Why say what someone already did?
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Judges and Pimps
Even with workshop after workshop after workshop of training, some judges need more time and experience to become great judges. I was an utterly SUCKY judge the first year I was actively judging RWA contests (fortunately I only judged 3 contests that year), and I had gone through several training sessions. But then a writer by the name of Linda Winifree taught me how to judge by teaching me how to critique. Yes, it was quite painful at times.
For unpublished writers, I firmly believe judging and entering contests go hand in hand. Both teaches you to see things from the other's perspective.
Okay, I'm really not posting to defend judges. I know crappy ones exist. Had one this last year in one of the contest categories I coordinated. You do not know how seriously tempted I was to change some scores and delete some comments. Uggh. Sometimes having an honor code sucks.
And I don't want to hear that it's a contests duty to weed out the bad judges. When you're gotten 20 more entries than you anticipated in almostevery category, you get to desperate to find folks willing to judge. If every published author judged one RWA chapter contest a year, and if everyentrant who entered a contest would judge one RWA chapter contest a year,and if every member of each RWA chapter would judge one RWA chapter contest a year, then there probably wouldn't be any contest begging last minute for judges.
Anyhoo, over the last couple weeks I've been tabulating comments from pubbed and unpubbed writers on Contest Entering Tips. Lots of good advice!Especially from gals here on this ContestAlert. (Anne-Marie, Lesli, and TameraHughes rock with helpful opinions.)
Now I'm a firm believer that God brings coincidental/overlapping/similiar things in our lives to teach us something. Like watching an episode on tvor hearing a song that reinforces something we just read or an issue in ascene we're writing.
So as I was doing my contest tips research, I came across a tip from Ruth Logan Herne. She's finalled or won more contests than I've even thought about entering. Lemme find her tip so I can quote it exactly 'cause I know how she doesn't like to be paraphrased. BTW, here's the link to her entire post on pimping your contest entry.
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/search/label/pimping
"My friend Andrea Wilder (Fearless, Dorchester, 2007), who blogged for us in February, admits that she tweaked the story to make judges happy. When Alicia Condon (Dorchester) saw the real deal, the story written as it was meant to be, the opening was more fully developed, but Andrea had learned what takes some of us longer to figure out. Lots of judges want that instant fix, that WHAM! GMC that spills the internal organs of the storyin full-blown instant fashion.
By tweaking her story to give that punch, she ended up winning the contestand ultimately was contracted. If you’ve ever entered Romancing the Tome,that’s a basic example of story punching right there. In five pages youhave to sell the judges on your amazingly wonderful opening to get a seatin the finalists’ box. Five pages."
So how does this relate to me?
After I shared the tips I'd gathered to my local chapter, I told them I was going to test what Andrea Wilder did. My trial contest: the Dixie. Unfortunately, I had too much other family and writing stuff to get to so I didn't get around to pimping the manuscript I'd wanted to enter.
Needless to say, I have to find another contest to be my trial.
On Monday I got back to working on my Victorian because my agent wants to send it to a house that only takes full submissions. Only she wants me to do another round of layering/polishing first. Yada yada yada. So as I was working on a chapter, I remembered I had five contest scoresheets on it from two contests I'd entered it in last year. And I got curious.
I learned some interesting things from looking at them.
1. Some judges think they need to have all the answers to GMC internallyand externally in the first 15/25/30 pages. This can be even worse in inspirationals because the judges then want to know exactly what the leads' spiritual struggles are and why.
2. Some judges don't think. You can show the hero resisting the urge to throw something against the wall, but unless you write "Furious at what he heard yet concerned about not scaring the kids in the room, Bob gripped the team's trophey instead of throwing it against the wall like he really really wanted to do."
3. Some judges make points that seem stupid but really are things entrants should key on. I know you're probably thinking, "duh!" Oh, dear little pigeon pie, hold on to that "duh."
