Closing in on "Award Winning Writer"

If you've never participated in the RWA Mystery/Suspense Chapter's Daphne du Maurier Award contest, it's one you should check out for next year. You can get started on your entry today, and, no, there does not have to be any hint of romance in your submission. The important thing is the mystery/suspense angle of your story.

The contest for 2007 is basically over, and I'm not a finalist...but I'm getting closer. Maybe next year! My results came back today. It's the best experience I've ever had in a writing competition. Even when I lose, I win. Check it out!

(The following pertains to the "unpublished division," open only to those of us who have never had a novel published. You'd have to check the website to find out the specifics for each category - there are several available!)

Why should you enter this contest? For me, it's a no-brainer.

First, the entry fee is cheap: $25.

Second, they have a really nifty judge's rating form that you can download from their website. The judge's form not only gives you an official heads-up on HOW your submission will be scored, the judge's form is also a great assessment tool for your own use (or use within a critique group) on what your story/voice, etc., SHOULD contain.

Third, losing the contest still gives you a phenomenal pay-off: your offering (first 15 pages) gets rated by 4 different judges. There is ample opportunity for the judges to write in comments along with scoring you on the various points. They send back your rating sheet, your original submission (often with text notations), and a nice rejection. You end up with four separate critiques of your first 15 pages, and a lot of things to reconsider.

Fourth, you might even win!

Okay, so there are some more details you could use:

They rate submissions, using a 1-5 range in various categories, clearly delineated. Highest score wins. The judges are a combo of published and unpublished (but prescreened) writers of Mainstream Mystery and Suspense. They grade your hook, plot, pacing, conflict and protag, characterization, dialogue/narrative, setting, Point of View, style/voice, and offer 4 additional bonus points. The total possible score is 128 points per judge. Reach that, and you've got a winner!

Okay, so how did I my Busty Biggs first fifteen pages score out of 128 points? First judge: 44 (yes, folks, 44 out of 128! Yikes!); second judge: 98 (not soooo bad); third judge: 117 (now you're talking) and fourth judge: 125 (Oh, yeah, baby!). In reconnoitering the final point value of each entry, the lowest score is dropped (good-bye 44!). My "total average," after dropping the 44, was 340 points out of a possible 384. Hey, hey, hey! Sounds good to me.

Clearly the judge who awarded me a measly 44 did not "get" Busty. I've run into agents like that - their rejections come with a scorched edge. But, 3 out of 4 judges DID feel that Busty has some good bones - something worth sending out and around. Their cautions that my chapter two was a bit too slow hit home. Better yet, one suggested that I rework something I mentioned in the chapter and expand on it to snap the pace back up to speed.

The judges all offered comments that proved helpful - even number 44! I could tell that they wanted more of a suspense submission than my story offers, but that's something I can live with.

Two years ago I submitted my two teachers ms and did not get the good grades I'd hoped for, but did get great advice on what needed attention and some suggestions there, too.

All of that is why the RWA Mystery/Suspense Chapter gets my glowing praise, and my intention to come up with yet another manuscript to submit either next year or the year after. I'm getting closer to that Award Winning Writer category, and one of these days, by gum, I intend to get there! Hope you're right there with me, too.

Write On!
Nan