Issue 30: I Got All Judgy
What I (re)learned from judging a writing competition.
Hi, friends! How’ve you been?
Since we last spoke, there have been things abound. The most pressing of which was my turning forty the first week in April. I thought such a milestone would make for a good newsletter topic, but then I realized, I didn’t have any particular thoughts on it. After all, we’re only as old as we feel, right?
By that logic, I am only 38.
Getting Critical
My eyes hurt. But in a good way.
The reason for my ocular discomfort is because I recently took on the role of judge for a writing competition. Between you and me, I almost passed on the opportunity. I worried that I was juggling too many other things, as I am prone to do. But because I had just turned in a manuscript, I considered that judging such a competition could be a palate cleanser between projects. Oh, and they also offered to pay me. And I am a sucker for such offers.
There another—more secretive—reason I agreed to judge. I don’t read a lot of work from nonprofessional writers. There was a part of me that wanted a glimpse into what others were producing. To see how my own work… stacked up… if you will.
I was asked to read stories and provide feedback to the writers. Thoughts on plot. On characters. Grammar. Rhythm. Pacing. Flow. I also had to ensure authors followed a set of prompt guidelines and worked within the constraints of a specific word count.
Over two and a half weeks I read 36 stories. Each tale had a word count of around 2,500 words. I read the equivalent of a 90,000 word novel. It was challenging, exhausting, and fun.
My expectation for the stories? Low. I assumed that these (blind) submissions would be riddled with comma splices, spelling errors, flat characters, and plodding plots.
I was mistaken.
I expected train wrecks and instead found myself immersed in perfectly passable prose. Were there utter clunkers? Sure. Maybe three. Were there amazing, mind-blowing, “I wish I’d written that!” stories? Yeah, four of them.
Everything else was good. And “good” is not bad.
After reading and scoring the assignments, I took a few days to reflect on the experience. What did I learn from reading these tales? What elements of the craft were reinforced? What could I keep in mind and apply to my own writing to ensure my future work lands somewhere above “utter clunker” and “good”?
Here are five takeaways, reminders, and suggestions I’ll keep in mind when writing fiction. I hope they’ll help you, too.
Do not start a story (especially a short story) with backstory.
I was shocked at how many writers openened their tales weighted with backstory. It’s important to note that this competition was time-based. Writers only had about three days to compose their stories after receiving the genre and two details that were to be worked into the plot. Perhaps authors were making discoveries on the page as they wrote.
Still, I was surprised how often things did not begin in media res—or, in the middle of things. Instead, first pages were often spent describing feelings and all the action that happened prior to the story beginning. At worst, the stories started with deep description of a location that soon held no bearing on the story as characters moved to new places. I read about so many bedrooms, cars, apartments, kitchens, etc.
Start in the midst of a gripping situation, preferably as close to the inciting incident as possible. Catch a reader’s attention, and supply necessary info organically.
Keep your tenses consistent.
Do you have a favorite tense? These writers sure did. A large percent of tales were presented in the present tense. It’s a tense I rarely encounter in the reading I do for pleasure. But many authors confused themselves, often jumping back and forth in their tenses. Action was in the present, but dialogue was in the past, or vice versa. It was the most common note I added to the judging sheet.
Use the tense that provides the best sense of urgency and pacing for your story, but keep it consistent.
Meet the genre.
I judged stories in two different genres: heist tales and romantic comedies. The authors of the heist stories understood the assignment. I was surprised by how few of the romantic comedies had either romance, or comedy.
Rom-Coms have their own rules. One character finds another attractive, but as they try to catch their attention, the universe keeps them apart by painting the protagonist in an unflattering light. There wasn’t a lot of that going on. Whenever an author did get brave and tried to include a meet-cute, it always revolved around one of the characters falling down. (Though, we know how I feel about people falling, right?)
Ensure to review any established “rules” of the genre before you try to write in it (or before you try to break those rules).
Just because a story has a word count limit, it doesn’t mean it must be met.
Nearly every. single. story. went all the way to the word count limit of 2,500. In nearly every case, it wasn’t necessary. Many of these stories contained fat that could have been trimmed away on the edit to produce a tighter, better-paced story.
One of my favorite stories of the entire competition was only 900 words long. It came in with a theme and a message, and delivered in a concise and compelling manner. If you can tell the story in fewer words, always do that.
Word counts are a guideline, not a rule.
Humans are not always the best vehicles for a story.
Some of the most entertaining stories I read for the competition flipped the script by taking a common human story and assigning the theme to non-humans. There were amazing stories about dogs, robots, and even a rival gang of crows and owls. Personifying animals or objects always provides a fresh perspective.
You can get away with telling a well-known plot if you can figure out how to give it a fresh varnish. Stories don’t always have to be about humans. Animals have strange behaviors that can create new and out-of-the-box moments (as I was shown numerous times).
Not every story has to be about humans. Especially if animals can make the message more compelling.
I hope this helped!
I’m Wes Locher. I’ve been writing professionally for more than twelve years. I write comic books, video games, fiction, and nonfiction. I write whatever seems fun, cool, and inspiring. I also love helping other writers to demystify the process of making a living through words. This is my newsletter.
Great takeaways!