On almost all five of those scoresheets, the judges mentioned paragraphs they didn't feel were necessary. For example, one judge said, "The maid is such a minor character, you don't need to take time to describe what she looks like and how the heroine feels about her." Now that "time" I took was two sentences--her dress and bonnet drew attention to the pallow of her face, and she looked like she was grieving something.
The first time I read that scoresheet I thought, "Duh! It's not a waste oftime. She plays a key role in a sub-plot, in the spiritual arc of both lead characters."
Monday when I read that, since I had Ruthy's pimping comment in mind, I suddenly realized THE JUDGE DIDN'T NEED THAT INFORMATION.
Please hear me, when you enter another contest, don't just send in the first 25 pages, tweaked only so the last page ends on a hook. Copy and paste 10-15 pages MORE than the contest page limit in to a new word document. As yourself some key questions.
Is this prologue necessary to the judge understanding the first 25 pages?
Is the problem the heroine is having with this secondary characternecessary to the judge understanding the main plot?
Is this description of this minor character necessary to the judge seeing this character as necessary to the opening pages?
Etc. Etc. Etc. Do it for every paragraph in your entry.
If it's not nessary, don't create this fictional dream, then cut.
FORGET ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW OF THE ENTIRE STORY AND HOW EVERY SCENE, EVERY DETAIL PLAYS TOGETHER. It's only about giving the judge the information she needs to focus on the main plot, setting, leads, GMC, etc. Don't leave anything any that may distract her or make her think "this isn't needed, slows pace."
Yes, it may really not be needed and really a pace-dragger. But it may be a case of where the info is needed if one was reading theentire manuscript and could see how all the threads wove together.
Pimp your manuscript for the contest judges.
Yes, feel free to assume they're stupid and clearly layer in GMC in relation to individual story goals. Feel free to add in some emotional "telling" words in addition to the"showing" paragraphs. Ultimately, your goal is to final and to get a full request. That's when you send in your real manuscript.
Granted, I could be wrong. But I challenge you to do a trial test in an upcoming contest.
What do you have to lose?
For unpublished writers, I firmly believe judging and entering contests go hand in hand. Both teaches you to see things from the other's perspective.
Okay, I'm really not posting to defend judges. I know crappy ones exist. Had one this last year in one of the contest categories I coordinated. You do not know how seriously tempted I was to change some scores and delete some comments. Uggh. Sometimes having an honor code sucks.
And I don't want to hear that it's a contests duty to weed out the bad judges. When you're gotten 20 more entries than you anticipated in almostevery category, you get to desperate to find folks willing to judge. If every published author judged one RWA chapter contest a year, and if everyentrant who entered a contest would judge one RWA chapter contest a year,and if every member of each RWA chapter would judge one RWA chapter contest a year, then there probably wouldn't be any contest begging last minute for judges.
Anyhoo, over the last couple weeks I've been tabulating comments from pubbed and unpubbed writers on Contest Entering Tips. Lots of good advice!Especially from gals here on this ContestAlert. (Anne-Marie, Lesli, and TameraHughes rock with helpful opinions.)
Now I'm a firm believer that God brings coincidental/overlapping/similiar things in our lives to teach us something. Like watching an episode on tvor hearing a song that reinforces something we just read or an issue in ascene we're writing.
So as I was doing my contest tips research, I came across a tip from Ruth Logan Herne. She's finalled or won more contests than I've even thought about entering. Lemme find her tip so I can quote it exactly 'cause I know how she doesn't like to be paraphrased. BTW, here's the link to her entire post on pimping your contest entry.
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/search/label/pimping
"My friend Andrea Wilder (Fearless, Dorchester, 2007), who blogged for us in February, admits that she tweaked the story to make judges happy. When Alicia Condon (Dorchester) saw the real deal, the story written as it was meant to be, the opening was more fully developed, but Andrea had learned what takes some of us longer to figure out. Lots of judges want that instant fix, that WHAM! GMC that spills the internal organs of the storyin full-blown instant fashion.
