This topic comes up every couple of months on various loops across RWA land. I was going to respond to the topic on the loop, but thought, 'Hey, I don't have a topic for today. I'll use this one!'

Romance writers are lucky. They have a very large supportive organization that holds a National contest for published and unpublished writers, Rita's and Golden Heart. This contest idea has a trickle down effect, in which many RWA chapters also hold contests. These contests run the gamut from query letter to synopsis to first XX # of pages to steamy scenes--it is a romance contest so what else would you expect--to HEA ending.

RWA chapters win because contests make their chapter money, which is used for the benefit of the chapter: special speakers, retreats, conferences, etc. But their reputation is also at stake. If they get lousy judges, or have a lousy score sheet, or their final judges aren't impressive, they can take a financial hit. In today's electronic world, chapter's don't loose very much except in the area of making money. Virtually everyone working on the contest does it as a volunteer. There is nothing to mail unless the final judge insists upon paper submissions. And even with mailing 3-5 entries up to 30 pages each, how much does that really cost?? Not a huge amount, considering contests are charging $20-35 per contest entry. Pure gravy.

Today I'm going to concentrate on the judge's portion of the equation. I will be speaking as a judge, instead of as a contest entrant in response to some of the judge's comment. Of course, everything is subjective, including entrant interpretation of comments. And therein is the inherent problem.

--This is a subjective business. Tastes differ even within a genre.

--Judges HAVE to follow the score sheet instructions, though I've started fudging scores in the last couple of years. There is no sense in marking someone a 1 out of five, when a 3 will get the point across. There is no way an entry full of 3's will final in a contest. Along with the fact that giving someone 5's across the board won't guarantee a final. This has happened a few times. I've loved a story; it's very clean and ready to publish, BUT it doesn't even final. It's heart-breaking for a judge. When I come across an entry that I love, I sign it and put my email address down, hoping the entrant will add me to their newsletter mailing list. I WANT to see their book in print.

--Judges take their own personal experiences to the table, BUT my personal experiences may not be the same as the contest entrant's experiences with the same topic.
--For example: A writer friend (WF) wrote an obese character documenting her trials and tribulations. A judge took exception to this, complaining that the author had no idea what it was like to be obese. WF HAD been obese, but lost 100+ pounds and kept it off for 25 years. Just because the writer's experience doesn't match the judge's experience doesn't make it wrong--only different.
--another story: Susan Grant wrote her first book about an airline pilot making contact with an alien ship. The judge didn't think a pilot would do what that character did. What the writer didn't know was that Susan Grant was, and still is, a pilot. She flies the huge honkin' planes from the west coast to Asia and Australia. She knows EXACTLY how a pilot would act.
--another WF wrote about a journalist and got dinged in a contest, 'because journalists don't do that'. Guess what, kiddos? Yep. WF is a journalist.

--Judges unintentionally channel what they see on television and what they read into their opinions. We all know that TV messes things up. They film what makes good TV, not necessarily what is real. As a judge you should take everything with a grain of salt. The key is to temper your answer. And with luck, maybe the writer won't take offense to the criticism.

--it's all about word choice. When I pick up a vampire contest entry, but the vamp can walk around in sunlight, you'd better give me a valid reason. This doesn't mean tons of back story, but a reasonable explanation. I totally got sucked into the Blade movies. Wesley Snipes is a daywalker. How? Daily injections. Makes sense. No super-duper explanations. Just a sentence or actions within a scene will do it.

Judges do the best that they can. When they first start judging, they are pretty harsh in their comments because they don't know how to temper them. Speaking for myself, I saw a dramatic improvement in my own writing after I started judging.

Judging contests gives you perspective into what agents and editors see every day. There is a lot of stuff that is submitted that isn't ready for submission. As a judge it's your job to gently point out questionable areas.

But I will tell you this. Every judge has her pet peeves. Mine are horses. If you write something that doesn't make sense involving horses, I will say something in no uncertain terms. I still remember a contest entry, roughly the 1700's, where the wife of a Calvary officer was telling her husband how to ride his horse??? Come on! Yeah, I blew a gasket on that one. Pure common sense should have stopped that scene from being written.

Anyway, judges try their best when they judge a contest. As an entrant we should try to learn from the judges comments, apply what makes sense, and toss the rest.

Write on!