Contest Aftermath
Last year, I did a series on entering contests. This year, I did some pre-contest edits for several people, as well as answered copious e-mails about the ACFW Genesis contest from a judge’s perspective. Now, I’ve been participating in a discussion of the aftermath of the first round of the contest—by those who didn’t final and are trying to process their scores and comments—on my local writers’ group’s e-mail loop. I shared the following with them yesterday:
Yes, it is very important to remember that many judges are biased or prejudicial in one way or another (or many) and have a hard time being objective when it comes to judging—because as a writer, the way you’ve written it isn’t the way I would have done it.
Now being published AND working as a content editor/copy editor for a couple of fiction publishing houses, I find myself commenting only upon what I would mark on an editing project for those houses—which means that I’m more often questioning how some things are written, but not saying straight out “this is wrong, wrong, wrong.” It’s also what’s given me the ability to sit in our monthly MTCW meetings and say what we’re talking about are “guidelines” and not hard-and-fast rules (well, some of them are—like grammar, spelling, and punctuation on which I’m quite a stickler still). I find myself not commenting on things now that I would have dinged the writer on a couple of years ago (and probably did) back when I was still in the pre-pubbed, everyone-has-to-follow-all-the-rules-because-I-do mindset.
[Having asked the MTCWers to check, it’s a proven fact that unpublished judges score lower and make more critical (negative) remarks than published judges, as there’s a place at the end of the score sheet for the judge to mark whether he/she is published or not.]
Of course, I’ve considered myself to be one of the hardest judges in the contest, but I’m only guessing. And based on the comments that y’all got back, I may have to rethink that image of myself. The scores I gave on the entries I judged this year ranged from a record-low of 30 (and I spent about four hours on that manuscript addressing each element of the score sheet) to a high of 90, and an average between all fourteen of them of 64 points. And I considered this a relatively strong batch of entries.
Some of the areas in which I commented the most (none of you will be surprised!):
- Showing vs. Telling (eliminate thought, felt, watched, etc.)
- Historical research (since I was judging the historical romance category. If I wasn’t sure on something, I looked it up to see if I was correct or if the author was. If it was wrong, I included a few links or the titles/authors of the books in which I looked up the correct info.)
- Too many/embellished dialogue tags, she said incredulously.
- Grammar, punctuation, spelling. Typos, grammar problems, formatting problems galore! (A great reminder to have someone else look at your entire entry/manuscript before submitting it!)
- Continuity. Yes, even in fifteen pages, I ran into some authors with problems remembering their characters’ ages, eye color, horse’s name, that their character’s arm was in a sling a few paragraphs above, etc.
- POV—not just deep POV, but head-hopping as well. I didn’t realize in this day and age that anyone who’s trying to get published would still do that!
- Scene length. I had a couple of entries that switched Viewpoint Character or had an actual scene break every fourth or fifth paragraph. As I told those writers, that’s just as jarring as head hopping, even when the next scene is still with the same character’s viewpoint.
- Starting the story in the wrong place. I had several that started in one place in the story, then had to write sentences like, “Three months later…” and paragraphs of summary of the passage of time, which to me was a clear sign that the story hadn’t started in the right place—at the place of conflict that’s the inciting incident of the story.
- Clichés. This is the romance genre, after all, so there were a lot of pounding hearts (every single entry).
- ADVERBS! Had several entries that were loving the -ly words.
- Passive voice. Had a couple that got back red-stained entries where I’d gone through and done a “find all” for was, were, had, and their derivatives and highlighted them in red—but only if they were excessive.
As one of our members mentioned before, it only takes one editor to like your story to get published. And as someone whose manuscript was rejected by every single publishing house before Barbour ever looked at it, I know of whence she speaks! I was told Stand-In Groom was too old-fashioned; an editor didn’t like George—didn’ t think he was a likeable character; one thought the entire plot was too contrived; another didn’t think Anne’s character, her behavior and how she interacts with people, was realistic; and so on. Oh, and I just last week received a “fan” letter from someone who wrote to me to tell me that she thought that what I did with the character of the guy who’s the real groom “was completely out of the realm of his developed character… . plausibility was absent … ‘Happy Endings, Inc.’ did not have to apply to every aspect of each character in order for this to showcase Christian characters in real situations. Realistically the reverse would have worked better.”
