Having a point #1--6th judging criterion

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Having a point #1--6th judging criterion

Post by glorybee »

The sixth criterion on the judges’ rating sheet of Writing Challenge entries has two parts. The first is this:

Did this entry have a point?

Of all the criteria, this is the one that can be the most difficult to discuss and to measure. For some types of writing—devotionals and inspirational stories or poems come to mind—the point of the entry should be evident: it is the lesson that the reader is to take away, and it will often be found as a final paragraph, sentence, or stanza.

However, for other types of writing—fiction, in particular, and to some extent, poetry—the “point” of the entry may not be so obvious. Many fiction entries do indeed have a point (when I was teaching English, I also called it a theme)—a takeaway for the reader—but for others, the point is not so obvious. For example, when I was writing for the challenge, I occasionally wrote humorous stories that were new versions of old fairy tales. Here’s an example of one of those. There wasn’t really a lesson, a theme, a point—my objective was simply to amuse the reader.

Similarly, although many poems have a point, others do not; some poems are simply beautiful word pictures, lacking a lesson but intended to evoke an emotional response in the reader.

So…for humorous fiction, some kinds of poetry, and other types of writing for which the “point” does not take the form of a lesson for the reader, how might the judges look at this criterion?

As a judge, I would ask myself two questions: What genre is this? And is it a good example of that genre? So if I was reading, for example, a lighthearted romance, I’d try to determine if it was successful as a lighthearted romance. If it was a pastoral free verse poem, I’d try to determine if it was successful as a pastoral free verse poem. I’d compare them to excellent examples of those genres that I was already familiar with, or lacking those, with characteristics of typical [genre] pieces, and rate them highly in this criterion if I found them effective, less highly if I did not.

***

The second part of this judging criterion is a little bit easier to evaluate:

Was the entry clearly written and communicated?

As I’ve said before, there’s some overlap here with many of the other judging criteria. To be clearly written, an entry should have considerable evidence of the writer’s craftsmanship—both the art and the mechanics of writing. It should not make me scratch my head and say Huh?

Unclear writing sometimes happens in three specific circumstances:

1. First person creative nonfiction. A writer may be re-telling an event that occurred to her, and in an effort to “protect the innocent” or to keep the circumstances from being recognizable, she may obscure the events too much, or simply imply something, or leave hints. Or the writer may try to spare the reader some unpleasant detail--but by beating about the bush, she leaves the reader unsure about what actually happened.

Also in creative nonfiction, the writer may be writing about an event that was very meaningful in her life—so of course, she knows all the details and all of the back story that may include decades of family history. She doesn’t realize that she needs to clue the reader in on some of those details; it doesn’t occur to her because this is emotional content that she has always known.

2. Similarly, I’ve read lots of devotionals where the writer is using a human interest story to illustrate a point, but again, he does not include enough details (often to protect someone’s anonymity). You can disguise an anecdote by changing identifying characteristics of the key players, the place, even elements of the actual event. But don’t be coy by saying “something terrible happened” (or something similar).

3. This next thing happens a lot in science fiction and fantasy writing, but it can happen in other genres, too. In sci-fi/fantasy, often the writer has to create an entire world—with a population of perhaps-not-humans, a history, a culture, a geography. Writers in these genres often hold that entire world in their heads; therefore, the actions of their characters make perfect sense to them. However, in 750 words, they rarely have time to convey all of that information to the readers. Consequently, readers may be puzzled by events or actions that don’t particularly make sense in this world.

I don’t really have homework for this lesson, but you’re welcome to link to one of your own entries that illustrates something that I’ve written above. Or you can feel free to make a comment or ask a question about anything that I’ve said above. I make every effort to respond to all comments and questions.
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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by Cinnamon Bear »

I am posting one of my entries that did not place, and I suspect did not score high for criterion #6. The topic that week was to write something in the history genre. Ironically I have submitted a number of good pieces of historical fiction, but this entry wasn't one of them.

The problem is that it contains characters and a setting from a novel I am writing. In the context of the previous chapters this piece made sense. As a stand alone Challenge entry it didn't make much sense to the reader. It has a catchy title which attracted a number of readers, but they were let down when they read it.

Here it is---"Cats Own Us":

http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article- ... p?id=15720

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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by glorybee »

Cinnamon Bear wrote:I am posting one of my entries that did not place, and I suspect did not score high for criterion #6. The topic that week was to write something in the history genre. Ironically I have submitted a number of good pieces of historical fiction, but this entry wasn't one of them.

The problem is that it contains characters and a setting from a novel I am writing. In the context of the previous chapters this piece made sense. As a stand alone Challenge entry it didn't make much sense to the reader. It has a catchy title which attracted a number of readers, but they were let down when they read it.

Here it is---"Cats Own Us":

http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article- ... p?id=15720

Cinnamon Bear
Virginia, thank you for sharing this. I think you're right--this would make much more sense as part of a larger work. As it is, you had to lay a lot of groundwork, and character development and plot suffered a bit. Still--the writing was compelling, the title was excellent, and it had a very good sense of time and place.
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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by Cinnamon Bear »

Thanks Jan, for reading my entry and for your kind words. :)

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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by oursilverstrands »

Jan wrote:Similarly, although many poems have a point, others do not; some poems are simply beautiful word pictures, lacking a lesson but intended to evoke an emotional response in the reader.


Jan, I was wondering if the first poem I wrote for the Challenge might come under the above category. I couldn't really find a take-away from it. Correct me if I'm off here, but I would imagine the point of a poem could sometimes be obvious solely by it's title, if nothing else.

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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by glorybee »

lish1936 wrote:
Jan wrote:Similarly, although many poems have a point, others do not; some poems are simply beautiful word pictures, lacking a lesson but intended to evoke an emotional response in the reader.


