Yesterday Cece said this:
Will I buy another book of hers? Probably, yes, because I think she’s a good storyteller and that’s possibly more important than being a good writer. Anyone can write, writing skills can be honed (and no I’m NOT saying she needs to hone her writing skills LOL) but not everyone can tell stories.
There was a discussion on one of the old PRO listservs about contests and most of the writers felt the unpublished were more brutal scorers than the published. At the time, I disagreed. In my experience with contests, it was usually the unpubbed writers who gave me the highest marks and the published authors who scored me lower. I felt that the unpubbed writers had more of a tendency to get lost in the story while the pubbed authors concentrated on the mechanics of it.
One writer that always comes to mind when I think of craft and voice is Stephanie Laurens. I can’t even begin to imagine what her mss must look like in MS Word. They have to be riddled with red and green warning lines. But that’s the way she writes her bestselling stories. She probably wouldn’t do well in contests and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. To me, it’s the story that matters.
I submitted STOLEN PLEASURES to a contest not long after I submitted it to the Lori Foster Brava Contest. I received one perfect score, one almost perfect score, and one with a much greater point variance. Enough of a point variance to knock me out of the running for finalist despite the other scores. It was a published author who gave me the lowest score, based on craft issues, which further proved the belief I touted on the PRO loop–concentrate on the craft and you just might miss the story.
Then I received another judging packet and unlike the others, it was the published author who gave me a perfect score and the unpubbed writer who said (and I quote), “My opinion is, you still have some fine tuning to do on your writing.” Ouch. (I might have been crushed if the pubbed author hadn’t written, “Your skill is admirable–wish I wrote half as well.”) I think you can see here that one judge got lost in the story, while the other judge was looking at the craft. I realized then that published and unpublished alike can spend too much time concentrating on the mechanics of writing. (And no, it’s not that I think the unpubbed judge was wrong. I’ll be the first to say I’m not so much a writer as I am a storyteller.)
I think it’s possible to think too much. I believe this is one of the greatest mistakes an aspiring author can make. I compare it to sex. If you spent all your time making sure you put your hand here or your leg there, if you only kissed with his nose on the right of yours and not the left, if you had a book open next to you and you were copying the picture exactly… well, you probably wouldn’t have that great a time. I sure wouldn’t. (”No, honey, your hand goes here. A little to left… Wait!! That’s not what the book says. You’re doing it all wrong.”) The logistics of the whole act would kill the mood (and piss off hubby. LOL 
). You can do that to your story too.
Now blatant, obvious grammatical errors will distract a reader. But other areas, nitpicky craft issues, can pull a writer’s focus from what really counts: the tale being told. That should always be most important. Dots and lines on a page in all the correct, rule book places don’t make a story and it never will.
Feel free to disagree. As always, this is just MHO. 
Good discussion. I’ll agree with everyone, in that there is no right answer. On occasion, I will read for the writing and not the story, but that is rare. It’s more common that I’ll read for the story despite the writing. Best is when they come hand in glove, where the voice matches the story being told and there are no gaffes to throw me out of the story.
If your study of craft is interfering with your storytelling than you are right to be careful about focusing too much on craft issues. But I really do think that poor craft can make it impossible for readers to enjoy the story.
I know, I’m not saying anything that hasn’t been said before! But I do believe a reasonable concern about craft is needed for your art to soar.
on February 23rd, 2005 at 12:05 pm
[...] getting out and into the car), I’m going to do another informal poll based on a post Sylvia made yesterday. Here goes! 1) If you are an author, do you think of yoursel [...]
on February 23rd, 2005 at 10:21 am
Interesting discussion! It takes art and craft together for a book to truly succeed for me. But if I had to pick one I’d pick art, the story. Craft errors can be fixed but if there’s no story, why bother?
I don’t know about contests; I never entered one. I couldn’t justify the cost when I could just query an editor I wanted to submit a ms. to for the cost of a stamp.
on February 22nd, 2005 at 6:09 pm
I’ve only entered one contest. Both judges were pubs. And one liked it the other hated it. The one that hated it really hated it and told me it was unsatisfing. The one that loved it really loved it.
on February 22nd, 2005 at 2:03 pm
I can turn OFF my grammar checker???:mrgreen:
AS for contests. I do terrible in them, pubbed and unpubbed judges comment on my grammar constantly…althought he pubbed judges have all als commented poistively on my storytelling, while unpubbed ones have just been negative about the craft issues. But that’s MY experience.
And why do I want to turn off my grammar checker when I seem to have bad grammar. Because it distracts me from the story. That stuff is for editing time, not writing time.
on February 22nd, 2005 at 12:20 pm
I think the hardest judges I’ve ever had have been unpublished authors. They nitpicked EVERYTHING. Most of the published authors were more forgiving and a heck of a lot more encouraging. I truly think it’s the luck of the draw. I did have one published judge who came down on me a little, but considering who it was and the suggestions she made, I’m absolutely fine with it. I would take ANY advice she’d be willing to give me.:grin: That said, I’ve faired pretty good in contests. I’ve entered six and finaled in three, so I have no complaints.:wink:
on February 22nd, 2005 at 11:20 am
Well, I hope this doesn’t come out as a commentary on contests, because it’s not. Contests have been very good to me, though I wasn’t so successful at them when I first started. (But I am happy to say that I’m glad to be out of the contest circuit now.
) This is about telling a good story. I guess because the story is most important to me, that’s what I look at when I read a work.
on February 22nd, 2005 at 9:51 am
Well, I’m not going to disagree, but I will come at it from another perspective. (And I have my grammar checker turned off in Word so I never see red or green lines, LOL!)
It’s going to depend on what’s important to you as the creator. I’m a writer through and through. I’m not a storyteller at all - so, when I have on my reader’s hat, I’ll toss a book if the prose doesn’t flow for me. If the author’s style doesn’t work for my reading ear, I can’t get into the story to even care about it. It’s WAY more than grammatical errors that pull me out when reading. I’m pulled out by rhythm and flow - or the lack thereof! Without the craft, the story doesn’t matter to me. It has to be a perfect marriage of the two.
For me, the writing always comes first, and the story falls into place because of the craft. And this is why, to me (note: to me!), reader judged contests are more important as to whether the story is compelling, and author judged contests - peer contests - are more important as to whether the craft works. And I say that because as an author, craft is the first thing that *I* see when I open the pages of a book!
on February 22nd, 2005 at 9:19 am
I think this is one of those things that will vary by writer so there’s no real disagreeing
IME unpublished judges have ALWAYS been harder on my work than published judges. In a recent contest a published judge gave me a near perfect score. One of the unpubbed judges (who was also a multi-contest finalist) really let me have it. The other unpubbed judge gave me a near perfect score. It’s a crap-shoot. Hell, winning the lottery would be easier me thinks
On the flip side, I’m entering ST and Mainstream and you’re (were
) entering historical so there’s another variable.
on February 22nd, 2005 at 8:41 am
I’m truly not crazy about contests. Their so subjective. I went ahead and entered the Golden Quill, our chapter’s annual pubblished author contest, because it’s judged by readers, and because it’s my chapter. But I normally don’t enter them.
on February 22nd, 2005 at 6:30 am
Sylvia, I agree with your last statement, though, with contests, my lowest scores have always come from the unpublished writers. I won’t enter a contest I’ve entered the last two years again because they didn’t have one published romance writer as a judge. I don’t think it’s worth paying writers, who are no better qualified than I, for a critique of my work. I have a critique group for that.
on February 22nd, 2005 at 3:20 am