Judging Writing Contests (and the Crit Winners!)

 

*Drum roll*  And the winners of the critiques are...at the bottom of this post.  :)

First, I wanted to talk about judging writing contests.  This year I decided to not only enter RWA's Golden Heart, but to volunteer as a preliminary judge.  The way it works is you are able to judge in any category except the one you entered in.  They send you six fifty-page partials and the accompanying synopses, which you are responsible for reading and judging.  

When I first started reading them, I realized how quickly I could tell if something was going to be good or not.   I know we've talked about agents making decisions quickly and how important that first line, page, chapter is, but this drove it home for me.

 

That first line and paragraph are like a little snapshot of what to expect in the book.  If it was overwritten and tell-y, the rest of the pages tended to be the same way.   If it was confusing, the story was often convoluted.  On the entries that had first pages that hooked me, the rest of the story was really good too.  So had I been an agent reading these, there are a few I would have put aside pretty darn fast.  (However, for the contest, you're required to read all of the pages, so I went ahead and did that.)

The other thing I discovered in this judging experience is that it's hard to give a score when you're not allowed to give feedback.  For most of the chapter level contests, you get detailed feedback from judges and a score sheet.  However, for the GH, you just assign one score (from 1-9) and give no feedback.  This is so difficult.
I know how much love has been poured into each of these manuscripts (not to mention the fifty bucks paid to enter the contest), so it pains me to assign a low score and not be able to help the writer out by telling them what I see that could be worked on.  However, I'm also not going to assign a higher than deserved score simply to be nice because that's not fair either.  I have to be honest in my opinion.  I just have to hope that if someone gets theirs back and all the judges assigned them less than stellar scores, they'll seek out beta reader feedback to try and figure out what went wrong.  Or, they have the option of going the these judges were idiots and failed to recognize my awesomneness route.  That can work, too.
Of course, I could be saying all this and then get back my own back with low scores, lol.  Hopefully not.
Alright, so now for the winners of the crit contest.  Congrats to....
List Randomizer
There were 43 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
  1. Julie Dao - WINNER!
  2. Aubrie - WINNER!
Woo-hoo for Julie and Aubrie!  Ladies, please email me your ten pages or query letter (your choice) for critique (click the little @ button under my picture on the right).  I look forward to reading your work!
So has anyone else out there judged a writing contest?  Have you participated in submitting to any?  Did you get feedback or just a score?  


 

**Today's Theme Song**
"In My Opinion" - The Kooks
(player in sidebar, take a listen)

 

Sagging Middles Part Deux: Pick up the Pace

 


Yesterday I discussed how to avoid sagging middles by making your scenes multipurpose.  But that's not the only thing to worry about.  Ultimately, the sagging middle is about pacing.  In the beginning of our book, we're usually very aware of pacing--don't info dump, jump right in (en medias res), hook your reader immediately.  But then when we hit that second act, we often forget all those components and start shoving everything in that we really wanted to put in the first act, but didn't because of the pacing "rules".  If you do that, however, you're going to drag your middle down.

 

I'm sure you've heard this before, but every page should have conflict on it, every darn one.  And that includes those in the middle.  And I know many of us can think of books we've read that this is not the case, where the pacing was more languid and subtle and were still great books--but that is the exception, not the rule.

Author Anne Mimi suggests that those books with the slower pacing often fall into one of the following categories:

1.  The book is by an already established author who can get away with more.
2.  The author is dead.
3.  The agent picked up the author over ten years ago or the book was published over ten years ago.
4.  The book was first published outside the U.S.  (Brits are apparently more patient with pacing).
5.  The book is non-fiction.


So, in other words, to give our books the best chance, we need to recognize that we live in a fast-paced, short attention-spanned, movie/internet/iphone/immediate gratification culture.  So even if you manage to hook your reader with a terrific beginning, it doesn't mean the person won't put your book down when things slow in the middle.  You have to make them want to turn every page.  And every chapter should end with a hook that leaves them wanting more.  If you can't hook the chapter end, then the scene probably needs better pacing and conflict.

 

So what happens when you realize your middle is, in fact, drooping?  First, you may want to look at why this could be the case.  Julie Moffett lists the following common culprits for the problem.

