Contest judging
In the past month I have had the opportunity to read and offer a score and comments on more than 150 short stories for an annual short story contest sponsored by one of the California writer clubs I used to belong to. I still retain contact with that group where many accomplished writer friends live. Fortunately for the entrants, I am not the only judge. I am one of two lst tier judges who will have read all submissions. Approximately 30 of the top scorers will go to a final judge who is a published author and editor of a literary journal.
Approximately 1/3 of the total submissions I read are incidents or personal essays--not short stories. I use the definition of a short story from Writer's Encyclopedia which says, in part: "... A piece of fiction that revolves around a character with a specific problem to solve...An essential ingredient of the short story is the recognizable change--for better or for worse--that occurs in the main character or in his situation as a result of having solved his problem (or having recognized his failure or inability to do so)...."
Only about four of the total were 100% free of punctuation and spelling errors. I can almost tell the age of the writer of these stories. The "old school" (those who went to school back in the 1930's and 40's) were taught grammar and punctuation both in elementary and in high schools. For the last 20 years or so, such classes have been dropped from the curricula.
Other contest chairmen I know gather a committee on a Saturday following the close of the contest. These people spend the full day together weighing the attributes of the submissions and deciding which ones are the top three (for lst, 2nd and 3rd cash prizes) . "We sometimes have to adjourn until the next day and get back to the discussion before we can make our final selections" says this chairman.
I encourage members of my workshops to enter contests. There's always a deadline for submission and sometimes this is provided motivation for the writer who has difficulty "getting started." Most have entry fees of $5 to $15, but contests put on by smaller clubs receive fewer entries and the competition therefore is less that it is in national contests such as Writer's Digest's annual contest. Two members of my workshops won prizes last year in California Writers Club contests. This organization is composed of approximately 15 branches scattered throughout the state and most of them hold annual contests. Most branches also have websites on which they post their contests. These fees are often the only money-raising effort of the club in the year.
Any readers of this blog who have had contest experiences they would like to share with me I would like to hear from you as I am preparing an article about contests and judging. Thanks for now.
Approximately 1/3 of the total submissions I read are incidents or personal essays--not short stories. I use the definition of a short story from Writer's Encyclopedia which says, in part: "... A piece of fiction that revolves around a character with a specific problem to solve...An essential ingredient of the short story is the recognizable change--for better or for worse--that occurs in the main character or in his situation as a result of having solved his problem (or having recognized his failure or inability to do so)...."
Only about four of the total were 100% free of punctuation and spelling errors. I can almost tell the age of the writer of these stories. The "old school" (those who went to school back in the 1930's and 40's) were taught grammar and punctuation both in elementary and in high schools. For the last 20 years or so, such classes have been dropped from the curricula.
Other contest chairmen I know gather a committee on a Saturday following the close of the contest. These people spend the full day together weighing the attributes of the submissions and deciding which ones are the top three (for lst, 2nd and 3rd cash prizes) . "We sometimes have to adjourn until the next day and get back to the discussion before we can make our final selections" says this chairman.
I encourage members of my workshops to enter contests. There's always a deadline for submission and sometimes this is provided motivation for the writer who has difficulty "getting started." Most have entry fees of $5 to $15, but contests put on by smaller clubs receive fewer entries and the competition therefore is less that it is in national contests such as Writer's Digest's annual contest. Two members of my workshops won prizes last year in California Writers Club contests. This organization is composed of approximately 15 branches scattered throughout the state and most of them hold annual contests. Most branches also have websites on which they post their contests. These fees are often the only money-raising effort of the club in the year.
Any readers of this blog who have had contest experiences they would like to share with me I would like to hear from you as I am preparing an article about contests and judging. Thanks for now.
posted by Willma Willis Gore at
11:29 AM
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