Somehow, in a fit of enthusiasm punctuated by lots of exclamation points, I volunteered to be a judge for our 2024 New Year’s Writing Contest, even though this site alone is full of better and more accomplished writers. You know what they say about fools rushing in. Choirs of angels are undoubtedly waving cheerfully from their LazyBoy recliners and calling out, like Jamie Lee Curtis, “Make good choices!”

Anyhow . . . Jill told you her judging methodology in a blog post two days ago, so I thought I should probably spill the beans on mine as well. Remember that we will each produce a number between 1-100 for each story, without discussing them with each other, then send our numbers to Joanne Barbarella, who will determine the contest winners based on the sum of Jill’s and my scores.

Although I expect Jill and I will consider many of the same things, we look at them — and weigh them — a bit differently. I will evaluate three main categories:

The story (up to 35 points). This element includes the plot, of course. Is it interesting? Fresh? Or a fresh take on a classic? But this factor also includes whether the tools you use to advance your story — such as narrative, dialogue, and internal monologue — are effective. Whether your story is humorous, romantic, sweet and sentimental, horror, mystery, real world, fantasy, or science fiction, is it compelling?

The characters (up to 35 points): This element focuses on whether the characters feel like real people and whether the relationships between them seem believable. In addition, this factor includes whether the characters are interesting. Interesting characters make for interesting stories.

The storytelling (up to 25 points): Writing is both science and art. On the science side, spelling, grammar, syntax, punctuation, sentence and paragraph structure . . . you get the picture. Closer to art: avoiding repetition (e.g., multiple sentences in a row beginning with “I” and followed by a verb), keeping descriptions fresh, making sure that dialogue (or internal monologue) is character- and situation- appropriate.

Now, the numerate among you will be scratching your heads and noting that the maximum point total for my three categories isn’t 100. There’s a reason for that. Stories often have unique and idiosyncratic features that don’t fall neatly into buckets, which nonetheless add to the quality of the story as a whole. Without having seen any entries for this contest, I can’t say what those intangibles may be. But I’m leaving a bit of flexibility at the margins — up to 5 points — for something of that nature.

That’s it. I can’t wait to read your stories — We’ll see the first entries in just a couple days!