SC - A&S Ramblings

[Christine A Seelye-King]

>I can understand why you were crushed by such a bad experience! I 
>ALWAYS find something to praise, no matter how poor the entry and try to
phrase negative criticisms in the form of suggestions, eg "You might want
to look at... Perhaps you should consider... You could make this even
better by...". >

This is one of the rules we give to our judges at the Judges Meeting held
before the contest begins.  They are instructed to ALWAYS start with a
positive comment.  I have been a judge many times, and that isn't always
easy.  (Reminds me of my grandmother's comment on seeing ugly children,
"My, aren't they Clean?")  I have also had a similar experience, my first
entry into a costume category, I was completely put down (nicely) by my
friends!  I will never enter another costume contest, in spite of being a
sometime professional costumer.  I have and will continue to enter into
food contests (I don't really know why, I guess I feel more comfortable
beating my head against that particular wall), and also into Performing
Arts contests.   When you enter into a contest, you have to be willing to
adhere as closely as you possibly can to the stated parameters.  Of the
many things I do in and out of the SCA (the line blurrs so often), I have
to pick the very few things I am willing to tailor specifically to the
contest rules to enter.  I have had to pass that advice along to entrants
often, don't enter your entire body of work, pick the very best, and
enter that.  (Especially true of performing arts.  Oh, I can still
remember that one Kingdom A&S where we were forced to watch 30 minutes of
Commedia at 11PM, while Court and everyone else was waiting! Shudder...) 
 I suppose the same holds true of picking and choosing the contests you
enter.  I sent another post about the "From the Ground Up" contests and
the like, they are out there, you just have to look around to find them. 

	Ok, enough ramblings for now. 
	Christianna

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