Heads up: I know you're all dying to get the scores, but they'll definitely be coming before the marked-up copies. I do take notes as I go along, but I want to be helpful, so I go through them at least one more time to see what else I can say. I've gotten through four entries, looked through most of the rest, and made enough meaningful comments on two of them.
Warm hugs and morally questionable advice given here. Prosey BitchfestShould I post the results once I'm done with all of them, or wait until all the other judges are done?
I finished reading the fourth before I had to go to my Harry Potter camp. It's a good one. I'm glad there's a variety of quality, because I wouldn't be a good judge if I said all of them were good or bad.
I'll probably have at least five or six read by the end of the day.
One more question about the theme score: If I feel like the multiple POVs are slapped on or poorly executed, can I knock off points?
edited 12th Jul '11 1:20:10 PM by chihuahua0
Post scores whenever you're ready.
Of course you can take points off for that. I'm doing it too.
Warm hugs and morally questionable advice given here. Prosey BitchfestI took off a point or a half if it was done depressingly straight. I can think of a few different ways to do it, they just came to me before I had enough time for the contest.
Warm hugs and morally questionable advice given here. Prosey BitchfestUh, since Chihuahua's doing it, I may as well too. For the "overall" section, I'm taking off 1, 2, and 3 points for everything that bugs me. Haven't taken off three points for any issue yet.
Also, guys, a tip: semicolons separate independent clauses without using a conjunction.
So this:
I went to the store; and I bought some rice.
is wrong.
And this:
I went to the store; buying some rice in order to feed my family of starved pandas.
is also wrong.
Lottssss of these mistakes cropping up.
And another thing: If you take issue with one of my corrections, it may be entirely valid. I am, after all, only human. So when I put those up, feel free to take me up on some particular issue.
Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka fics^ MY HERO
How many of you guys used Microsoft Word? I'm seeing a lot of single dashes where there should be two and I know that Word's autocorrect combines them, but it might not render on Free Text Host.
Warm hugs and morally questionable advice given here. Prosey BitchfestThat was a problem that bugged me too. However, one person forgot to complete a set of emdashes, so I took note of that.
Actually, I'm not doing the "one point off for each flaw" system. That would imbalance some stuff. I'm just estimating my enjoyment level and the number of flaws in one story. It can be a little unwieldy, but it works.
edited 12th Jul '11 9:48:52 PM by chihuahua0
I'm using half-points... is that bad?
Warm hugs and morally questionable advice given here. Prosey BitchfestSo far, I have two positive scores (one I'm writing right now), and two negative scores. I was harsh with one of them, but I'm going to see if I can tweak it to make it slightly more constructive.
I think I know one of the goods and the terrible, although I have two greats.
After I finish watching this music video, I'm going to finish writing up the fourth score.
edited 12th Jul '11 10:08:56 PM by chihuahua0
I have two good, one great, and one terrible. I'll be back by Thursday with everything else.
Warm hugs and morally questionable advice given here. Prosey BitchfestOut of curiosity, Chihuahua, what do you believe makes the "this bugs me, points off" system bad?
Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka ficsEhhh, yeah, I think that I'm beginning to dislike my own system as well.
I'll just use the five-star method.
Whatcha gonna do, little buckaroo? | i be pimpin' madoka ficsI decided to skip scoring the fourth entry since I can't figure out how to word it, and I just read the fifth story. It's middle of the pack, but with a racially different style than the last four (two were deep, while two were confusing to read).
And if any of the judges want to discuss the entries with me, you can either start a conversation with PMs, or if you're using Google Docs to judge it, we can set up a chat session with that.

Just finished another entry. I'm feeling like I'm being too harsh for the writer, but it wasn't a good story. (By the way, I'm going out of order a little bit, even though anyone whose not a judge knows the order the entries are being judged by. I bet the messenger scrambled them, right?)
And to state my "Overall" scoring scale again:
Most stories aren't going to go over 12, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have to stoop all the way towards 3. Hopefully, I won't have to do that.
edited 12th Jul '11 9:20:26 AM by chihuahua0