I recently judged a writing contest.
Before we received our entries,
we were given a course on
how to mark them.
There were sections on
grammar, and story structure,
and POV transitions
and other writing craft areas.
There was nothing about
how to recognize
the remarkable.
There was one entry
that weeks later
I can’t stop thinking about.
Yes, it was remarkable.
Did it place?
No.
Because it had serious structure issues.
Another entry I judged,
a solid but not spectacular entry,
placed.
It didn’t have these issues.
It also didn’t have the other story’s magic.
And after the judging was done,
we received a summary of all the marks
from all the judges.
That way, we could determine
if we were judging ‘correctly.’
You won’t find remarkable products
in a contest.
Look for remarkable elsewhere.