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)

Story Beginnings: Agent and Publisher Opinions

Photo by Dave Gingrich (click pic for link)

Last week I talked about the opening sentence. You guys had a great debate in the comments, so it's clear that we all have different opinions. So, in lieu of so many of you starting a new story for NaNoWriMo, I thought I would share some of the tidbits from Hooked that the author got straight from agents and editors.  

What beginning makes them stop reading?

• You didn't get them on page one. We need to have them at hello.
• Starting with backstory or a static character introduction.
• Hooking the reader with something that has nothing to do with the story--a gotcha.
• Not clearly identifying the POV character--sex, age, etc.
• Starting with weather, scenery, dreams, waking up for the day, or a passive scene (any description should be about movement).
• Too much tell not enough show.
• Pulling a bait and switch--i.e. having an opening that is dark and serious then jumping to a chick litty voice in the next scene/chapter.
• Clunky sentences, bad grammar, hemorrhaging adverbs, etc. One editor said that if sentence one isn't good, why should he expect it's going to get any better with sentence two. Others said that by the end of the first page, they know if the person can write or not.

So what should you do to get them to turn the page?

• Start with people--novels are not about scenery
• Don't open with a villain. You want your readers to connect with your protagonist first. (An agent admitted that many established authors do this, but it's typically in series where the reader is already familiar with the protagonist.)
• Starting in the middle of the action.
• Having an irresistible hook.
• Action, conflict, crisis, or danger (this from agent Janet Reid).

Additional advice from the agents/editors...

• Don't worry about your beginning until you finish the book. Once you have a whole, it's easier to know where to start.
• Oftentimes the first three chapters can be scrapped because it's just you working out the story for yourself.

Alright, so at least that gives us permission to write crappy beginnings the first go round. :) 

So what about you guys? What do you think of this advice? Do you have trouble finding the right place to start? Have you made any of these mistakes above?

**Today's Theme Song**

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - U2

(player in sidebar, go ahead and take a listen)

Friday Face Off: Is the First Line THAT Important?

With the recent opening paragraph contests over at Nathan Bransford's and Lori Brighton's blogs, along with reading Hooked, I'm getting seriously paranoid about the gravity of sentence one of page one in chapter one.

In Hooked, Les Edgerton says:

Your first sentence or paragraph may be the most important writing in your story. They may well be what sells your manuscript to an agent or editor.

It also can be the difference maker on a sale to a reader later on. I have to admit that I am one of those people that opens to the first page and reads the first line when I'm browsing in a bookstore. Even Amazon posts the opening line underneath the titles of many of their books. I read the blurb for the book too, but a great opening line can win me over. So we may only have seconds to impress that agent/publisher/reader.

No pressure, right?

So what the heck makes a great opening sentence? Les suggests that the first sentence is "part of the whole" and should contain at least a hint of the end.

When I first read that, I was like, oh hell, that seems impossible. But then I thought through some great opening lines I've read and he's right. Many opening sentences hint at the theme or foreshadow future events if only in a subtle way.

I grabbed a few random books off my shelves for some examples:

The whole enormous deal wouldn't have happened, none of it, if Dad hasn't messed up his hip moving the manure spreader.--Dairy Queen, Catherine Murdock

Just when I though my day couldn't get any worse I saw the dead guy standing next to my locker.--Marked, PC Cast and Kristen Cast

The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years--if it ever did end--began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain.--It, Stephen King

Years later Amy would remember the day she saw inside the spider house.--Nazareth Hill, Ramsey Campbell

Sybil Davison has a genius I.Q. and has been laid by at least six different guys.--Forever, Judy Blume

As an interactive horror experience, with beasts from Hell, mayhem, gore, and dismemberment, it was an impressive event. As a high school prom, however, the evening was marginally less successful.--Prom Dates From Hell, Rosemary Clement-Moore

Great lines, right? Made me want to read more for sure. And having read these books, each one of these hints at the overall theme or the ending.

When I'm writing a rough draft, I try not to think about this heavily weighted line, but at the same time, I think if you can get that first line in decent shape early on, it can help guide you through the rest of the book.

Here are the openings from both my romance (which I've posted once before) and my newest WIP. (The new WIP is just started, so this line will probably change because although it hints at theme, it doesn't hint at end.) You can let me know if these hook you or not.

From Wanderlust:

Southern gentility be damned. Nice was getting her nowhere. Aubrey Bordelon put her hands on her hips and attempted an I-mean-business face. “Look, I’m not here to get laid.”

From Exposure Therapy:

Brynn LaBreck’s date was spiraling toward DEFCON 1—imminent disaster. Her sexy banker had jumped from possible fantasy fulfiller to potential therapy client in a span of twenty minutes.

So what do you think about the whole first line emphasis? Do you believe it's well-founded or do you think we shouldn't stress so much about one simple sentence/paragraph? What are your first lines or what's your favorite first line from a book?

**Today's Theme Song**

"Ten Seconds to Love" - Motley Crue

(player in sidebar, go ahead and take a listen)