1.  You revealed too much in the first part of the book, whether that be about your characters or the plot
2.  Secondary or subplots have knocked you off course or run away with the story
3.  The conflict (internal/external/sexual) is nonexistent or weak or there is no real action
4.  You don't know what comes next so you're meandering around aimlessly
5.  The story is boring you or you realize you have major plot problems that are making the story illogical or unrealistic


Alright, so once you pick out why you're middle is dragging, what are some things you can do?  Camy Tang offers these suggestions:

1. Strive for constant change with increasing tension/difficulty--Picture your character driving down a race track, it can't be a smooth, straight road ahead.  Throw a speed bump in her way, then when she deals with that, put something in front of her that is even more difficult to manage (a herd of cows perhaps), and just when she's maneuvered around the bovine, have the wheels fall off the car.
2.  Give the character new information in small pieces--a hint there, a clue here, a fleeting expression across her friend's face that makes the MC wonder if the friend's being honest, etc.  And make getting those clues hard fought.  Don't just have the clues fall in their lap, make them work for it.  Give your reader just enough to want more, but also let them feel like he/she is closer to figuring out what's going to happen.
3.  Keep your character's eyes on the prize--You cannot lose sight of your characters' goals.  Every scene they enter needs to be striving toward whatever goal they are seeking.  Like DawnB said in the comments yesterday.  Your characters should enter each scene with a purpose--what are they trying to accomplish in this particular scene.
4.  Don't be repetitive--Do not have scenes rehash old information.  Each scene needs to add something new.  And this also goes for having scenes that "feel" too similar in setting, content, tone, etc.  If your hero and heroine are always having "let's figure out this mystery" conversations over a meal, your reader is going to get bored.  Change it up.

And one last tip from author Stacia Kane:  End your middle (or second act) with a bang.  At the conclusion of the middle, the reader should be unsure of what's going to happen and if they are going to get an ending they want.  Pay attention when reading books, this "end of the middle"  or black moment is usually easy to pick out.  In romance, this is often when the characters have a sex scene (truly ending with a bang, *snort*) that makes things worse, or the bad guy in a thriller looks like he's going to elude your hero.  Basically, the worst thing that could happen--happens.

 

Alright, I hope now you can dive into those middles and make them svelte and strong.  Now if these tips would only help with my other sagging middle--the one from all that eggnog and pecan pie.

So are you overwhelmed at the thought of conflict on every page (like I am)?  Do you have trouble getting each chapter to end on a hook?  Which books have you read that have been slow-paced but worked--do they fit those criteria above?
 
 



**Today's Theme Song**
"Stuck in the Middle With You" - Stealer's Wheel
(player in sidebar, take a listen)




 

The Opening Scene: A Litmus Test

 

 

Friday I blogged about opening lines and pages and their importance. (Thanks for those who gave feedback on my lines, btw!) Based on the comments I received, I am clearly not the only one who freaks out over openings. This, of course, sent me to my piles of writing books to see what the pros had to say about the opening scene.

One of my favorite writing books Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time by Jordan Rosenfeld (If you don't have it, get it. The book breaks down the elements of a scene and also goes over types of scenes--dramatic/contemplative/action/flashback etc.) Anyway, the book also has a great litmus test for what needs to be present in an opening scene.
Below are the basic components. I'll put my completed novel to the test as an example and see how it goes.
1. A challenge to your protagonist's status quo.
Ex.) My MC (Willow) finds out that she's received a scholarship to a stuck-up private school out of state. She doesn't want to go. She's found her safe niche at her current school and doesn't want to mess things up.
Thoughts: I think this works. A new school and state would threaten any teen's status quo.
2. An antagonist for your character to encounter. (Doesn't have to be THE antagonist.)
Ex.) Willow's mother wants her to take the scholarship and argues with her.
Thoughts: Perhaps my antagonist and conflict could be stronger. She loves her mother, so although they argue, Willow holds back a lot.
3. Introduce your protagonist's immediate intentions.
ex.) Willow likes to blend in, to play things low key. She has to figure out a way to talk her mom out of moving her to a new school.
Thoughts: I think her intentions are pretty obvious, so this probably works.
4. A glimpse into your MC's history/personality/motivation.
ex.) Willow responses to her mother show her to be sarcastic, smart, and self-deprecating. But also loving and concerned about making her mother happy. In many ways, we see that she has taken on an adult role to offset her mother's flightiness.
Thoughts: I could probably add more heft in my opening for this component to clarify my MC's motivation
5. The protagonist makes a decision that leads immediately to more complications.
ex.) Willow decides to accept the scholarship, which of course leads to the whole rest of the story.
Thoughts: This decision changes everything in her life, so I think this works.


Okay, so putting my scene to these standards definitely shows me some holes I could work on.
What do you think? Are these components a good summary of what you like to read/write in an opening scene? Think back to your favorite books, do they follow these guidelines? Can you think of any other "must haves" in an opening?