How to Judge a Writing Contest

I've been judging writing contests lately, for the first time. Partly to satisfy my curiosity on what my fellow wannabes are writing, and partly because after my own less-than-stellar experiences with contests and their judges, I decided to put my money where my mouth is and see if I could do better.

It's been an interesting experience. Some of the stuff I've seen is stellar. Some of it is OK. Some of it.... um, well.

As I slogged my way through my piles I made my own little set of rules.

1. Always, always give examples when you make a point. Think someone's dialogue is hackneyed? Specify which lines. Think there's too much telling, too little showing? Find an example and show what you mean. Does the scene need more description? Tell the writer where you were lost.

2. Keep track of your reactions as a reader. Where did you lose track of who was speaking? Where did you have to backtrack and read a sentence twice? Where were you tempted to skim? Where did you get lost in the action? Specify.

3. Point out good stuff. Even the entry that appears to be written by a grade five student has something good about it. Find it.

4. Go easy on spelling and grammar. Only really, really annoying people who like to prove I'm Better Than You dock precious points for one or two "it's" and "its". Only dock points if you can barely read it - and when you do, see point 1.

5. Remember where you started. When tempted to write "this sucks" or "I'll never get that 45 minutes of my life back", remember the first thing you ever wrote. Sucked, didn't it? Yes. It did.

I might volunteer for a few more contests - I dunno yet. Probably. It's teaching me quite a bit, though it's a lot more time-consuming than I thought it would be. And I need to finish my own stuff... ever.