Thank you all, so much, for the kind feedback! I have to tell you, this was a difficult story for me to write because I had to keep my word count so low. I got to around 1,800 words and could not figure out how to get down to 1,500 - it already seemed so skimpy! I do have the original, more verbose version which I will send to the archive because it just feels richer IMO.
Actually, Hazel, for the most part my scores for this story were not very high. Low scores in the Characterization section indicate that the four judges felt my portrayal of this S1 Lois and Clark were not in-line with what they expected. One judge said “I did not care for Lois’ characterization at all. She was too b**chy and uptight. Clark came across as wimpy and uptight.” Another judge, however, was kind enough to offer some positive feedback: "This is very good characterization of both Lois and Clark. I particularly like the way the author shows that Lois is pushy instead of telling the reader so."
This overall dis-satisfaction seemed to carry across the board as indicated in all of the scores from at least two of the judges. Setting was another area in which I didn't do so well, nor did I do well in Dialogue. I won't even discuss my showing in Mechanics and Pacing. Yikes!
One judge did seem to like the story as a whole (the same one who like the characterization), so I was happy to see some average and slightly above average scores sprinkled amongst the poorer ones (gotta have some motivation to keep trying *g*). Even so, I'm not sure if I'm the type of writer who will do well in Merriweather-type competitions if this first showing is any indication.
Here's how I scored (and no, I have no shame in exposing my bad report card
).
For those of you unfamiliar with the scoring system, each story is rated on 8 different criteria using a scale of 1 through 5:
5 = Outstanding
4 = Above average; Minor adjustments needed
3 = Average; Off to a good start
2 = Below average; Major revisions needed
1 = Poor quality; Needs lots of work
Each segment consists of anywhere from 1 to 10 questions for consideration, leading to a maximum (and ostensibly, a mimimum) possible score for each section based on the ranking system above. So, for example, Section 2 contains three questions for consideration for a minimum possible score of 3 (lowest ranking of 1 X 3 questions for consideration) up to 15 (highest ranking of 5 X 3 questions for consideration).
With that understanding, here's how I scored:
Section 1 - Opening Hook Two questions for consideration, min. 2 pts/max 10 pts.Judge 1 - 6 pts
Judge 2 - 6 pts
Judge 3 - 10 pts (WooHoo! I was excited by this one
)
Judge 4 - 8 pts
Section 2 - Characterization Three questions for consideration, min. 3 pts/max 15 pts.Judge 1 - 2 pts. (apparently I received at least one 0 ranking to reach below the min. possible!)
Judge 2 - 2 pts. (same here with the 0 ranking)
Judge 3 - 5 pts.
Judge 4 - 4 pts.
Section 3 - Plot Three questions for consideration, min. 3 pts/max 15 pts.Judge 1 - 10 pts.
Judge 2 - 3 pts. [to my defense, 1,500 words doesn't afford a lot to develop a plot
]
Judge 3 - 9 pts.
Judge 4 - 10 pts.
Section 4 - Setting Three questions for consideration, min. 3 pts/max 15 pts.Judge 1 - 5 pts.
Judge 2 - 4 pts.
Judge 3 - 5 pts.
Judge 4 - 5 pts.
Section 5- Dialogue Four questions for consideration, min. 4 pts/max 20 pts.Judge 1 - 7 pts.
Judge 2 - 8 pts.
Judge 3 - 10 pts.
Judge 4 - 10 pts.
Section 6 - Style Two questions for consideration, min. 2 pts/max 10 pts.Judge 1 - 5 pts.
Judge 2 - 3 pts.
Judge 3 - 5 pts.
Judge 4 - 5 pts.
Section 7 Mechanics and Pacing Ten questions for consideration, min. 10 pts/max 50 pts.Judge 1 - 18 pts.
Judge 2 - 10 pts. [Bummer - another lowest possible score!]
Judge 3 - 16 pts.
Judge 4 - 18 pts.
Section 8- Point Of View Three questions for consideration, min. 3 pts/max 15 pts.Judge 1 - 4 pts.
Judge 2 - 7 pts.
Judge 3 - 10 pts.
Judge 4 - 10 pts.
Out of a total possible of 600 points, I got a total of 240 pts.
So, as you can see by my mostly below-average and poor-quality scores, my story didn't sit well with two out of the four judges with one of the other judges being unimpressed at best. From a story-writing perspective, I failed miserably. In fact, one judge (I'm guessing Judge #2) said "The whole piece just doesn’t make sense and was not appealing at all to me. My favorite fanfic genre is the vignette, but this was too vague." Unfortunately since the judging is anonymous, I'm not able to ask questions such as what I might need to change to make the story more agreeable. Unfortunately, too, it seems that my Word document did not transfer well for one of the judges, all my ellipses converted to periods which resulted in further downgrading.
However, one judge did offer some very nice comments which made the negative a lot easier to bear.
I'm going to focus on this positive feedback and not be discouraged.
And all of this feedback from you readers is really what matters most to me, so I'm thankful to have it.
Now, I've confessed to my poor showing!! Where are the rest of you with your fun vignettes??! Part of this posting is to inspire you all to share, but aside from the winning stories, I haven't seen any more. Come on, hand 'em over.
Lynn
