Making Sausage: Editing & Judging

Three-time Community Sponsor and Unofficial Challenge host Haly, the Moonlight Bard guides you through her process for judging competitive entries, and the unfortunate truth...of editing.

Growing Pains Are a Real Pain

If you’re a fan of Amy Sherman Palladino, then you may remember her short-lived, post-Gilmore Girls, pre-Mrs. Maisel show…Bunheads. This was a show about a Kelly Graham-like Broadway-dancer-turned-ballet-teacher, and in one episode she delivers a very harsh and entirely real lesson to her students.

She shows them what it’s like to learn and perform choreography on the spot for a Broadway casting agent; the snap judgements, the cold dismissals, the priority of the search over any dancer’s feelings about being cut.

It is a valuable lesson taught in a real way but delivered with the respect and care that a good teacher has for their students. It’s obvious that the teacher wants to prepare them for what it’s really like…but it’s also used as a lesson in humility for a star pupil who has an entitled opinion of herself.

“You think you’re ready because you don’t know what you don’t know…so here’s a gentle taste of how hot that boiling water really is.”

Judging Competition Entries

Every year, WorldAnvil hosts two Community Sponsored events; Summer Camp is in July and WorldEmber is in December. Both of these involve members of the community offering to sponsor prizes for different prompts (SC) or special categories (WE).

I began volunteering as a judge all the way back in 2023. At first, it was a way to give back to a community that was showing me sow much love and helping me grow by leaps and bounds. I continue doing it because it forces me to explore outside of my own worldbuilding and that of those around me. I find new styles, new words, new ideas and inspirations and friends.

It is also an energy-draining, mind-numbing, time-consuming project that can take hours or even days to slog through. For real, sometimes judging articles feels like it should be a skill in RuneScape. #IYKYK I love doing it, and it’s ultimately rewarding, but it can sometimes be a grind.

And it’s not just judging, by the way. Every agent, book publisher, and magazine editor I’ve ever talked to says the same thing. They love finding new work and new authors, but slogging through all of the submissions…

New Perspectives: In the Grinder

I’m currently judging two competitions: a WorldEmber Special Category, and an Unofficial Challenge. I will be selecting five entries from a list of competition entries and sharing my immediate gut reactions. This will not be feedback on the article, nor will there be any identifying information (subject, world, writer, etc.) in what I say.

This will be me ‘saying the quiet part out loud’…except writing it in a worldbuilding column.

---

---

Article 1

Open article, scroll to bottom, check creation and last edit dates. (I do this on all of them.) Long way to scroll; a lot of chonky text blocks, no images except the header. Immediately I wonder if it’s written by AI. Oop, typos. I read the first paragraph and discover that this is, in fact, someone dumping all of their random thoughts about a thing into a single huge document to be broken up later.

Next.

Article 2

I like the emotional response this art is evoking. First paragraph doesn’t match tone of art style. Second paragraph explains why, and I’m hooked. Contender. Finish reading in second round.

Next.

Article 3

The first paragraph has me hooked, it feels like I’m being set up for a story in this article. I was right. Contender. Finish reading in second round.

Next.

Article 4

The first paragraph reads like a recorded phone tree in my head. Press 2 for…

Next.

Article 5

The first paragraph has me hooked, I want to play in this world. I want to live in this world. Accidentally read the whole article. Contender. Revisit in second round.

Truth is Often Ugly

Friends, students, Moonbeams… Those gut reactions were reactions to my own work. While I am judging two competitions, the list of competition entries I selected from was comprised of articles I was considering for submission to the WorldAnvil Worldbuilding Awards.

And let me be window-glass clear here: I judged those articles as if they were from strangers. Why? Because that’s how they will be judged if I submit them to compete.

You see, volunteering to judge the work of others has not only helped me improve my own writing, it has also helped me improve both my editing and overall resilience. It has given me the perspective of judges, editors, agents, and publishers everywhere: good isn’t the same as prize-worthy, whether that ‘prize’ is cash, publication, or representation.

In order to take a good article to something prize-worthy…

…You Must Edit

Fuck. There it is. Staring us all in the face. Editing.

I am one of those people who is forever guilty of the ‘cardinal sin’ of editing as I go. I know, it’s obvious from all those typos, right? (Why DOESN’T PWA work in the drafting screen, btw??) Usually, this is good enough. After all, I’m usually only writing for myself and this little community of shimmering Moonbeams.

But for the WAWAs?! Nay-nay! A single editing pass is not enough. I have to go in…and edit. The hardcore, gritty, polishing kind of editing that comes from getting creative critique from peers and produces the most beautiful results.

And that includes the cold, harsh, snap judgements of my own worst critic… Judge Haly.

An Enormous Thank You!

Y’all really turned out for

D.W Dixon

and I earlier this evening! We did a Fiction Author 2x2 and chatted for about an hour. If you were unable to join us, then you can catch a full replay on Substack!

Finally…y’all really found a number of ways to make today special for me. I see you, and I appreciate you. Thanks for being here, and for being YOU!!

---

---

Coming This Weekend:

Saturday Quick Six: Rebirth

Sunday’s Weekly Digest