What You Can Learn from Judging a Writing Contest

I’ve judged several writing contests over the last five years, including full published novels, short (5,000 words) and shorter (five page) introductions to unpublished manuscripts, and short stories (1800 words). I’ve judged for Romance Writers of New Zealand, American Christian Fiction Writers, and Omega Writers.

And, yes, I’m organising the CALEB Award for Omega Writers this year.

Judging a Writing Contest

My first judging experience was for a short story contest, and it was a fascinating experience for two reasons. First, because I don’t often read short stories, so it was a fun deviation from my normal fiction reading. Second, because it gave me an insight into what contest judges—and readers—are looking for in a great short story.

Each entry was judged in across six categories, with scores in each category ranging from one to five, to give a total score out of thirty. The scoring scale was:

• 5 = excellent, ready for submission
• 4 = above average, needs only minor revision
• 3 = average, has potential
• 2 = below average, requires considerable work
• 1 = poor, extensive reworking required

Overall I was pleased with the standard of the entries I judged, but it was interesting to see that the principles of good writing and storytelling are the same for an 1800-word short story as they are for a full-length novel: the difference is that everything has to be achieved in a fraction of the word count.

Opening

The first category to judge was the opening: did it draw me in and make me want to keep reading. The entrants all had good openings, but each could have been better. My learning points:

• Introduce your viewpoint character by name in the first sentence
• Answer the essential questions: who, where, and when
• Ensure you are showing, not telling
• Avoid backstory

Yes, these all apply as much to a novel as they do to a short story.

Characterisation

Were the characters memorable and well-written? This varied, depending on the number of characters. The contest was for an 1800-word short story, and that doesn’t give a lot of time to introduce and develop characters. One story was entirely first person interior monologue, so by the end of 1800 words I really felt I understood her (that story ended up coming second overall in the contest). Others felt like they had too many characters, probably because they started at events (like a wedding or a funeral).

• Limit the number of viewpoint characters. The best stories had only one, whether written in third person or first person.
• Limit the number of characters. The best stories had no more than four.

The same holds true for a novel:

• Don’t have too many characters.
• Limit the number of point of view characters.
• Don’t introduce them all at once, or you’ll confuse the reader.

Dialogue

Was the dialogue natural and pertinent to the story (not idle chit-chat)? The short story form doesn’t give a lot of room for action or showing, so the dialogue has a lot of work to do: show us the character of the hero, provide backstory, and move the plot forward.

• Avoid creative dialogue tags (which are often telling)
• Pare the dialogue down to the essentials

I recently read a book which advised authors to participate in conversations on Twitter as a way of learning to write witty, informative and concise dialogue. I can see the benefits in a short story, where there simply isn’t the word count for long speeches.

Writing Technique

This wasn’t looking at formatting (which had already been assessed, and entries which didn’t meet the requirements weren’t submitted for judging), but at writing: pacing, setting, plot, structure, and word rhythm. My tips:

• Important to hook the reader in the opening paragraph.
• Keep description short and to the point.
• Keep to two or three scenes (any more, and the pace starts to feel off).
• The best stories still managed to fit in a beginning (first act), a middle (second act) and an end (third act), and to pace evenly throughout.

Again, some of these same principles hold true for novels:

• Have an opening hook.
• Have a clear structure.
• Keep description to a minimum—description feels like it’s showing, but too much reads like telling.

Ending

Was the ending satisfying? One of the stories felt rushed at the ending, as though it had tried to achieve too much. Another had an ending I didn’t find believable given the word count (although that might have been my Christian world view creeping in, given this was a general market contest).

This is one area where the short story format has an advantage over other unpublished manuscripts: the reader gets to experience the full story. (Yes, all 1800 words of it.) Few unpublished contests judge the entire manuscript, so most don’t give any feedback on the ending.

Overall Impression

The final scoring category was the overall impression: was the story an entertaining read which held my attention throughout? Well, I’m used to reading 90,000-word novels, so a story would have to be really bad to lose me in just 1800 words. Fortunately, none did.

But some novels lose me in the opening chapters. Some lose me on the opening page. And the same has been true with some of the published and unpublished novel contests I’ve judged over the years.

Yes, published and unpublished writers (and editors) can learn a lot from reading and judging writing contests.

Have you ever judged a writing contest? What did you learn?