I'm back...and got my first contest scores

Wow...I didn't realize it's been this long since my last post. It's not out of laziness, I assure you. Things in life have taken me away to other, more personal things. But I'm back on the schedule, or will be tomorrow :-)

A few days ago I got my scores for the first contest I entered. I entered it for feedback and to get a feel for whether or not people like my voice. I always figured that fixing problems with plot, pacing and characters is more attainable than changing my natural voice.

Luckily, the two who reviewed me liked my voice. I had other problems, but I expected that. One person gave me 121/150. The other gave me 90/150. I was actually very proud of myself. I didn't feel depressed or upset about my scores, I was more excited about some of the comments. Maybe I'm in a weird emotional place or something because I fully expected to throw myself over the balcony or something with some criticism.

Maybe I have thick skin after all. That's a very exciting revelation. It could stem from the fact that I write in my day job too. I never thought about that until I began writing this.

This contest gave a nicely detailed grading sheet. So does the other one I entered, but I'm still waiting for those results. That was one of the reasons I entered both of them, more bang for my buck.

The biggest problem I had was reading the comments. I haven't written cursive much, so reading it is somewhat difficult. I can only make out about half the comments on one judging because of the cursive. I'll probably bring it to my next RWA meeting for some help in deciphering :-)

So here are some of the comments I received - in case any of you have never entered a contest and are curious about the types of feedback.

From 121/150 scorer

• Lots of passive (I thought I had done well in eliminating most of that, back to the drawing board)
• Lots of strong images (I thought I did a poor job in that area, nice to know someone disagreed)
• Good sense of heroine, not so good sense of hero (I'm writing in first person in the heroine's voice, so getting a good sense of the hero right away without dialogue will be tough)
• Dialogue a little awkward and formal (and I thought I was too casual)
• Good balance of action and narrative so far (woohoo!)
• Five senses aren't present (that one I knew, need to work on it)
• Strong voice/original voice in writing (yessssssss! I knew my odd sense of humor would pay off!)
• They are going to be pretty hot (that surprised me most of all, I thought my sexual tension wasn't believeable and was lacking, I may be on the right track)
• Love the premise in the synopsis (oh yeah, baby!)

From 90/150 scorer (I couldn't read many of the comments because of cursive, back to school for me)

• The heroine comes off very (?-can't read the cursive - I think it says nosey or manly) in this segment. (the judge marked know when asked if they liked the hero/heroine, ouch, got to work on that)
• I think you've got a great plot (why thank you kindly)
• You're dialogue is very witty and amusing (stop, you're making me blush)
• I really struggled to get a mental picture as I was reading this (done with the flattery, eh?)
• Way too much backstory and telling (I agree with the telling part, I struggle with that, but I thought I did a good job of diving into the conflict and weaving in details throughout)
• Your strengths are your plot and humorous dialogue, work on pacing and description (will do)

And now that I'm thinking about these comments, I'm not obsessing over the criticism and suggestions. Rather, I'm saying to myself - "They like my voice! They think I'm witty and humorous! I wanted to come across as witty and humorous and it just might be working. Maybe I can be successful as a funny, paranormal writer after all. Woohoo!" Then I remember that I have to actually finish the damn thing.

Moral of the story is contests can be a good thing if you pull out what you want and discard the rest. They can help confirm what you thought was or wasn't working. And, if you have pretty stationary like I do, you can use it for thank you cards.