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!