I'm judging the Frome Festival Short Story competition this year - details here - and I was asked to do an interview on BBC Radio Somerset about it, which might interest people who are wondering whether comps are worth it, how (some) judges (well, this judge) think, and what it's all about. It's on Listen Again here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00g9nmf

and it's 1.40hrs in.

It was a good interview, which is chiefly down to the presenter. Whenever I do interviews of this sort I'm always impressed again by the professionalism that underlies this kind of daily general programme; how presenters can switch from topic to topic, with the briefest of briefings, talk to people in a different studio 100 miles away, and weave it all into something agreeable and easy to listen to, beats me

Emma

<Added>

Sorry - competition details escaped.

http://www.fromefestival.co.uk/?page_id=4252

Wanted to listen, Emma, but didn't want to have to go through the stuff before you came on!

Jem, you don't have to wade through anything. Just move the sliding blob along to about the midpoint of the bar. It will tell you where in the programme you are. You can cue it up to about 1 hour 38 and then let it play.

Great stuff Emma. You sounded very relaxed.

You sounded great, Emma!

Excellent interview - and a good interviewer too. Like what you said about finding the 'right size idea'.
Susiex

Good interview, Emma. Where did you do it? - it didn't sound as if it was done over the phone. Were you able to do it at a studio in London?

I have been trying to think of something for this competition for ages - time is now running out, and I still haven't managed it. My ideas are hardly ever the right size for under 2,500 words.

My pathetic computer won't let your links work, Emma, so can I ask you some questions?

With a relatively small competition like the Frome, do you read all the entries yourself, or are there filter readers? How many entries does the Frome usually get?

And how easy is it to put aside your personal taste when judging a story? Do you allow it a freer rein when it comes to deciding the winners?

Thanks.

Glad everyone approves - Jem, Roger's instructions are spot on.

Catkin, it was in a studio at Broadcasting House - they have banks of studios for this kind of thing (I got quite excited when I went upstairs to go to the loo, and found myself in R6Music... So yes, decent quality (thank goodness - I dislike my voice even more when it's over the phone or a non-broadcast-quality format). But the conversation is tricky because you and the presenter don't have the eye-contact and other signals for making it go smoothly.

Jan, I don't know how many entries there are (Bridport is around the 4000 mark, I know) but I don't read all of them - enough, though, to get a reaally good idea of the range of good stuff that's been entered, and to have confidence that I have picked the ones I think work best. Did you see the two pieces Cherys did for my blog, on being a filter reader?:

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2010/11/the-hoops-you-must-jump-through-an-insiders-view-of-fiction-awards-part-1.html

You set aside your own subjectivity when it comes to, say, subjects or characters or the kind of story it is - we all have favourite tastes in these things. I wouldn't reject a story because I didn't find a character appealing, say, or it was very blood-and-gutsy and I had a delicate stomach (I don't). But I would reject it if I didn't find the characters vivid and fully-realised and un-off-the-peg, or if it seemed to me that the blood and guts was in there for shock value and didn't actually do or say anything worth saying. Does that make sense?

One thing that was interesting in the couple of competitions I've been involved in is that we did, mostly, agree about which stories were the best - the longlist, as it were: Cherys's 2%. I think what I'm saying is that, largely, a really good story is a really good story for a lot experienced and discerning readers. Which order we then put that 2% in was more variable, because any of those could win on sheer quality, so the casting vote, as it were, is going to be something intangible... at least until they develop a machine for measuring just how high and at what angle the hairs on the back of your neck rise as you read...

Emma

I think you've got a nice voice, Emma!

That interview really sounded as if you were in the same studio as the presenter - that's why I was interested, because I didn't think you would have been.

Those filter-reader articles are great - extremely informative - if anyone hasn't read them yet.

Thanks, Emma.

I'm surprised the Frome hasn't given you an idea how many stories you'll be expected to read. Can you clarify, if you're only reading some, who's reading all the others?

Yes, I read both of cherys's blog posts and found them very interesting and enlightening.

You sounded brill, Emma. I did radio once, and will never, ever do it again. It is very difficult, I think, to chat away to someone you can't see, knowing lots of other people you can't see are listening in. You sounded very natural.

Jan, I assume that the readers of the others will be Frome's equivalent of Cherys and co-horts. I know the main organiser does, too.

Jenn, glad you approve. I must admit that I don't, now, find it alarming at all - I don't think I remember there are loads of people, only the person I'm talking to. I was incredibly lucky that my first experience of any of this stuff, barring a few print interviews, was mainly Down Under, when I did a couple of literary festivals: I did five radio interviews in NZ in a morning, I remember - some in the studio, some in a remote studio and some down a phone line. A couple of TV ones too - the remote one was horrid because you knew you were visible, and could see the presenters on a monitor, but had no sense of how you looked. But at least I didn't have to think that anyone I really knew was looking and deciding if I was any good or not.

I would say, too, that having been around on WW and the like, talking writing, for some years before it all happened was a huge help - much easier to say something short and coherent when you're asked a question, when you've been saying and re-saying and saying slightly differently versions of everything a hundred times already...

Emma