I don’t know who this person is, nor what her background in writing/storytelling is to be instructing me on how I should have written a book that’s already been published (meaning it’s definitely not going to be changed). And frankly, before I started writing this, I’d put her comments out of my mind. But I’m actually kind of glad I’ve received it. Because so far, all of the feedback on SIG has been quite positive. I’d been waiting for the bombs to start dropping: negative reader reviews, mediocre to bad reviews in publications, etc. And I feel like it’s unrealistic to only receive positive feedback. After all, receiving the hard/negative critiques is what helped me improve to the point where I was ready to be published. I’m not saying it was all correct, but it was instructive and taught me more about myself as a writer and as a person.
So just look at those horrible scores and awful comments and, once you allow yourself time to go through the grieving process, approach them with gratefulness in knowing that those overly harsh judges were just preparing you for getting published one day—by teaching you how to accept feedback that may be unfriendly, unfounded, and unfair.
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KayeDacus.com 
I think it’s interesting that published vs. unpublished writers interpret differently – although it completely makes sense. Makes me think of how you view raising children both before you have them and after you have them…and those things you swore you would never do! 🙂
Jolanthe
http://noordinarymomentsblog.com
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I think it’s interesting that unpublished vs. published judge differently! Makes me think of my views on parenting pre-child and post-child. 🙂
Jolanthe
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Wow…do 15 pages of low-scoring manuscript deserve four hours of your time? Maybe the winning manuscript deserves this much time in constructive criticism, etc, but the worst ones? I guess that’s why there’s an entry fee…but still. I don’t know if I would invest that much.
Do you mean every single entry had cliches or every single entry had “pounding hearts”? Because if it’s the latter…wow.
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I’ve never entered one of my books in a contest (I have with a couple short stories to pretty mediocre results), but it’s so interesting to hear your thoughts on the process. My first novel took nearly 9 months to get a contract, and each time I’d hear back from my editor, she had more instruction. But it was some of the best time for me to grow as a writer. I took her suggestions, made them as best I could, and resubmitted. We did that four or five times before she called with the contract, but you’re right. It just took her liking the story, and being willing to put in her time to give strong feedback to reach the publication stage.
Thanks for being such a thoughtful judge in this contest. I’m sure the writers whose entries you judged are very lucky to have received your comments. Judges get a bad rap, but people like you remind me that a lot of thought and time goes into what you do. So thanks!
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Death to the adverb!! – I hate it when I pick up a book to read and it’s full of adverbs. I want to take a red pen and cross them all out cause honestly about 80% of them are never needed! I have a pet peeve when it comes to adverbs — I cross them out of almost every manuscript I critique 😀 Just ask Lynn and Emilie!
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@Jess–
Yes, I mean that all 14 entries had clichés AND all 14 entries had “pounding heart” clichés.
And the reason why I spent four hours on the lowest-scoring entry is because I saw it as a teaching “moment”—as in, I couldn’t score this person a 1 or 2 (out of 5) on each element without giving a really good explanation of why I’d done it and how to correct it either in revisions or in the future. I sent back at least five pages of notes (much of it from series I’ve done here on the blog) on the score sheet, in addition to the comments I made throughout the manuscript.
And why spend more time on the lowest scoring manuscript than the highest scoring manuscript? Because there isn’t as much to say/comment upon. One of the hallmarks of a manuscript that’s going to garner a higher score from me is that it doesn’t take me very long to read, and once I finish my first read-through, there aren’t many things I’ve edited or commented upon—because the pages kept my interest for the full time I was reading it.
It’s the same thing with reading published books. The ones we love, that we get pulled right into, that end up going on our “favorites” shelves, are the ones we read straight through in one or two sittings, ignoring everything else going on around us as much as possible. The ones that don’t pull us in, that don’t interest us as much, that have errors or problems in them that are obvious to us, are going to take us a lot longer to read simply because we don’t want to do it for a very long period of time.
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I didn’t enter the Genesis contests this year, but last year I did, and made it to third place in my category. My entry earned a wide range of variation in the scoring, between the first and second rounds, from a perfect score of 100 to one of 55. I just looked at my sheets, with your comment about the high/low scoring of published and unpublished judges, but not all of the judges for my entry declared themselves. It would have been interesting to make the comparison.
