Through with the Judging

I finished my contest entries for the Houston Writer's Guild Fall Novel Contest. I don't really like doing this bit of volunteer work, but I get a free pass to the writer's conference and it's interesting to see how my contemporaries write. I don't like it because I never know what to say. Am I really in a position to offer advice to my fellow writers?

I was a judge for the Spring Novel Contest and I was surprised by the number of novels about vampires, hobgoblins and witches; an offshoot of Harry Potter I'm sure. This Fall was different. This time the strangest entries were about bringing to live strange inanimate objects.

I read one novel about a young girl whose best friend was the clock tower in the town square. I had to read that sentence twice. I wanted to ask the author why he/she said "best friend?" Why not have the main character intrigued by the clock tower? Fascinated by the clock tower? Best friend? Really?

Another double take occurred when I read a story about the illeagal drug trade. This was intriguing based on my reading of the synopsis. Several different views of what goes into making, selling, interdicting ecstasy in London. It seemed to me that it would be a fun book to read, sort of like Crash or the Red Violin. Several points of view following drugs through the pipeline. Nope. It was told from the point of view of the Ecstasy pill. Uh oh. Note to future writers, anthropomorphizing an Ecstasy pill is a silly idea.

Doing the same to a raindrop is even worse. The worst entry I read was about a raindrop, who a few hours after birth, is struck by lightning in its crib and given super powers. Due to the lightning strike, the raindrops parents decide that the storm cloud they live in is too dangerous and they decide to fall to Earth and live in the ocean. During the move, the baby raindrop is separated from its parents and is subsequently taken in and raised by a teacher at the local high school. While at school the raindrop is victimized by a bully in the school hallways and his super powers come to the fore. The raindrop has the ability to "flame on" so to speak. Become firey. A human torch of raindrops. I stopped reading on page three. Had it been intended as a comedy I would have read further. It was not.

Since I only had about 50 entries to read, this chore was not quite as laborious as last Spring when I had 100. But, it was fun to see what my fellow writers consider good writing.