Today I got my comments back from the Genesis contest. I entered in two categories, so I had six attachments to review. I gave them all a glance over, then read them again, but both times were brief. I’m not quite ready for that.
I’m of mixed emotions right now. I mean, I’m not surprised that I didn’t final (really…I’m not). But I am surprised at how different my scores were. On a scale of 1-5 (bad-good) I got a 1 from one judge and a 4 from the other. How can something be so wretched to one person while considered well done by another? How do I know what to work on, when one person tells me my dialogue is smooth and natural and the next tells me it’s chit-chatty, but doesn’t tell me if that’s good or bad, or how to fix it?
I really wanna throw a pity party, but I’m pretty much over that part of my life (I threw pity parties for years…they don’t really accomplish much, so I gave up on them). The problem is that I don’t know what to do instead of them. I’m really not sure how to funnel my emotions…I’m not even sure which emotions I’m feeling.
Why is it that the comments that stick in our heads are the worst ones? I really want to focus on the positive…why is it that it’s easier to remember the negative ones?
I’m not really sure how I feel about this right now. I want to be a better writer. I want to do my best. I KNOW that I need honest critiques, good and bad, to do that. It doesn’t make it any easier though, does it?
I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to post this today because I don’t want people thinking that I’m digging for compliments or encouragements. But if this blog is really going to be about me and my attempts to publish a novel, then I should probably talk about my first contest experience.
I think I’ll work on my article now. No characters. No plots. Just the mindless retelling of one townships struggle against accessory buildings.
Last year, I received my first contest scores and the experience was overwhelming. I, too, had mixed reviews.
I put the whole package in a drawer in my office with a sticky note that says “Open only when you’ve published a book.”
Then I went out and bought several writing craft books, took a few online classes, and continued to write.
I don’t know what works for everyone, but it sure helped me!
And go ahead and have a 24-hour pity-party! And a chocolate!
Thanks, Jill 🙂
I stopped entering contests. This seems odd – to have three judges who give such a wide variety of scores. Critiquing is a fine art. I think I understand that more people enter this contest for the critique than for the prestige. Do you feel like you learn something from the critique more than the score? There are a lot of other ways to get a feel for your work.
Lisa: I know that I’ll learn a lot, but the score range is odd (an 82 and a 51). In the other category each score was at least ten points away from the others.
It’s weird how easy it is to tell who liked the story and who didn’t. I had one judge give me really low scores, but she had the most encouraging/helpful things to say. Another judge gave me low scores, pointed out what she didn’t like, but didn’t give a lot of guidance about how to fix it.
My plan is to sit down and average each categories score to get a better feel for it. I’ll sift through it all (eventually).
I would like to enter a few more contests, though. I just have to remember how subjective this stuff is. So hard for my left-brained mind to wrap around!
Sorry you’re bummed! My advice – keep writing! Write something new. Put the old stuff away for awhile… maybe even a long while. It took Stephen King five manuscripts before an editor thought he was publishable. I’ve heard a writer needs to get a million words on paper for their writing to be of high caliber. I’m on my rough draft of my third MS, and I’m planning on plotting out a new MS soon.
I don’t know anything about this particular contest, but I’ve heard about others. Do you know anything about the judges? I haven’t entered a contest, but I’ve heard some are industry pros like agents and editors. That’s the kind of contest to target. Otherwise, you’ll get readers/writers, who may not even be published, that will judge your work. Are they any more qualified than you to make judgements as important as that? Not always.
I suggest, as hard as it is to read criticism against your work, you should look over their comments. Does anything they say ring true? Is there anything the judges agree on? Those are the elements you should focus on. Maybe you want to re-work those things and then send this out to another contest that is geared toward your genre and that has experts as judges. You write chick lit. Well, if a judge (non-expert) isn’t a fan of that genre or hasn’t read it, he/she won’t necessarily make good calls either.
Sorry for rambling, but I feel there are a few things to consider before you hide that ms under a rock and move on.
Keep your chin up and keep writing.
Lynnette Labelle
http://lynnettelabelle.blogspot.com
This was your first? Congrats on entering! 🙂 That takes guts. Also, diverse scores is not such a bad thing. I get them quite often and once you feel more objective, take out the scores and the comments and see if you can find similarities. Sometimes the numerical scoring is misleading. It might be better to look at what the judges actually commented on.
I saw your comment on Camille’s blog so I popped on over. 🙂
Don’t feel bad. Contests are extremely subjective. 🙂
Karin, I’m with you on what to do when one person likes your work and another doesn’t. It would help if you knew what sort of stories each one liked in general. That would help.
It’s like going to Rotten Tomatoes (dot) com and finding a movie that you like has soooo many bad reviews.
Keep writing. Like Jill says, attend some workshops, which might help you ID some things you can improve in the story. Then send it to someone else.
That’s what I did – sort of. The story I entered into the Genesis contest didn’t even get picked, but I re-looked at it, did a few edits I thought would enhance the story and submitted to another publisher.
Hope that helps
E
I entered my first contest about 8 years ago and I remember trying to make heads and tails of the comments. It’s tough when the comments are completely opposite of one another.
Contests are dangerous things. The judges are particularly qualified so their opinions are what they are. Were there only 2 judges? That’s not a good mix. To be honest, I would toss out both sets of comments, the truth is somewhere in the middle. You would be better off joining a solid critque group and getting their feedback.
Contests can really shake the confidence of a writer. They are expensive and the quality of the judging is suspect. I think they are great when you are starting out but once you get comfortable in your writing, it is better to just submit to agents and editors.