Jan, I was wondering if the first poem I wrote for the Challenge might come under the above category. I couldn't really find a take-away from it. Correct me if I'm off here, but I would imagine the point of a poem could sometimes be obvious solely by it's title, if nothing else.

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Lillian, your marvelous free verse poem does indeed have a point, and you told it to your readers at the beginning of several stanzas--it can be done. And you're right--your title underscored the lesson, as did every exquisitely rendered phrase.

When I spoke of "word pictures," I was thinking of poems like this one, by Jim McWhinnie. It's a very evocative look at baseball, but it doesn't have a "lesson" to speak of, other than just for the reader to re-experience baseball as he or she remembers it.
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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by oursilverstrands »

Oh yes, now I see. Jim is a master at word pictures, actually at most forms of poetry. :D Maybe I was trying to find a point or theme, but I think I saw a not-so-obvious one within this well crafted poem. But you're right, I couldn't find a "lesson."



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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by GeraldShuler »

Jan, I wanted to offer this for class analysis because it is one of the things you mentioned in this lesson... sci-fi in 750 words or less with a whole new world to build. How would the judges probably view this story as far as the sixth criteria? I don't know if this example is good or needs to be reworked but I'm willing to learn from anyone with a constructive opinion. In this story I tried to build the image of the new world in the reader's mind by making conversation and description do two jobs: show a picture and move the story. You are correct, that is a hard job in the challenge when you have to create an entire new world, including characters, plot, conflict, etc. Fortunately, with this example most Christian readers already had a concept in their mind of what the Great Tribulation might be like. That helped.

Here is the story:
First Church of the New World Religion
http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article- ... p?id=20196
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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by glorybee »

JayDavidKing wrote:Jan, I wanted to offer this for class analysis because it is one of the things you mentioned in this lesson... sci-fi in 750 words or less with a whole new world to build. How would the judges probably view this story as far as the sixth criteria? I don't know if this example is good or needs to be reworked but I'm willing to learn from anyone with a constructive opinion. In this story I tried to build the image of the new world in the reader's mind by making conversation and description do two jobs: show a picture and move the story. You are correct, that is a hard job in the challenge when you have to create an entire new world, including characters, plot, conflict, etc. Fortunately, with this example most Christian readers already had a concept in their mind of what the Great Tribulation might be like. That helped.

Here is the story:
First Church of the New World Religion
http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article- ... p?id=20196
Gerald, I think this one was just fine. You hit the nail on the head when you said that most Christians have heard enough end times speculation that this world already seemed somewhat familiar to them. I don't think this story would have been rated low for this criterion.
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Re: Be a Better Writer--THE SIXTH JUDGING CRITERION

Post by RachelM »

I'm glad that you wrote on this topic, because I wasn't really sure how the judges looked at this criterion. I think being aware of the importance of "having a point" is helping me to be more focused.
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Re: Having a point #1--6th judging criterion

Post by AnnaBanana »

Hi Jan,
I'm not sure if you are still responding to these threads, but I thought I'd try. This is an area that I've placed poorly on twice, and had one story that placed well, but still left one reader confused. How does one leave enough clues without spelling it all out? I want to have that sense of mystery, but unfortunately I think I've left some readers clueless. Any pointers? I think part of the problem lies in me not being to see it from the reader's point if view enough.
Thanks in advance!
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Re: Having a point #1--6th judging criterion

Post by glorybee »

AnnaBanana wrote:Hi Jan,
I'm not sure if you are still responding to these threads, but I thought I'd try. This is an area that I've placed poorly on twice, and had one story that placed well, but still left one reader confused. How does one leave enough clues without spelling it all out? I want to have that sense of mystery, but unfortunately I think I've left some readers clueless. Any pointers? I think part of the problem lies in me not being to see it from the reader's point if view enough.
Thanks in advance!
Rachel
Hi, Rachel--

I still get notifications every time someone posts a reply here, so feel free to ask away.

I think, however, that you're confusing the criterion of "does this entry have a point" with the criterion for if the entry has a good conclusion--not really the same thing (and two separate ratings criteria).

Having a point is really more about providing the reader with something to take away. One way to do this is to have one or two people read it and simply ask them what they think the point is. If their responses don't match up with your intentions, re-write in the light of what they said.
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Re: Having a point #1--6th judging criterion

Post by AnnaBanana »

Thanks for your quick response!
I was actually thinking about the second part of the sixth judging criteria. "Was the entry clearly written and communicated? " That's at least what my ratings feedback told me was a problem (clarity).

Here's an example of my mistakes if you have time
http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article- ... p?id=52734

Here I was trying to give clues to the fact that her son was coming home, but I ended up leaving the wrong, or not enough, clues (still placed, though, but which can make it more frustrating that I didn't write clearly enough).
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Re: Having a point #1--6th judging criterion

Post by glorybee »

AnnaBanana wrote:Thanks for your quick response!
I was actually thinking about the second part of the sixth judging criteria. "Was the entry clearly written and communicated? " That's at least what my ratings feedback told me was a problem (clarity).

Here's an example of my mistakes if you have time
http://www.faithwriters.com/wc-article- ... p?id=52734

Here I was trying to give clues to the fact that her son was coming home, but I ended up leaving the wrong, or not enough, clues (still placed, though, but which can make it more frustrating that I didn't write clearly enough).
Well, I think you've analyzed your own story pretty well. I've just read it twice, and I'm still not sure that I get it, exactly. I'm not really sure how to advise you, except to reiterate what Deb told you in your ratings feedback; you have to help your reader out a bit. And I'll repeat what I said earlier; when you're attempting something that's relying on a delicate touch like this, have a few readers do a trial read.
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