By tweaking her story to give that punch, she ended up winning the contestand ultimately was contracted. If you’ve ever entered Romancing the Tome,that’s a basic example of story punching right there. In five pages youhave to sell the judges on your amazingly wonderful opening to get a seatin the finalists’ box. Five pages."
So how does this relate to me?
After I shared the tips I'd gathered to my local chapter, I told them I was going to test what Andrea Wilder did. My trial contest: the Dixie. Unfortunately, I had too much other family and writing stuff to get to so I didn't get around to pimping the manuscript I'd wanted to enter.
Needless to say, I have to find another contest to be my trial.
On Monday I got back to working on my Victorian because my agent wants to send it to a house that only takes full submissions. Only she wants me to do another round of layering/polishing first. Yada yada yada. So as I was working on a chapter, I remembered I had five contest scoresheets on it from two contests I'd entered it in last year. And I got curious.
I learned some interesting things from looking at them.
1. Some judges think they need to have all the answers to GMC internallyand externally in the first 15/25/30 pages. This can be even worse in inspirationals because the judges then want to know exactly what the leads' spiritual struggles are and why.
2. Some judges don't think. You can show the hero resisting the urge to throw something against the wall, but unless you write "Furious at what he heard yet concerned about not scaring the kids in the room, Bob gripped the team's trophey instead of throwing it against the wall like he really really wanted to do."
3. Some judges make points that seem stupid but really are things entrants should key on. I know you're probably thinking, "duh!" Oh, dear little pigeon pie, hold on to that "duh."
On almost all five of those scoresheets, the judges mentioned paragraphs they didn't feel were necessary. For example, one judge said, "The maid is such a minor character, you don't need to take time to describe what she looks like and how the heroine feels about her." Now that "time" I took was two sentences--her dress and bonnet drew attention to the pallow of her face, and she looked like she was grieving something.
The first time I read that scoresheet I thought, "Duh! It's not a waste oftime. She plays a key role in a sub-plot, in the spiritual arc of both lead characters."
Monday when I read that, since I had Ruthy's pimping comment in mind, I suddenly realized THE JUDGE DIDN'T NEED THAT INFORMATION.
Please hear me, when you enter another contest, don't just send in the first 25 pages, tweaked only so the last page ends on a hook. Copy and paste 10-15 pages MORE than the contest page limit in to a new word document. As yourself some key questions.
Is this prologue necessary to the judge understanding the first 25 pages?
Is the problem the heroine is having with this secondary characternecessary to the judge understanding the main plot?
Is this description of this minor character necessary to the judge seeing this character as necessary to the opening pages?
Etc. Etc. Etc. Do it for every paragraph in your entry.
If it's not nessary, don't create this fictional dream, then cut.
FORGET ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW OF THE ENTIRE STORY AND HOW EVERY SCENE, EVERY DETAIL PLAYS TOGETHER. It's only about giving the judge the information she needs to focus on the main plot, setting, leads, GMC, etc. Don't leave anything any that may distract her or make her think "this isn't needed, slows pace."
Yes, it may really not be needed and really a pace-dragger. But it may be a case of where the info is needed if one was reading theentire manuscript and could see how all the threads wove together.
Pimp your manuscript for the contest judges.
Yes, feel free to assume they're stupid and clearly layer in GMC in relation to individual story goals. Feel free to add in some emotional "telling" words in addition to the"showing" paragraphs. Ultimately, your goal is to final and to get a full request. That's when you send in your real manuscript.
Granted, I could be wrong. But I challenge you to do a trial test in an upcoming contest.
What do you have to lose?
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tips to add suspense
I'm not a suspense writer.
But I'd like to weave more suspense in my writing. Fortunately for me, LIS author Debby Giusti did a great blog post today on the subject.
If you have a chance, check out what she shared.
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/
But I'd like to weave more suspense in my writing. Fortunately for me, LIS author Debby Giusti did a great blog post today on the subject.
If you have a chance, check out what she shared.
http://seekerville.blogspot.com/
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