Contest annex liaison mentor (Calm) line #1: “What’s the nature of your call?”
Golden rose recruit (Grr) judge #666: “I’m running out of chocolate and sanity and I’m only on the second of four submission entrants.”
Calm: “You still have more than two weeks to complete your assignment. Take a deep breath and relax.”
Grr: “Relax! This is my first judging gig and my days are already infused with lots of deep breathing and accelerated hair pulling. A necessary trip to town for a haircut has already plagued one day.”
Calm: (Deep sigh.) “What a pity. Are you ingesting lots of dark chocolate. You know milk chocolate inhibits calm.” (Fierce finger licking and lip smacking.)
Grr: “Did I mention this gig arrived and ends during our vacation?”
Calm: “Didn’t you consider this before you generously volunteered?”
Grr: “How would you like a swift kick in the...”
Calm: “Excuse me?”
Grr: “How swiftly time kicks by without thought to future plans.”
Calm: “It’s all about planning, plotting and pacing.”
Grr: (Deep breathing amid short gasps.) “But we can’t write on the manuscripts!”
Calm: “That’s correct. One must follow the rules.”
Grr: “Don’t you realize it’s more work for myself and the contestants?”
Calm: “One shouldn’t put self first.”
Grr: (Labored breathing in a paper bag.) “Thank you for the reminder.”
Calm: “Absolutely. Don’t hesitate to call again.” (Irritating dial tone.)
Who else is running low on chocolate and stuck in heavy breathing mode working on their Golden Rose submissions? Is there a secret to speed up the process? Please tell, I’m one ink blot shy of commitment.
We’re going to the coast for a few days and won’t be back until Friday. My replies will follow our return.
11 comments:
I haven't even started mine yet. First I do a quick read through and ask "Is this story fantastic enough to be a finalist?" You know right away if you are reading a winner.
If it is terrific, I'll score it high enough to final. If it is not, I'm gentle with my scoring. Even if it's a horrid entry, the scoring doesn't need to be bottom of the barrel. Just low enough not to final. I don't want to crush any hearts and I concentrate on giving them some good feedback, looking for obvious or consistent problems like poor or no hook, grammar issues, or POV.
I keep a pad of paper by the computer and note the good, the bad, and the ugly with the page and line numbers so I can write up my comments easily when I'm done.
Our job isn't to fix the MS, just look for the standouts and give a helping hand to the others.
Oh, Lori, this your first time? You're a judging virgin? 8^)
What Kendra said is exactly right. You can't fix their work, just gently point out the flaws. And I judge the same way in that if a manuscript isn't working, I score it only low enough so that it won't final.
I recently talked to someone who loved an entry she judged, thought sure it would final, but it didn't because of the other judge's scores. So the reverse can happen, too.
I judged the Rose once a couple of years ago, but I can't remember what the score sheets are like. There used to be a comments area, and that's where you want to offer your advice and suggestions. It's not like the Golden Heart that allows you to number score only, is it?
Good luck, Lori, and have fun with it!
Lori, I really hope you take to heart what Kendra and Karen said about it not being a judge's job to fix the manuscript. I used to do a lot of judging and critiquing for acquaintances and invariably I would drown in the task of trying to make right what they had done wrong, to show them where they had gone astray, to fix it. You can't do it. It wasn't until much later that I began to understand it was presumptuous in some instances to even try, I was just galloping over the top of what I perceived as their mistakes to remake it according to my own sensibilities, and who knew if I was right or wrong, esp. when it came to style. Now I do what Kendra said, read it for overall impressions and make notes to detect patterns of POV or what have you and offer that as a learning tool which they can chose to embrace or ignore.
All that said, I love helping a friend, but as not being one to enter contests, I really don't care for judging them, either.
karen and Kendra, I am also thinking of our last months speaker who talked about contest judging and how important it is to keep the score real so that good manuscripts don't lose out while mediocre ones do well.
Hope you have a glorious week at the beach, Lori.
Oh, Lori, I forgot to mention that you should NEVER, under any circumstances, rewrite any part of a contestant's work. Aside from it being a rude way to give an example of what you're suggesting, they'll be so resentful that they won't take your comments seriously and will just dismiss them out of hand. All your good intentions will be for nothing.
