Judging for the novel contest is still underway. As with last year, I’m amazed by the fact that I keep writing the same thing in response to so many of them. First, I usually write, “give me a reason to care about the main character.” This is what David Liss said at our last writer’s conference and I see how right he was in so many of these entries.

Surprisingly, I find myself telling these would be authors to slow down and describe the setting. I find myself completely lost in so many of these entries. I can understand the desire to begin the action in media res (in the middle of things). Doing this can increase tension, increase drama, and draw the reader in immediately. Sadly, it seems as though that so many of these entries do this but too aggressively. I feel like I’m being thrown into the deep end of a cold pool and never have time to grab a breath.

Another thing I tend to write regards pacing. I’ve yet to read an entry (okay, maybe there has been one) when I’ve been impressed with the pacing of the writing. Many are far too fast, others are agonizingly slow.

I remark about this as one thing that has astounded me about this round of judging is the fact that there have been so few that have truly impressed me. Last year there were probably 30% of the entries that I thought I would want to read as a book. This year, I’ve read 1 out of probably 30 entries that I thought was worthwhile. Not a good ratio. I hope things turn around soon and that some writer surprises me.

So far, the worst stories have been: a fantasy about a female hobgoblin who in paragraph one is standing over the corpse of her boyfriend that she just murdered, a diatribe about a private in Vietnam who experiences the Tet Offensive with no ammo in his weapon (intriguing idea, horrible execution) and, a fantasy story about a teenage girl who is in training as a fairy by her “fairy” mother who sees bloody visions that come true.

The best was a story about a teenage girl who was gang raped on the night of her prom. Horrific idea and I was not thrilled at the prospect of reading it, but this one story had the most intriguing writing and most engaging pace.

I do look forward to printing out one of the judging worksheets and grading my own first ten pages with these questions in mind. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll score as high as I would like.