I received seven entries. I’ve read two. One was decent, one was pretty damn good.
After going over 192 judged partials for the Stiletto contest, I became something of an expert in the kind of comments received by manuscripts. I saw the same comments over and over and over again,and in fact have written an article about it for my chapter’s newsletter. I’ve only judged four contests in my life, but with all of the coordinating I’ve done, I’ve seen an incredible amount of contest entries. I consider myself a good judge. (Ironically, though my boss thinks i have “Paula Abdul syndrome” when it comes time to hand out Planet ratings, I’m a decently strict judge.) I don’t judge on bullshit like typos, though if the contest presents the opportunity (unlike the GH) I make comments in the margins about errors in usage. If there are enough grammar problems to severly hinder understanding, I might take points off, but I don’t stress about it. I don’t give a shit if the person italicizes or underlines, or if the margins are 0.9879 inches instead of the full 1, or if they indent the first line five spaces or three. I don’t care if the chapter ends in the heroine’s head, or if there are more than four secondary characters, or their chapters are 22 pages instead of 20, or whatever. I only ever invoke “the rules” (which are more like guidelines) if I think that perhaps paying more attention to that PARTICULAR rule might help the author with a problem. For instance, if the story requires 20 secondary characters, then party on. But if the author is using all these vibrant secondaries to avoid dealing with the main storyline, then maybe they need to cut back. However, I phrase the comments like htat — not “you have too many secondary characters,” which the entrant is sure to dismiss as a judge hell bent on imaginary rules, but with a “I felt like the secondaries are overshadowing the heroine/main storyline, etc.”
I could give these GH entrants advice — but I’m not allowed to. I’m not allowed to give them anything more than a number. I’m not allowed to say “You can make the reader believe anything if you only explain it and motivate well.” I’m not allowed to say, “For every unbelievable thing you include in your story, everythign else has to be that much MORE believable.” I want to tell them this. The “no comments” thing make the GH just a bid for finalling, nothing more.
