I am a judge in a international writing competition. I am one of about 50 readers and together we plow through 5-6000 pieces of material submitted annually. I myself read approximately 200 of those entries per year.
But here's the thing - sometimes I feel like I am too harsh and an overly critical judge, and I wonder if perhaps I am burnt out on the whole thing (been doing this well over 10 years now). Sometimes it just seems like I read a lot of crap... and then I feel like when something even mediocre comes my way I'll give it way too many props because everything else seems to suck by comparison. And sometimes I think that maybe I don't know what the F I am doing at all and how unlucky it is for the person whose writing piece happens to fall into my sorry-ass hands.
HOWEVER... today I went to an annual luncheon meeting of the readers and we got the results of this year's competition. Low and behold, there it was in black and white, THREE entries I gave a thumbs up to made it to the final 10 out of 4900 entries judged - first by readers and then by a select committee. A total of 36 pieces I liked made it to the quarter and semi-final rounds as well.
Wow.
This is a personal best for me - - I usually don't toot my own horn, but today's results make me think that maybe I do know what the F I am doing after all.
2 comments:
This is great, Sun. I am always keen on writing and getting better. Let me know if I am terrible;)
hahaha! Sometimes we need a reminder to reassure us of our talents...
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