When being judgey is a good thing
This past week left little time for writing work, however, I did dive into some feedback on Firemark from its first contest. Over the years I have learned about myself that sometimes when I have more obligations and less time, ripping the Band-Aid off becomes an easier endeavor. Though I understand the need for feedback from professionals, hearing my weaknesses too-often overshadows any praise and leaves me walking around under a cloud. I understand this is a necessary skill in publishing, and like anything else am practicing setting my emotions aside and listening.
The results from this particular contest came from three different judges, two unpublished, one published. The strengths they listed included beautiful writing and strong setting descriptions. The weaknesses had been something I anticipated and later fixed by taking an ax to my intro, albeit after I entered this contest. Overall, I'm pleased, and am waiting to hear back from contests I’ve entered since reworking the beginning.
As I've mentioned before, I've recently entered a half a dozen contests, and for some of those, I have offered to judge as well. Typically these contests are broken into subgenre categories, in which Firemark counts as paranormal or in some cases contemporary. To keep things fair, I will not be judging paranormal, but instead the other categories.. All entries are romance by definition, but the categories include historical, contemporary, suspense, spiritual, young adult, and others. The first round of blind judging consists of three romance authors, including one published, scoring the entries on various items within a rubric. Those with the highest scores advance to the next category, which is judged by an agent and editor who work in those subgenres.
I've done this once before and found it immensely helpful. Seeing a manuscript from a different perspective alongside a scoresheet designed to reflect the opinions of industry professionals and readers sharpens the focus on what elements all need to work together. Much like a symphony consists of various instruments that meld to create a memorable performance, a novel must be a marriage of emotion and engineering. As a writer, focusing on the emotion comes naturally, but in creating the art, it can be easy to overlook structural issues, such as plot, tension, stakes, background, dialogue, setting, voice, and pacing. As a writer, I need someone else to come in and point out issues. As a judge, I can practice studying the engineering side, and then apply those skills to my own work.
All of this being said, FIVE entries arrived in my inbox the other day. Each one is about thirty pages long and is the beginning of someone's complete novel. Writing a book is an accomplishment many people hope to achieve, but never do. On my latest feedback, one of the judges said in their final comments, "You sat yourself down and started a book, which is more than 99% of the people who say they want to write." Those words brought perspective. I'm hard on myself, and somehow seem to forget that for better or worse, I've written three books. And I'm not done yet.
Needless to say, I'm taking inspiration from that judge's comment and will be applying my own version to these entries.
Onward!
Kathryn