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This was just the post I needed today. I finally opened my score sheets, which arrived in my email box several days ago. Tired and rushed, I didn’t want to look until I was ready to start processing it all. Still not quite ready.
My 70’s scores seem pretty decent. Quick glance at judges’ comments seems to show quite a bit of disparity on what was good and what wasn’t, but I’m sure they will converge to some degree once I read the feedback in detail.
I applaud you for that “teaching moment”. The person who scored in the 30s out of 100 needs your criticism more than the person with a 90. I’d wager their desire to write well is equal. Maybe not right away, but eventually, that person will be grateful. I know I would.
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Thanks for this, Kaye! I love hearing a judge’s perspective. I will admit it surprises me to hear you say unpubbed authors score lower. I would have thought the opposite. Looking back at my NON-finaling Women’s Fiction entry, I received a 98 (from a published author), a 95 from someone who didn’t check the box, and a 69 (from another published author.) However, even that 69 was better than the average of those you judged. So you made my day! Although, it seems like most judges don’t mark that little box indicating who they are. The two judges I mentioned above were the ones ones (out of the 6 that judged my two entries) that left a checkmark. But I will also say that the judge who left the 69 also left the most feedback, which I truly appreciated!
But, anyway, you are so right…everyone has a different opinion. This is just preparing all of us unpublished authors for those editor responses – when we get to that point (hopefully soon). 🙂
Now I just need to get my thank you notes written. THANK YOU (and all of the other judges) for taking time out of your life to volunteer. You are MUCH appreciated!
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Pounding hearts in every entry? Guilty! LOL. I have not had the nerve to open my results yet. When I read how many entries there were and considered how overwhelming that must have been — I appreciate the judges volunteering their time even more.
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Okay I’m NOT a writer but let’s face it, I know most people write because they like it and maybe most who want to get their stuff published probably want to be successful enough to write full time, so technically writing stories is their job, right? Well if this is so (it may not be but this is just my opinion) shouldn’t they expect some criticism? I’m sure we’ve all experienced it in our jobs at the office, school, or whatever…but it’s mostly CONSTRUCTIVE criticism, meant to help us do our jobs better! So aren’t the judges and editors trying to help you succeed and get you to do the best you can do? I’d want somebody to tell me what I need to do better! I guess when you put your book out there for everyone to see it reflects a part of you so wouldn’t you want the book to be terrific? I’d rather someone tell me the truth about my work and mark it up one side and down the other than tell me it’s excellent when in reality, it’s not. Just my 2 cents!
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Thanks for sharing the negative feedback you personally received with us and relating it to your judging comments. I am sure everyone you judged will appreciate your empathy.
Good on you for making a teachable moment. I am sure you will have a life-long impact on that writer’s work. I remember a couple comments from a judging sheet of a national speech contest I entered in high school that have forever improved my public speaking. I had started my speech by having to adjust the mike stand (too high) and made some lame, chatty comments about it as I was doing it. A judge pointed out that the first words out of my mouth should have been the strong opening of my speech – I distracted everyone from the impact of my words by my fumbled opening. During the speech, I alluded to a struggle I went though, and much of my speech was based on overcoming that struggle, but I never named the issue! A judge wrote that talking openly about the struggle would have made my speech much more powerful.
All that to say, you never know how your constructive criticism will improve someone’s skills. In high school, I never imagined wanting to do much public speaking. Now I speak in front of large groups regularly as the Education Coordinator for Rhode Island Right to Life.
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Thank you for this, Kaye. This was my first time for the Genesis contest and for receiving detailed critique. My scores were very high but obviously not high enough. One judge, who understood my story and was very excited about it, gave me the encouragement I needed to overcome the doubts that flooded in from not making the finals. Your perspective helped me see the other comments in a new light ; ) This has been a great learning experience!
Blessings,
Mid
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I earnestly and longingly hope that some day I can be still my pounding heart as I crazily and wistfully enter writing contests.
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I know what you mean about “favorites shelves”, I only buy my very favorite books. The other ones I just get from the library. Besides, it makes me happy to know that my favorites are on my shelf, in my room, waiting for me to read them again.
I love it that you took the opportunity to help someone with their book. How you took the time out of your schedule to help someone who doesn’t have as much experience as you. It shows that you have the “heart of a teacher”, as Dave Ramsey would say. I love that!
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