How to win the InnermoonLit Award

Number of entries received for the 2007 InnermoonLit Award for Best Short-Short Story to date: 42



Ever wonder how contest entries are judged? In our case, we have a system that has evolved over the past couple years.

After the deadline passes and submissions are closed, I serve as the first reader. I separate the entries into three piles: yes, no, and maybe. Depending on how busy the rest of my world is, this can take me awhile—usually a month or two.

Brian devotes several weekend days to judging rather than trying to get it done on writing days. He reads my yes and maybe stacks and develops his own yes/maybe/no piles. He then scores the yeses and maybes to come up with first, second, and third place winners.

He came up with this contest report card and fills one out for each finalist.



(No, you can’t see yours, nor can I even reveal to you whether your entry was one of the finalists. That information has all been sent to the gaping maw. In fact, I’ve told you too much already. Stand back. This blog entry will self-destruct in 90 seconds.)

Brian uses a letter grade system. The entry is graded on a plus/minus scale from A to F on these elements: hero, other characterizations, plot, dialogue, theme, and presentation (I’ll take a more detailed look at each of these in future entries), then those six grades are calculated to get the entry’s overall grade. There’s no Lake Woebegone-esque grade inflation happening around here either. Average writing earns a grade of C.* An A means work that is far above average and substantially exceeds expectations, and those are few and far between.

We talk it over and so far have always come to a consensus, but basically we work like an editor or agent and his/her assistant. I cull the slush pile and Brian makes the final decision on winners.



*OMG, I thought my tongue was going to drop out of my head if I uttered that sentence to my WRIT 101 students one. more. time. last fall. Now you made me say it yet again. Shame on you. :p