Linda Singleton and I recently judged a writer’s conference sponsored by the Sacramento Public Library. It takes guts to enter a writing contest. Your manuscript is shipped off to some unknown reader and you never see it again. First, second and third places are announced and no feedback is offered. Not a forgiving platform for your craft, is it? Congratulations for being brave enough to take the step!

Linda and I were assigned to review the YA manuscript entries–a synopsis and a sample chapter not to exceed 3,000 words. In a recent blog post, Linda enumerates nine reasons why entries did not make it to the final three, which I have excerpted here (with Linda’s permission):

1. Telling too much backstory in the first chapter, so it ends up sounding like a long synopsis.
2. Simple grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes. Please double space and indent paragraphs.
3. Stereotypes instead of interesting characters, such as saying “popular crowd” with few other details.
4. Of the dozen+ entries, two were vampire books and one a zombie book. If I had three trendy YA topics, I can only imagine how many editors are receiving!
5. Mixing past and present tenses.
6. Opening a book with a dream–this can be overdone.
7. Introducing too many characters in the first chapter.
8. Know the genre you’re entering — middle-grade and YA can be similar but there are differences.
9. Describing a character by having him/her look into a mirror.

I’d like to expand upon Linda’s list and offer my own thoughts. In the publishing world, editors often request a sample chapter and a synopsis for MG and YA submissions, but over and over at SCBWI conferences we are hearing that if you don’t grab them in the first few pages, you’ve lost the battle.As contest judges, Linda and I both sympathasized with overworked, bleary-eyed editors. We faced a stack of submissions, each of which had to be read and judged. Many of the submissions were found wanting because of at least one of the nine reasons Linda outlines above. The submissions that rose to the top of the pile incorporated the following:
THREE REASON WHY YOUR MANUSCRIPT SHINES

1. A reasonably well-developed teen “voice” that told a story about characters we cared about (when you submit to an actual editor, your teen voice has to be razor-sharp);
2. Used realistic teen-like dialogue that pushed the plot forward;
3. Incorporated a blend of description and dialogue to help ground the reader in the setting and SHOW us who the character was and how he/she thinks/feels/reacts. (Don’t TELL us your character is a perfectionist, SHOW us how she works on a task over and over until it’s just right).

All of this is not to say that the top manuscripts in this contest are ready for publication. Linda and I saw room for improvement in every manuscript, but it is evident that the winners have studied children’s YA fiction and are improving with every scene they write! Congratulations!I suggest that anyone who wants to write children’s fiction tap into SCBWI and one of its local critique groups to read your work to a group of like-minded peers. Additionally, check out the new California North/Central regional page on the SCBWI website for a list of area children’s writers conferences and events.Thank you for submitting! Keep writing!