Taking My Lumps
Sometimes, you have to take your lumps, glean what you can from a lesson, and move on. For me, that ‘sometime’ is now.
I entered a writing competition this summer to improve my skills and see what I was good at and what I still need to work on. The competition I picked has a slightly complicated format, so I will include it below.
Round 1 of the competition just finsihed and we got our feedback from the judges and ranking in our group today, and let me tell you, I did not do well. Wow! They say pride goeth before the fall, and this one sure brought me back down to Earth! Ouch! But I’ll lick my wounds and we can both learn from my mistakes together!
I entered the competition to gain some knowledge about where I am as a writer, and in that regard I have been successful! In the next three boxes I’ve included:
A synopsis of how the competition works
My submitted story
The feedback and ranking I received.
Here is the story, all 1,000 words. I’ve included the “Synopsis,” which I learned from the Judge’s feedback is also called a “Logline.” I had to look that word up. It turns out, they are common in screenplays. We only had 48 hours to write our stories. We got our assignments on Friday at 11:59 and they had to be submitted by Sunday at 11:59. It’s a quick turn around! Click here to read “Elevator Revelations.”
Synopsis:
Detective Alchemy was ludicrously certain of his sleuth skills, as he was sure everyone recognized. But will he be able to solve the grisly murder of professional wrestler BamBam while feeling plagued by the ever-present Sergeant Duggan?
Now, the real stuff. Here are the Judge’s remarks. Let’s start with the positive stuff. I mean, why not? Each judge has a number, and that’s all I know them by. I had 3 judges.
They were pretty nice. Judge #1610 spent a lot of time on the “logline.” We were asked to include a synopsis, but not until we submitted it, and I didn’t even know they were judging on it! I didn’t spend very much time on it, and just made one up as I was submitting it. Oops! But, it seems they liked it, so it worked out.
So far, so good. I think they liked my story! But, of course, they include some points to work on . I signed up to get this feedback, so let’s dive in!
Right off the bat, I submitted my document with comments from my writing critique group. Oh, my gosh! I can’t believe I made such a boneheaded mistake! I had never used the submission format that they needed for this writing contest before, and I should have looked into it more.
Always research any competitions you will be in.
Know how you will be submitting. Learn from my mistake. I should have figured out how we would be submitting to make sure it looked right.
I had no idea we would be judged on our “synopsis” or “logline” so I didn’t leave myself anytime at the end to create a great one. Two of the three judges mentioned it. I wish I would have spent more time on it.
I entered a competition on twitter where they would give you a simple theme and you had 25 words to work with. I researched and one of the things they said was to not include the theme. You implied the theme, but don’t use the words. Many of the writers who entered used the exact phrase of the theme in their entry. Always do your research, lesson learned!
Upon Re-reading my story, I repeated several words too Often
I only got really busted on the opening paragraph, but it happened other places too. My bad.
Normally I let a piece sit for a while, usually days, before I pick it up to edit it again, but that wasn’t an option here. It would have helped to make use of other systems, like breaking it up into small pieces to see what was repetitive or didn’t flow well.
I didn’t use my 48 hours well! I should have left more time at the end for editting and submitting my piece. Also, it would have helped to read it out loud so I could hear things like this.
Here is the thing I regret most; If you only take one thing from this, make it this.
One of the judges mentions giving my character “Duggan” a unique voice. Another judge mentions using stylistic choices, like capitalzing certain words to make them stand out or help with the flow. And here’s the thing -
I had done both of those things in my original piece!
I got some feedback, that I asked for, from some great people. They didn’t like those things, and I didn’t trust myself. I took them out. I was worried about how the judges would view my stylistic choices, so I changed them. I wish I had trusted myself.
Trust yourself as a writer. You have a great voice, and it is unique to you!
A creative writing profressor once told our class, “When you are recieving criticism about your writing, be humble but arrogant.” And he was right. Write what you’re passionate about, & do it in your own voice.
At the end of the day, these opportunities to put your writing out there and receive feedback are so important, and equally as important is learning who you are as a writer, or as a person. I am so glad I put myself out there and did this. It is way out of my comfort zone, but that is where we grow!
I am sticking with this competition and we are starting Round 2 tomorrow! I’ll let you all know how I do, the good, the bad and the ugly! I ended up get ranked 11th place. So I will have 5 points going into this next round. Only the top 5 writers from my group will be moving on to round 3. I wonder if I will be one of them? We will get our feedback on October 15. Anyone have any bets on how I will do?
UPDATE:
I submitted my story for Round #2 of the NYC Midnight Flash Fiction Challenge 2020.
Read “Serial Dating” and let me know what you think!