Reading for Contests

werencole said:

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Has anyone ever read for a contest before? What were your experiences, good, bad and ugly?

-W

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I have been asked to judge several writing contests, and I agree the poor quality of work that is submitted is jarring, to say the least. I've had several occasions where I couldn't even make recommendations for the allotted number of honorable mentions I was allowed to award. My negative experiences prompted me to offer a few workshops featuring sound advice for entering contests, and once again, I was jarred by how many writers are unwilling to send their very best work into a contest. It's almost as if writers think winning contests are purely based on luck, and not the quality of the work they are submitting.

Oh and here's a common complaint I hear from writers...big contests like the ones offered by Writer's Digest are fixed or bogus and not worth the entry fee. I've stopped telling people that I've won two Writer's Digest contests, because if looks could kill...

So now that I've cheered you up about your task at hand...

I've read for a Night Train contest, and edited for NFG magazine.

There's no denying it, the overal quality of submissions is enough to make a reader lose the will to live. The NT entries were mostly of an extremely high standard - it's a prestige contest - but there were some howlers.

Try reading slush for a magazine. It's amazing how many people can barely string a coherent sentence together, or write tired cliche, copy old ideas, don't proof read, don't understand grammar or just plain don't have any talent. I'd put the untalented section at about 85%.

Mike Coombes said:

There's no denying it, the overal quality of submissions is enough to make a reader lose the will to live.

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WOW! That is bad

Mike Coombes said:

I'd put the untalented section at about 85%.

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Here's the irony of that statement, I'd put the talented writers who procastinate and don't submit at a very high percentage as well

Contests

I've read for a few contests, and most of the submissions are appallingly bad. I couldn't write a word while doing the reading, largely because I couldn't get the bad taste out of my mouth. I was deeply afraid I'd mimic some of the horrible writing. But the overall lack of quality does make finding something good that much more rewarding.

What bothers me the most about reading for contests is the same thing that bothers me in reading slush piles; the writers all think what they've written is good, else they wouldn't have submitted it. It's disheartening to realize so many new writers are producing such horribly bad fiction, but also have their hopes and dreams riding on it.

I agree - although I think it has always been so. The internet is to blame, I think, for so many talentless wastrels finding a voice.

Mike Coombes said:

I agree - although I think it has always been so. The internet is to blame, I think, for so many talentless wastrels finding a voice.

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Yes, and the proliferation of self-publishing. There seems to be the attitude that anyone can write well, and if agents don't bite, and editors don't buy, there always a reason for it other than bad writing. Sometimes there is, but 99% of the time, bad writing is the cause.

At NFG we had something like 10,000 submissions in 2 years. All online submissions.

I can't help feeling that if people still had to pay for envelopes and postage, they'd think a little more about what they sent.

Reading for writing competitions.

It is a shattering experience the first time isn't it?
When I'm home to do it I organise a short story competition, I also read for a big international comp. and have judged several New Zealand competitions.


I try to get my writing students to help organise because it's such a good way to teach them to be professional! All those poorly presented scripts, handwritten, faded type ribbons making a faint grey print, some fancy fonts you need a magnifying glass to read, oh the relief when you find one in TNR or Ariel or NC. and printed in the darkest print on good white paper, not flimsy, see-through stuff.

Have you come across scripts with names still attached, or the last page has the writer's full name and address on it? Have you found poems and essays although it is only a short story competition?

I organise my competition I don't judge it so I open the entry envelopes and find pleading letters begging for a 10,000 word story to be considered although the word limit is 4,000 words. I find stern letters telling me to read the story all the way through as it's better in the middle and sad letters saying they have never won a competition and can they win this one? Or the entrant with two versions of the same story writing because the second entry is better and please destroy the first!

As for the actual entries, when I read for the international competition the standard is good. The lengths are correct, no one sends in a 5000 word story with 4000 words printed on the cover sheet. No real howlers, just that the majority are well written but rather dull and predictable. Those for the short list stand out.

