Today I spent the day finalizing (at least for now) the list of people who have volunteered to judge the Daphne, the fabulous contest sponstored by the Mystery Suspense Chapter of RWA also known as Kiss of Death. So many people are signing up again this year, saying this is a contest they enjoy judging every year. Last year I judged, and this year I volunteered to coordinate the judges for the unpublished contest.
I also just handed off my judge's entries for the Gotcha contest, the great contest run by the Silicon Valley Chapter of RWA. I'm really impressed by the quality of the entries for that contest. I judged the Paranormal category. The winner of that contest should feel very proud of her (or his) accomplishment.
Why would a writer put so much time and effort into readiing a few pages and commenting on that reading? Well certainly it's a community service, and those of us who believe in giving back seem to gravitate toward things like this. But there's more. I've judged many contests, some with excellent entries and some with awful, but I've learned something from every single entry I've judged. I've learned about adding sensory information to a scene by noticing the lack of such information. I've learned about heroic characterization by reading heroes acting unheroically. If you have a chance to judge a contest, please make the time. Your writing will benefit.
