Opinions Wanted: Contest Quandry

I read an interesting article last week. It was all about contest entries and how to pimp them in order to win. You see, there’s a whole lot of people who have analyzed writing contests and their entries to discern what makes an entry a "winner." The author of the article I read was a case in point. Once she pinpointed the elements judges most wanted to see, she pimped her entries to meet the researched “must-have” elements, and entered them. Guess what? Four out of five of her entries finaled.

I’d love to hear opinions on this. Do you think it’s true that you must slant your chapters to match what judges want most (and that’s *after* you’ve already analyzed the information to figure out exactly what they want)? Is this unfair? Why? What solution do you propose?

Read More