4H Writers Write Right Writing

 If I'm counting correctly (which is never a given), this is my sixth year judging 4H prose writing entries. And to think, before that I used to think all 4H kids did was push animals around.

Truth is, 4H'ers do a lot more than working with farm animals, which is probably what the average person thinks of. It's too bad they don't get more credit. When I was a kid we'd walk the fairway of the Noble County 4H fair, and when we got to the end I was puzzled by why they had all those barns full of cows, sheep, goats, and various other four legged guys. Since we didn't have the money to buy a lot of food or ride a lot of rides, I eventually wandered around enough to figure things out.

(For any of you who haven't gone to fairs, be cautious about buying a lot of food AND riding a lot of rides.)

Do 4H members show turkeys? I feel like they should.

I wonder if they had the writing stuff when I was a kid? I'd have been all over that: Other than extra credit in English class, I had nowhere to go with my writing until I turned eighteen, and started my eclectic collection of rejection slips. Not one of those rejections had a ribbon on it--not even a white ribbon.

Speaking of which, I don't know if it's a sign that I'm too easy, but I think I gave all but one of the entries a blue ribbon this year. With the one that got a red ribbon, it was really close to blue. The problem is, I have a clear memory of how good my writing was at the same age, and they're all better than I was. That's in all three categories--the youngest are at about the same level I was at the intermediate stage. The oldest are better than I was when I started submitting, which maybe explains the rejection slips. I'd have been a red ribbon all the way through, if not white.

So I had to not only keep in mind their ages when judging the entries, I also had to guard my self-esteem. I thought about turning on reality TV shows and saying "at least I'm not on a reality TV show!", but I didn't deserve that kind of punishment. Instead I told myself I was good enough to deserve chocolate. Then I ate chocolate.

If one of them hits the best-seller list before I do, there won't be enough chocolate in the world.

Look! A 4H clover!

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Summer Means 4H Writing ... Well, To Me

So, I spent another July week judging prose writing projects for the Noble County 4-H (which still has some judging going despite the sad cancellation of this year's 4-H Fair). Apparently I've been doing this every year since 2016; time flies when you're being impressed.

And boy, as usual, am I impressed.

This year they range in grades from 6th to 12th, which makes it even more difficult to judge, as you have to take their ages and relative experience into consideration. But while I've seen plenty of writing that needed work, I haven't seen any yet that I'd characterize as being bad. One piece from this year is freaking brilliant. Another writer needs to work on their fundamentals, but still almost had me rolling on the floor with funny scenes.

I'm so jealous.

I started writing steadily at around sixth grade, but didn't  come up with anything approaching good until the middle of high school. I didn't start getting good at my fundamentals--grammar, spelling, sentence structure--until after high school. See, in English class, instead of paying attention, I was in the back row writing fiction. As a writer, I was trying to build a house without knowing how to use a hammer or saw.

(I still don't know how to build a house, but hey, it's just a metaphor. Or simile. One of those things. On a related note, sometimes I'm still not that great at fundamentals.)

So after high school I bought a used English textbook and actually taught myself the stuff I hadn't picked up before. After that, I got a little better. Some would say.

If the kids have a common problem, it's that they need to understand that writing is rewriting. I'm seeing good work that just needs to be edited and polished, more than anything else. They're already as good as I was at their age: A little work, and they'll be better.

And hey, more competition is just what I need. That, and editing.

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https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

4-H Writers Show Potential

I received this year's Noble County 4-H Creative Writing Projects the other day, so I'll be busy with the judging for several days.

I kind of hate that word, judging. Who am I to judge? I should forward all of these to George R.R. Martin or J.K. Rowling, they could judge ... but they're probably busy buying countries, or something.

When people start referring to me as M.R. Hunter, maybe I'll be too busy too. Until then, it's only right to help along aspiring authors. I was one, once ... and in many ways I'm still aspiring, along with inspiring and perspiring. So I'll do my best to do right by them.

Still, it's hard to be objective, especially when you can still remember how flimsy your own self-esteem was back then, and by you I mean me. Also, there are three categories, and it's important not to judge one by the standards of another. It would be like judging a college essay, then using the same standard to judge a third grader's "what I did last summer" paper.

Every 4-H entry I've read showed potential for great works to come. I hope I'll see all their names on a bookshelf, someday.

The Writer's LIfe: judging and revising and young authors

I spent some time last week judging 4-H writing projects. As usual, I marveled at how good  the entries were ... many of them much better than I was at the same age. It's great to know there are still young writers and readers out there. It's also great to know my own childhood writing has disappeared.

Then I dove back into revising Fire On Mist Creek, which I wrote last fall and edited in early winter. Revision isn't all that much fun to me, so I made myself a promise: Once I get this manuscript done ... I can start work on another story. The most fun parts for me are brainstorming the story, writing the first draft, and those little edits later on, when the story's mostly done and I can relax a little. (Maybe I should have promised myself cake.)

Major revisions of the rough draft, on the other hand--pulling stuff out, moving it around, changing whole scenes and so on--not so much fun. It beats self-promotion, though.

You know what else it beats? Writing a synopsis. I hate writing synopsis ...um, synopsi ... um, synopsises. Unfortunately, for the purposes of an upcoming submission I've paused the revision, and gone over to finish the synopsis, first.

Still a better job than assembling axles at a factory, or working at a bee moth larvea farm. Trust me on that.

Head, Hands, Heart, Health

It was a busy week, but I was able to get the 4H Creative Writing projects in just under the wire. Don't let anyone tell you judging is easy, especially in an area that can be so subjective. If I was a sports judge, I suppose I'd rather be in track and field rather than figure skating, for instance.

What makes it harder is that there are three categories: beginner, intermediate, and why the heck wasn't I that good in high school? You can't judge them by the same standards; it would be like failing a fourth grader because he couldn't do advanced trigonometry, which is maybe a bad example because I never could do advanced trigonometry. I don't even know what it is. I'm still trying to figure out what x equals.

My problem is that I tend to go too easy, out of empathy for how I might have reacted to a harsh comment at that age. (Hint: I had very low self esteem.) But in trying to balance that, I worry about being too hard on the writers. They need to know if they have weak areas to be worked on, but they don't need me turning into that jerk chef on those cooking shows. So I try to be--I don't know--gentle, but guiding. All this stressing myself out is also why I struggle to do book reviews.

In any case, I've never seen a single 4H entry that didn't show potential for great works to come. That's exactly the kind of thing the world needs: imagination, industry, interest, and literacy. Which comes awfully close to the 4H motto of head, hands, heart, and health.