Alice, I can't bring myself to give someone a score of a 1 or a 2 under any circumstances. It's just too demeaning! If the scoring range is 1 to 5 (5 being fabulous), and if it's really bad, I'll give a 3 along with a detailed comment for fixing what's wrong. I've heard about too many writers giving up writing altogether because a judge scored them with all 1s and 2s. No matter how bad a piece of work is, all contestants deserve a huge pat on the back just for cutting themselves open and submitting their work for judgment by complete strangers. I admire each and every one of them.
I agree with you Karen about the bravery of opening yourself and your work to other people. I wouldn't want to see anyone hurt, either, and I can imagine what a terribly low score would do to me were I a contestant. I think a broader scoring range may be the way to go, then. I mean giving a bad manuscript a three seems equally wrong to me. If you look at it as A-B-C-D-F as in grades in a classroom, giving a failing a student a C seems odd but if the scoring is 1-10, then five is the middle and a four is below the middle.
Ack. This is why I don't judge!
In the scoring arena, I guess I'd say I'm a poor judge. *sniff* But I give fantastic critiques! So I s'pose if someone wants me to judge a contest they'll just have to take the good with the bad. 8^)
Karen -- LOL, you're an enthusiastic, kind judge who gives fantastic critiques! Who wouldn't want you as a judge!
LOL. Love this post, Lori!!!
Awesome Blog, Lori!
As a teacher, I know how hard it can be to give the equivalent of a "D" or an "F" grade to someone who's made a good faith effort. However, I think Maggie Lynch did a great job when she spoke to us this month of explaining that when you neglect to use the WHOLE scoring range, you can end up with mid-range manuscripts finaling. I.e. If you and 2 other kind hearted judges give the manuscript a "3", the average is 3. But say you have a great manuscript, but a strong voice (love it or hate it) and they get a 4,4, and 2--the average is 3.3. Maggie suggests using the full range of scoring, but softening the lowest scores with tons of constructive critique, and finding positives to mention in critiquing.
That's what I do when grading my students' writing. A & B (4-5) writer don't need a lot of detailed criticism--so I highlight just a few things. C (3) students get a lot more criticism b/c they've got a lot of potential. D & F students get the most feedback, but it's all very targeted to the most egregious (and fixable) problems with lots of back-patting thrown in.
You don't have to FIX it for them--try to find the most obvious items that if fixed would have resulted in a higher score from you, and mention them.
LOL, Lori!
I love Karen's term "judging virgin." Good for you for agreeing to judge, though. It's really valuable for those who enter and I always learn things that help me with my own writing.
Like others, I also do a quick read through first just for a general impression and jot notes on stickies of things that stood out--good and bad. Then I go back through with the judging sheet and consider what the contest is looking for.
Guess I'm not as kind as others. If the scale is 1-5, that doesn't give much latitude to separate the exceptional manuscripts from the really poor ones. I have given 1's and 2's in specific areas if they really need work, along with a suggestion if the contest allows comments. (For example, if grammar and punctuation are really poor, I'll suggest some of the reference books I have near my computer that are helpful to me.) I try to couch my comments so they aren't a direct attack on the writing or the author, and I always find something positive to say about the entry. Like others have also mentioned, I don't want to so traumatize someone who has the courage to put themselves "out there" that they stop writing.
In addition, if I find an entry I consider really poor, I'll flag that to the contest coordinator to be sure I'm not unfairly scoring that entry.
Hooray to you for judging! (I haven't looked at the Golden Rose entries I've been sent yet.)
Thanks everyone for your advice and wisdom. I'm working on my third submission and according to my logic they're all beginning writers with consistent errors in several areas. So, I've found myself pointing out these basic errors. Maybe I'm wrong, but I find it difficult to judge a story on Character, conflict, dialogue, plot/pacing and setting in the midst of head hopping, telling instead of showing, backstory and numerous mechanics problems.
I believe the mechanics (spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc.) needs to be corrected first before one offers (for example) plot and setting advice.
So I'm in a dilemma. Please offer suggestions. Do I delete all the corrections I've offered and simply state, "Be consistent with ____?"
We had a wonderful time at the beach. Perfect weather too. We missed winning a glass ball by one room number.
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