Judging the Great American Pastime

by Donna MacMeans



Can you feel the anticipation?


Next week the Romance Writers of America's annual convention will end with the announcement of the Grand Poobah of romance writing contests - The Golden Heart and RITA awards ceremony. Now we banditas have representatives in both divisions - Anna Campbell - a double RITA finalist - and Susan Seyforth and KJ Howe, along with Bandita Buddy Louisa Cornell, in the Golden Heart division. So let me offer a toast to their success. We'll be cheering loudly in the audience in our spandex and spangles.




As you tell from the sidebar, we banditas are familiar with writing contests. As I've been talking this week on another loop about contests, I thought I'd share a few thoughts about contest judges.




1. I basically believe contest judges are trying to do a good job. However, even if they are accomplished writing fiction, basic conversational skills can remain a challenge.




2. Beginning writers are often recruited to be judges because judges, especially good ones, are sometimes hard to find. They are given the challenge of identifying problems and offering suggestions to fix on work that may be better than they are capable of writing themselves.





3. Different people like different things. This is a good thing. Otherwise there would be very few writers in the world and we'd have few opportunities to join their ranks.



4. All contests are a crapshoot. Sometimes you get the judges who "get you." Sometimes you don't.

5. Most judges really try to say something positive about the entries they judge - but it often gets overlooked as we obsess on the negative. I suppose that's human nature.

As is complaining about rotten judges.

So in the spirit of "human nature" I'd like you to share a bad experience with a contest, just to get it off your chest. For me - I had a judge chastise my hero because "a business executive would never say those things." Not sure what planet she was on, but as I was a business executive at the time - I'm pretty sure my dialogue was realistic.


So how about you? I'll give a copy of my Golden Heart winner - The Education of Mrs. Brimley to someone who doesn't already have it (I've given away so many!) So if you'd like to be considered for an autographed copy, just mention it in your comment.


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