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...and time gives one at least a small dose of wisdom.
A week after posting about a literary contest judge's reaction to my entry, I find that the critical aspects of those comments are fading into memory. I suppose it would not have fazed me had it simply been another in a long line of "your writing sucks," critiques. After several of those, even the most dense "writer" would realize his (her) work needs serious attention and revision. But when I've had other judges suggest that I should be querying and pitching, which I am doing, and others remark that they can see the opening chapter as a movie scene; then I wonder if my writing doesn't have some serious flaws in it. However, the passage of time has allowed me to realize that this was merely one person's reaction to my work. Indeed, I shall file these criticisms with the idea that if similar ones continue to crop up, I may yet have to make some changes to the story. And perhaps I errored in entering the story in the "Mainstream" category of the contest. Based on the contest's descriptions of the categories, I thought that was a better choice than entering it in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category. (Then a judge might have commented that s/he had read the first twenty pages or so and had not yet seen anything to suggest it was indeed a fantasy story.)
Anyway, after a week or so of thought on the matter, I do have some alternatives lined out for revising the story. However I have enough other stuff to keep me occupied at the moment that I'm not going to jump into it right now. I'll merely keep such things in mind and if I feel I really need to do that, if the story really needs those changes to be marketable, then I'll tackle the project.
The organization sponsoring the contest offered entrants a chance to thank the first round judges. I took advantage of this and did actually thank both of the judges who had dealt with my book. I did not complain about the scores, the remarks, or the comments. If anything, I merely stated that I respectfully disagreed. Having no idea of who these judges are, I certainly did not want to anger someone who might one day be in a position to help or hinder my writing career. Judges were simply identified by a combination of code letters at the top of each judging/scoring sheet.
Perhaps my second story which is entered in a separate contest will do better. I did enter it as Science Fiction/Fantasy, primarily because at the beginning it takes place in another world. (You can go to www.stoneislandseastories.com, click on the "Writing" button and read the excerpt from the second book to see for yourself. By the way, I did revise the contest entry version slightly with a new opening paragraph placed before the one seen here.)
That's probably "it" for today. Have some updates to make to the above mentioned site as well as to the Spokane Authors' site. (www.spokaneauthors.org) And although the weather is overcast today, I want to get some outdoor stuff done as well...unless I succumb to the temptation of watching the Mariner's game on TV.
Dave
Current Mood: 
calm
calm