When I was judging I wanted to tear out my hair. There's always a trend isn't there each year? One year asthma inhalers kept turning up in stories, another time there was a glut of poorly rewritten Hitchcock plot horrors. And yes, a couple of times the prize money was divided up between the short list as a clear winner could not be found. Yet, the howls of outrage from the entrants because this happened were ferocious. No way were their stories bad or derivative it was the competition that was wrong in refusing to award a first prize. (And yes, it was written in the rules that if the judges didn't find work of an acceptable standard no prize would be awarded.)

It's been a relief not to do any judging this last couple of years but I do enjoy reading for that international competition as there is always a greater proportion of good stories to read and enjoy.

Do you think that because we all learn to write at school then we all assume that we can write? And how to you change that assumption?

I'm about to judge a contest but fortunately the top three are decided by public vote--the panel decides the winner from there.

I've judged a local poetry contest for a couple of years now. It's mostly high school kids who submit, and every once in a while we've found some real gems in there. Most of it is just average, but very little of it is actually terrible.

The first year I did it one girl submitted a poem that seemed very familiar to me. I showed it to my daughter, and she said, "Hey! She was in my 5th grade class, and that's the poem that Mr. [Teacher's Name} wrote for our class the last week of school!"

She was disqualified. It was actually a good thing I caught it, because four of the other judges picked it as the winner.

werencole said:

Yeah, I have noticed a theme, two different ones actually. The first to pop out at me was the unusual amount of people using angstful teenagers as protagonists

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Try slushing poetry. 75% of wannabe poets are teenage girls who believe they are Sylvia Plath reincarnated. Heavy on the angst. 20% of the rest are about the changing seasons.

I just finished judging a 'first chapter' contest, and the quality was all over the place. One entry had four+ pages of internal monologue before anything happened.

I've read for a contest before. I agree that there are a lot of bad entries in the pile. I basically knew my top 10-15 choices as I was reading them. I read every entry through to the end, though...to give them the respect they deserve. Even the bad ones had glittering prizes somewhere inside them...or I could at least see what the writer was getting at. I found that the cream really did rise to the top...almost of its own accord. I was actually quite fascinated by the process. It was almost like metal slivers...just as they work themselves out of your fingers naturally, the bad entries worked their way out of the running...or, the good ones worked their way to the top. I would do it again.

Aloud

Reading aloud is pure drama. No point in not expressing emotion or conveying the thoughts of the writer.
I've read my own work and had my work read by a skilled reader. What a difference it makes to good writing.
If reading anything aloud staple in the left hand top corner. Make sure pages are numbered. Makes sure each page is complete; that there are no sentences that half start on the last line and finish on the top line of the next page. It avoids the wondering what is coming next.
Are you reading for the BBC or to record onto MP3? Standards vary and then ,of course, there are sound effects.

Watch out for flat writing. It is a killer and send people to sleep.
Good luck with your reading.

Just to ask how far through that pile of 200 stories you are now? And to recommend that you buy yourself a really good, brilliantly written book to read afterwards and take away the slush pile taste.

Sigh.

Now, having related how reading slush eats your soul, then vomits it back in your face, I'm all set to be doing it again.

Get ready for a new paying print mag - details to follow.

Books to read?

I think I remember reading some of your posts and you're an SF and Fantasy buff aren't you?

Last week I got my hands on Terry Prachett's 'Going Postal' which made me laugh and had me sighing in envy over his writing ability. Part of the fun of the book is his take on companies who abuse the language to hide what they are doing. E.g. 'We are down sizing.' instead of 'We are sacking 200 people.' It's brilliant. As for his satirical take on our business and political practises! Well, read it. And his main character and his love interest are definitely not the usual run of hero and love interest characters!

I also finished off the first two of Jonathon's Stroud's Bartimaeus trilogy. Part three is out but only in Japanese here which I can't read so I'm waiting for it. If you like comic writing, a djinn with a wicked sense of humour and plots with bite then this is a good read. And yes I think they are well written.

If you want a well written literary I've just finished 'The Sunday Philosophy Club' by Alexander McCall Smith. Now that's fine Scottish writing with a wonderful sense of place and a discussion of morality that's rare to find these days. Think of a less emotional Scottish Dickens.

Finishing post in sight yet?

Ready to broach the champagne?