How I judge contest entries

On Saturday, I received an email from the Daphne paranormal category coordinator.  When I saw the subject line, RE: Judging, my first response was, "Uh-oh!" 

Yeah, I tend to jump to the worst conclusions sometimes. I opened up the email and this is what it said:

I just reviewed the entries you judged for the Daphne.  I want to say what a great job you did.

Can you tell me a little about your writing background? I'm intrigued with your insightful comments.

Oh, okay--
I dun good. :-)

But I had to review my comments on the six entries to see what I had actually written.  I judge so many contests every year that I don't think about the entries after I return them. I might check the titles if I happen to see a list of the contest finalists, but that's it.

I have to admit that I did a pretty decent job of judging this batch of entries.  I approach judging contest entries a little bit differently than many writers.

1. I open EVERY document hoping to be WOW'd. I totally understand agents/editors in this regard. I love, love, LOVE reading a story that might have craft issues, but speaks to the reader.
2. I go with my gut instinct the first time I read the entry. Many judges will read the story and then go back to the entry and judge it.  I find that this tends to result in nit-picking on my part, so I don't do it.
3. I go with the BIG PICTURE items. When I first started writing I was asked to join a crit group--to be perfectly honest, I simply wasn't ready to join this group. Though I gathered a few nosebleeds while climbing the learning curve, I needed help with the 'big picture' stuff--pacing, emotion, dialogue, etc. Don't get me wrong, I loved and appreciated their patience! And boy did they have to be patient!

I refuse to line edit--and I don't want ANYONE to pull out the Chicago Manual of Style and fix my stories!--but I will point out a weak or awkward sentence and offer suggestion that might help the writer make it better. Thank you very much!

A while back, there was a conversation on RWA's PRO loop about edits.  Many people chimed in and said that they do the line edits first and then worry about the big stuff later.

HUH???

Why would you waste your time 'fixing' sentences if you don't address the big stuff first?  That's insane!

Think about it for a second.  Okay, that's enough thought. 

--If you have a pacing issue and need to cut sentences, paragraphs, scenes or even CHAPTERS, what good does it do to make your verbs more active or place your comma in another spot?  Been there done that with GNOME.  It wasn't until my TENTH edit did I cut 7000 words (3 chapters) and rewrite chapter 1(1500 words) to fix the pacing.
--if your editor wants you to combine two characters into one. This changes the personality/internal conflict/motivation of the character. Did it with FAERIE and it DOES trickle down throughout the story.
--if you need to thread-in another plot line, or deepen the character's motivation, or whatever

If there's a bigger problem to address and it needs to be addressed BEFORE line edits.

Now, this is just my opinion, so take it or leave it.

Later, Peeps!

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!

Judging Contests

Well, shoot! I forgot what day of the week it is! Blog day Wednesday.

What to write about? What to write about? What to -- ah, ha!

I've been dicking around trying to write my query and synopsis for MOGG, but have managed to find a good way to procrastinate . . .

Judge a contest!

Not just one contest, but two! For a grand total of ten submissions in the last two weeks! YAY! And though I request Paranormal or Historical, both judging panels sent to me were paranormal and there were no duplicates! Another YAY! And I actually got some really, really good ones. Triple YAY! And none of them made me want to jab a hot poker in my eye! Quadruple YAY!

I love romance--nothing is better in this world. I tried to write romance--can't. But I read romance--voraciously. And these were all paranormal romances. Four of them were excellent and of publishable quality IMHO. The rest fell into the okay category and needed some work. None of them were hideous. Trust me, over the 8 years that I've judged contests--I have run into some hideous entries, mainly due to the entrant being a newbie and not running the story through a crit group--and true, the entrant may not have access to writer friends or a crit group, but I usually try to guide them in the right direction.

BUT if you're trying to break into romance don't just read the books just out on the shelves of your local B & N (those were bought two years ago!), judge contests in your genre. You will learn more about your writing than you will ever want to admit outloud. Plus you'll have the added bonus of seeing the same stuff that editors and agents are seeing. You'll learn why agents are sick and tired of the same old, same old, because you aren't the only one to have thought about a daywalking vampire zombie shapeshifter.

Thus it all comes down to execution. How you tell the story is paramount--even more than it ever was.

Here are a few things I learned this week:
1) if you write paranormal make the paranormal element integral to the story, not superficial. If you can make the elf/vamp/zombie/shifter a human and it doesn't change anything, think up a new story plot.
2) a routine time-travel doesn't cut it any longer--it's been done--A LOT. There has to be a new and unique twist to the story. Just putting on a ring/walking into a closet/maze is so been there, done that. The butterfly effect can be a real challenge, but it also makes the story interesting.
3) polish, polish, polish--if you change your character's name make certain you change ALL instances of the name
4) Make certain your MC (main character) has sufficient motivation. Motivation CAN change throughout the story. Just make certain it's strong enough to start the plot ball rolling.
5) think outside the box--really, really outside the box--the best submissions that I read had multiple plotlines that tied together
6) If you are writing a synopsis for a romance, make certain you hit all the romance plot points and conclusion

Editors and agents aren't looking for another Nora Roberts or Jayne Ann Krentz, they already have those wonderful writers. They are looking for something new and different. They are looking for you and your unique twist to the same old story.

Write on!