Recently I was involved in judging the first round of the Valerie Parv Award. It was my first taste of judging (having entered a number of competitions), and it was an eye-opening experience.
I must say I was lucky enough to receive a broad selection of entries, each with their own strengths, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. The standard was extremely high, and I may very well volunteer to judge again next year (if I'm needed).
Well, yesterday I received a note in the mail from one of the entrants I judged. I was such a nice surprise to see the anonymous note from the writer thanking me for the feedback I gave. I won't go into detail about what else they said (just in case the entrant works out who I am!) but I was honoured to receive such a nice note. It made my day.
If you're given the opportunity to judge a competition, I highly recommend it. Not only do you learn a lot about your own writing, but you can share advice and encourage another writer to continue following their dream. We all need encouragement and constructive criticism, so to be able to do that for someone is worth the effort.
Have a great day,
:-) Mon
Mon's random thoughts on writing, life and anything else that catches her attention
3 comments:
You tried really hard to be constructive and helpful judge Mon - and that eats up a lot of time. So the thank you would be well deserved. Congrats.
Good on you Mon. I would imagine it's a really hard job.
But like you said, it's rewarding to get something back to make it all the more worthwhile.
Shayne
Thanks, ladies.
Btw, yesterday afternoon I received ANOTHER thank you note! I was so thrilled. The words were lovely. Made me smile :-)
Post a Comment