When Contest Feedback Is Actually Useful

The Mavens (Darcy, Erica, Lacey, and Janice--naughty Janice has no website!) like to tease me about the fact that I rarely read my contest feedback beyond a quick glance at my scoresheets. There are a number of reasons for my reticence to read the comments closely. Primarily, it's that by the time I get the scoresheets back from the contest, I've already revised the portion of the manuscript I submitted so drastically that the comments probably wouldn't be helpful anyway.

But also, I'm always a little afraid to see what these strangers really think of my writing. I don't want my spirit crushed.

And now I know you're laughing, because thus far, my entries have been finalists in 3 of 4 contests. "How can your spirit be crushed by feedback on a FINALING entry, for Pete's sake?" you're asking. (I know final is not a verb in standard English. But it should be, darn it. Like medal in the Olympics.) "What a wimp you are!"

Um, guilty as charged.

The thing that's odd is that I can take blunt, even harsh, criticism from my critique partners and be okay with it. But I think that's because 1) I know and trust them and 2) if I don't agree, I can argue with them. (I'm sure they'll all pipe in and tell you how much I luuuuuurve to argue, LOL.)

By contrast, in contests, I get feedback primarily from strangers (the exception being the editor/agent who judges the final round, but I haven't always gotten feedback from that person beyond a placement) whose credentials I don't really know, but worse, I can't talk to them about it if I don't understand the criticism or to help me figure out how to correct the problem.

Aside: One of the Mavens just got her scoresheets from a contest she didn't final in, and though she was pleased overall with what she got from them, some of the feedback was just...um...wrong and bizarre! I wanted to go find the judges and ask them to justify their ridiculously low scores on some items. (See, I told you I love to argue!)

So why do I keep entering contests, you ask? Well, first of all, I've been entering a lot these past few months because the "official" query season is closed and won't open again until September. (I hear most agents pretty well take the summer off.) This means contests are one of the few ways I have of getting my work into an editor or agent's hands quickly right now. And since I do seem to have a pretty good hit ratio when it comes to finaling, I figure it's not a bad strategy.

But also, of late, I haven't been raping my manuscripts quite as much between contest entries as in the past. In particular, I entered Lady Libertine's first ten pages in the Wisconsin Fab Five and then didn't change a word of those pages in the intervening months. The entry went onto the finals, much to my excitement, since in large part, I'd entered it to find out how judges would react to the story's rather unconventional heroine.

During the same week I received my offer from Cobblestone on Carnally Ever After, I learned that the manuscript wound up placing third overall in the historical category. Fortunately, I was so excited over having a manuscript accepted for publication, I didn't have too much time to be disappointed by the fact that, once again, I was unable to crack the third spot, even with a different book.

Well, last weekend, the scoresheets came in the mail, and after trembling and angsting over reading them, I opened them and had a look. And wow, the feedback was meaningful. Most of the comments were positive, even from the editor who placed it third and passed on requesting the partial (boo :->).

The maximum possible score for this contest was 60. Lady Libertine received one 60, a 59, and a 58 in the first round, all from judges who are published authors (although only one is published by RWA standards). The lowest score came from the RWA published judge, but she said in the comments that she absolutely loved the story and hoped it would be published so she could read the rest. Best of all, everyone who read the entry loved Amelia, the heroine. And that, my friends, was very encouraging because I've really wondered whether I can sell a heroine who's had multiple lovers and enjoyed it in the historical market. Judith Ivory's Sleeping Beauty notwithstanding, it's pretty difficult to find unrepentant sluts in historical romances.

But the other useful thing I got out of their comments was that the final round editor and two of the three judges weren't quite happy with the pace of the first scene. It wasn't that they didn't like the scene or think it started in the wrong place, but rather that it took a bit too long to develop and felt stilted.

At first, I didn't quite get this complaint. After all, when I first wrote the scene, all the Mavens oohed and aahed over how fast-paced and conflict-filled it was (even though it's just a conversation in an office; I do seem to like to start books in offices :->). Then, one of the comments finally sunk in. One of the judges said I had too much stage direction in the scene. Reading it again, she was right. The stage direction distracted from the conversation I was trying to highlight. In addition, I realized there was about a page of dialogue that wasn't contributing anything to the plot. So, I tweaked the scene just a bit, and I'm pleased to say I think it reads better.

Guess we'll find out soon enough, because I'm entering it in the Emerald City Opener!