Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images
Later this month, I’ll have the great joy of judging a flash fiction competition for a Scottish writing group (all done via the wonders of email). I enjoy judging and have learned much from the process of doing so in that it has helped me to improve my own work for judging by someone else.
Competitions
It’s my belief most writers (and certainly all short form ones) should enter competitions. It gets you used to submitting work to a deadline. It also gets you used to receiving feedback where that’s available (and often it will be for the short story and flash competitions. I will be giving a short critique on the stories I’ll be judging soon).
Also, if you win or are long/short listed, it does give you a boost. Most writers see this as validation of their writing – I do. That means a lot especially if you are used to getting rejections or, even more commonly these days, you simply don’t hear back from a competition or market.
In the editing course I ran at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick recently, I looked at editing from a competition judge’s viewpoint and asked the question could a judge tell how well or otherwise a writer has edited their work based on their submission. I answered that question too with an emphatic yes!
It is easy to tell roughly where a writer is on their writing journey. There is also a lot writers can do to improve their chances in a competition. So for this post, I thought I would share some tips on this.
What A Story Judge Looks For
I can only go by my own experience here, of course, but I believe what follows will hold true for most judges. What most judges would be looking for includes the following:-
A cracking story well told with memorable characters, an opening that draws you in, a middle which keeps the action going, and a powerful ending with all loose ends tied up.
That the writer has obeyed the rules regarding formatting. This varies from competition to competition but standard things to expect are to use a size 12 font (Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri are some of the most common I’ve come across) and double line spacing.
That the writer has obeyed the submissions rules to the letter. Some competitions ask for a header on your manuscript (usually where you put the title) and a footer (for page numbers).
Some competitions ask for no author identification on the document itself. Usually with these, you are submitting the story via Submittable or Duotrope where you complete boxes with your details, then upload your story into another box. The whole idea here is for stories to be judged “blind”.
The judges really don’t know who has written what. That makes for a more balanced and fair system of judging, which benefits everyone. So there are good reasons for organisers to ask for stories to be submitted in certain ways.
Most places simply won’t accept a piece not submitted correctly. Even if you somehow get through a judge like me will check you’ve stuck to the rules and if you haven’t, we will discard your tale. It simply isn’t fair on those authors who have taken the time and made the effort to follow things through properly to allow a story which hasn’t done those things to proceed further.
You would think this doesn’t happen much. You would be surprised. It does, unfortunately. It’s also a complete waste of the author’s entry fee too so if only for that reason alone, do follow the rules!
That the story delivers on its premise and, where a theme has been set, it delivers on that too.
Where a word count limit has been set (and most of the time there is one), that has been obeyed by the author too. So no 502 word stories for a maximum 500 words count. Competition organisers and judges check for this too.
Top Tips
Now I’m often on the other side of the fence because I regularly submit stories for competitions. I’ve found the following tips so useful (and continue to do so).
Give yourself plenty of time to write your story, rest it, edit it, rest it again, edit it again. With the edits here, the first one is to ensure the story makes sense and the second is to pick up on anything I’ve missed etc.
Sometimes when I read a story through the first time, I realise I need to add in a few more details at specific points to, say, strengthen my characterisation, or I think of better turns of phrase for the characters. So I put in my amendments and on my second read through, I check everything holds together and there are no plot holes.
Give yourself time to have a specific edit for typos and to check you have followed all the submission and formatting rules.
Set yourself a deadline to submit the story by. I take off up to a fortnight from any official deadline to get my story in and have found this pays. It allows time if I’m ill. I still won’t miss the competition deadline if that happens. But it also means I know I’ve got my story in with plenty of time to spare and naturally I am then working on my next tale.
Always check out the background of the competition. A good competition will either have a FAQ section on its website or will welcome queries.
Check any fee is proportionate to the prize on offer. Run away from any competition which is charging you £10 for a £50 top prize. Someone is looking to make money there! Novel competitions are always more expensive (expect to pay at least £20 for those) because the judge here will be reading your novel and that takes time. It is their time you’re paying for here.
Never be afraid to check a competition out. This is where the writing community on social media is often so useful.
Never sign away all of your rights to a story. I never submit any of my work to those sites which ask for it. I see it as unfair. It means I cannot submit a story to another market later. I like to keep that option in reserve for me!
Read your story out loud and try recording it and playing it back. What looks good written down doesn’t always read well. If you can record it (Zoom is fabulous here – you just set up a meeting with yourself, record your story, end the meeting and it will convert the file into an mp3 for you), do so. You are taking in the story as a reader/your competition judge would on reading it. This can be enlightening and show up awkward character names and clunky dialogue. Well worth doing and I see this as part of my overall editing process.
Conclusion
Story judging, as well as story writing, is not a perfect science. Personal tastes do come into it but if you follow the rules and create the best tale you can with memorable characters, it has its chance of doing well.
Judges are actively looking for stories to entertain them, to move them in some way etc. So my final tip here is always keep your Ideal Reader in mind for your stories. For competitions, envisage the judge as your Ideal Reader. Ask yourself what will they get from your story, what stands out about it.
Thinking along those lines is a good way to encourage you to just write what the reader/judge needs to know and to cut the purple prose out.
Oh and one more thing, to quote the ever excellent Columbo, good luck!
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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