In a few short weeks, we will announce and celebrate the winners of this year’s Colorado Gold Literary Awards. Congratulations and best of luck to all of the finalists. Thank you to all of the judges. This post is for anyone who may be wondering: what does it take to win a literary contest?
First, all contests are judged by subjective humans with innate biases and preferences, so try not to take any feedback too personally. If the advice feels off to you, ignore it. If several readers respond similarly though, take a break and revisit when you’re less raw. You might find an opportunity for growth after all.
This year’s winning entries rose to the top for multiple reasons. Here are a few:
- Unique premise, retelling or subversion of tropes (For more on this, come to my workshop, Not Your Mother’s Tropes, at the conference!)
- Deep characterization
- Rich world-building without info-dumping
- Dialogue that is both true to the world/character and either reveals something about the world/character or moves plot forward (ideally both)
- Compelling hook
- CLEAN (Not as in colorful language, which is fine in moderation for a specific purpose, I mean grammatically and structurally sound and properly formatted)
- Correct genre categorization (We’ve received feedback that the current options are too limiting and will address this issue for subsequent contests.)
- Effective synopsis (The hardest component for most writers)
What a coincidence, you might think, these are all necessary ingredients of a successful novel. Almost like we designed the contest to mimic the querying process. (Hint: we did.) If you find yourself yearning to tell judges: “If you could just read the rest of the book, I know you’d see why my manuscript should win,” your story may not start in the right place. A savvy judge, like an agent, can discern from the first few pages (or paragraphs or lines even) whether or not the story resonates.
If you find yourself continually entering without finaling, or finaling without winning, return to the basics. Brush up on structure, dialogue, emotional beats and motivation. Read books/articles/posts or take a class on how to write a synopsis. Find a critique partner (or two) to help catch inconsistencies and errors. If your manuscript delves into heavy, loaded issues, a sensitivity reader might help, too.
If you’ve already done all these things, consider asking a seasoned judge (they will stand up at the conference so we might recognize and thank them) for a critique. Offer them compensation, whether it’s in the form of a reciprocal read, a cup of coffee, or a lavish party featuring contortionists. Just know if they come across your polished submission the following year, said judge must pass it to another to eliminate any bias. And when you really get the hang of it, winning all kinds of awards, please, come back and judge for us!
Image by a_m_o_u_t_o_n
A lavish party featuring contortionists…..HA. Excellent tips, Rachel.
Terrific blog post!!!