APSE entries are in the mail -- how do you think you did?

... what was your line of thinking behind what you entered? ... what did you learn in putting together entries/looking over the last year? ... do you ever feel good about the package you put together? ... how long is this next month going to be? ... etc.

(yes, yes, everyone here is officially above such trivial things as awards, or pay -- but, you know, hypothetically.)

discuss ...

 

We felt good.

The key for me is are you picking out the best of the best, or trying to figure out what weaknesses you can avoid not highlighting.

It definitely helped that all four mandatories were strong sections.

 

Didn't enter anything. I was focused on getting entries set for my region's press association.

I wouldn't win shit at APSE anyway.

 

this is our first time entering for the section awards and I'm very optimistic. we'll see how it goes.

 

It was my first time entering and putting the entries together was enjoyable. I'm my biggest critic (well, other than the little league moms who think I suck at life), so it was fun looking back over my body of work and finding a few things I liked (and a few things I could improve upon).

It's easy to get caught up in getting through the next article, game, or section. Preparing my entries forced me to take a deep breath and reflect on what I did right (and probably more importantly, what I did wrong) over the past year.

 

We got some stuff in that might do well. But honestly, APSE's rules are just a freakin' nightmare in putting all this together. Many have said the business is being left behind in the Internet age; well, the APSE contest would do well to step into the 21st century, as well. Cutting and pasting newspaper clips is ridiculous in this day and age.

It's almost as if APSE is trying to eliminate half the entries based on archaic entry rules, rather than eliminating them based on the entries' merits. Pretty weak. Time to make the great leap forward, folks; winning and losing shouldn't depend on how many hours you can spend cutting and pasting copy correctly and doing all those formatted cover letters, etc. And it's not like judges can't determine that they're reading a Mitch Albom column or a Bill Plaschke column, whether their names are on it or not.

Rant over.

 

Totally. I think it's going to take me a week to get all the paste and ink stains off my fingers.

 

I will lose.
My experience with the APSE has not been a happy one.

 

I fear we won't do too well this year. Our optional sections are strong, naturally, but we got a couple tough draws on the mandatory dates. Individual stories are always a crapshoot, so who knows.

 

The point of that is so entries are those that appeared in the paper and haven't been "touched up" after the fact - ie, typos eliminated, news updates etc.

Sadly, we don't trust our brethren to play fair.

 

What about the nave? Or the transept? The chancel? Anything?

 

I don't know what any of those three words mean, Jmac...