VPA Result - a Perspective on Judges Comments

Woops, I seem to have messed up the scheduling of this post (it was supposed to have appeared last Thursday) - better late than never I guess.

I got my Valerie Parv Award results back the other day. It was quite interesting really, because it demonstrated the variation in people's perspective. The two most consistent criticisms were to include a scene that occurs before the story starts and to have more of a secondary character. The thing is, in my rewrites for M&B these were the very two things they asked me to remove *grin*. Obviously, the advice I followed is M&B - after all, they are the ones I want to buy my books.

But it was these two points that were the basis for two of my judges scoring me down. I wonder what my scores would have been if they knew M&B's take on these issues?

I guess the thing to remember when entering competitions is just that, it's one person's perspective and not the be all and end all. I think when reading the feedback the best thing to do is to take what you like and toss the rest.

My third judge loved my entry, and provided my favourite comment: A well written entry and I can't wait to find out the ending. After all, that's what you want, a story the reader can't put down because they want to know the ending :o)

12 months on...

It has been one year since I decided to get serious about my writing. I'd lost my day job, and with little chance of finding another that would allow me to work around being a full-time mum, my husband and I agreed this was the time to put my writing first.

To get the ball rolling and just see whether 'published author' was a pie in the sky fantasy, I entered RWA's High 5 competition - for unpublished category writers. Turns out my entry seemed to have a good plot idea, great voice and a lot of potential.

Today I was having a bit of a 'down' day with my writing. So I dug out that entry (a different ms to the one I'm working on now), and reread those 5 pages. What a great pick-me-up to realise maybe my writing isn't as good as it is going to be, but it is certainly better than what it was.

You're the Voice

We have
The chance to turn pages over
We can write what we want to write...

You're the voice try and understand it
(You're the Voice by John Farnham)

Okay. So maybe this isn't quite the correct interpretation of these lyrics, but it works for me.

Voice is the way your writing 'sounds'. In the same way you can pick a teenagers speech from a politicians, you can pick a writer's voice (think JK Rowling vs Tolkien or if you know your Aussie romance authors, Margaret Way vs Nicola Marsh).

Voice is very important in your success as a published author. It makes you stand out in the crowd. But I'm wondering just how successful my voice will be. My competition judges have varied from seeing potential in my voice to loving my voice. Is that just a result of what voice is - that it will appeal to some and not too others? Or do I really need to work on mine?

I mean, unlike maths or history, where everyone must follow, writing is the opposite. Individuality and originality are encouraged, and copying is forbidden. So surely it follows that in achieving this some will like your voice while others won't?

Sigh. I guess I need to go back and consider some of the aspects that make for a good *voice*:

displaying a definite and well-developed personality; appropriate tone for purpose and audience; individual, authentic and original; strong feelings, honest statements; and care about the topic (www.ttms.org/writing_quality/voice.htm).

Just as well no-one critiques my spoken voice *wink*.