At Not Quite Write, we value transparency in the judging process, so we’ve put together this handy overview so you can see what happens after you hit ‘Submit’.
How we compile your entries
When you submit your entry via the online form, your entry is received into a database. After the deadline, we dedeplicate resubmissions and assign unique identifiers to randomise the story order.
The stories are then published to an online judging portal. Each judge has their own portal access, displaying data from the ‘Title’, ‘Story’, and ‘Brief Explanation’ fields. The judges use this online portal to leave judging comments and rank your stories
In the new team-based format, you will choose one of two sets of prompts. Although these prompt sets are different, we believe they represent an equivalent level of challenge. As such, all stories will be considered together to determine a single longlist, shortlist and winner.
It’s not about which prompts you choose: it’s how you use them.
How we judge your entries
We can see who is planning to enter the competition because we have the details of your ticket purchase, however the judging process itself is blind. When judging, we only have access to data from the ‘Title’, ‘Story’, and ‘Brief Explanation’ fields of your submission.
Each story is initially considered by at least two judges. Depending on how many stories we receive, we may engage assistant judges to help us with this initial assessment.
We don’t rely on a fixed rubric for judging. Instead, each judge makes their own subjective assessment using the following ranking system:
- Favourite: Recommended for the longlist with strong shortlist potential
- Yes: Recommended for the longlist
- Maybe+: Strong consideration for the longlist
- Maybe: Some consideration for the longlist
- Maybe-: Not recommended for the longlist but prepared to reconsider
- No: Not recommended for the longlist
- DQ: Disqualified (possible reasons include failing to address a prompt, including identifying information in the ‘Title’, ‘Story’ or ‘Brief Explanation’ fields of the submission form, or being found to have used AI to generate part or all of the story).
We have a huge amount of respect for the time you take creating your entries, and it’s safe to say that every entry is given due consideration. We will often go back and re-read a story if we felt we didn’t give it the attention it deserved on first reading.
How we determine our longlist
When the initial judging is complete (that is, when at least two judges have reviewed every story), we export the results to a spreadsheet and filter and sort to determine the highest ranked stories for longlist consideration.
From here, all judging is completed by Ed and Amanda. We may refer to assistant judges initial comments and rankings during this process, however assistant judges are not involved in the decisionmaking process.
How we proceed will depend on the spread of initial rankings, but usually we retain stories with at least one “Maybe+” vote for consideration. If a story has high rankings from two or more judges (“Maybe+” and up), we may longlist it immediately. We will then reread and consider the remaining stories to fill the remaining places. Stories will either be longlisted or ‘Cut’ at this stage.
Traditionally, our longlist includes 40 stories however we may increase this number as we receive more entries.
How we determine our shortlist
By the time we get to shortlisting, we’ve already reread the longlisted stories several times and become attached to some of them.
At this stage, we consider each longlisted story and mark as ‘Cut’, ‘Maybe’ or ‘Yes’ for the shortlist. Stories with two ‘Yes’ votes will immediately proceed to the shortlist. Stories with two ‘Cut’ votes will be cut. We will then discuss and debate the remaining stories to arrive at an agreed shortlist of 6 stories.
This is when the real fun begins, as we battle it out to see how our preferred stories rank. We don’t always agree at first, but after discussing the merits of each story in detail, we eventually reach an agreement on the winner and placeholders.
How we determine our wildcards
We sometimes mark stories for wildcard consideration during initial judging if there is somethine especially notable about them. We also sometimes consider stories which narrowly missed out on a longlisting or shortlisting for a wildcard prize. We may award a wildcard to any story which did not make the shortlist. We also invite our assistant judges to award their own wildcard at this time.
What happens next
Once we’ve reached our final decisions, we use our unique reference numbers to match the entries back to their authors. This is a very exciting part of the process for us – we’re always surprised and delighted to find out who won!
When and how we announce the winners
We allow 6 weeks for the judging process. This gives us time to read and evaluate your entries. It also gives us time to record, edit and release the bonus episodes of the podcast in which we reveal the longlist, shortlist, and prize winners.
The podcast is where you’ll hear the news first, and the announcement episodes are great fun! If you’re not a podcast listener, you can read the results on the Honour Roll.
We usually release the longlist episode near the end of Week 5 of the judging window. In this episode we announce the official longlist and reveal interesting statistics about the entries we received. We shout out some of our favourite lines and reveal your most creative takes on the prompts.
On or before the planned results announcement date, we announce the prize winners in a shortlist episode. Even if you didn’t make the longlist you’ll want to tune in, as we read the shortlisted entries aloud for your listening pleasure. We discuss how we reached our decision, and what all entrants can learn from the top stories.
Other bits and pieces
We create ‘badges’ to help our longlisted and shortlisted authors celebrate their success. If you make the longlist or shortlist, you will find your badge on the Honour Roll. Simply download the image and share to your social media accounts. Be sure to tag us so we can celebrate with you! (Our social media links appear in the footer of our website).
If you win a prize, we’ll email you sometime after the shortlist announcement to ask for your payment details and transfer your prize money. We highly recommend adding the notquitewrite.com and notquitewritepodcast.com domains to your safe senders list so you don’t miss this email from us!
If you purchased a Daredevil experience, your on-air critique will be released as a standalone episode of the podcast in the weeks following the winner announcement. We may contact you in advance of recording to invite you to leave a voicemail to accompany your episode. We will use best efforts to tag you on social media when the episode goes live, but you can always email us if you have any questions.
If you purchased a Coaching package, we will contact you via email to confirm your session time. At the time of writing, we’re still refining this process, so please don’t hesitate to reach out via email if you have any questions or concerns.
A note on subjectivity
Fiction judging will always involve a high level of subjectivity. Each judge brings their own preferences, biases and present state of mind to the task. While some judges value technical proficiency, others value creativity. Some value a clever concept, while others value emotional resonance. There is no one way to write a winning story, and different judges might arrive at a different shortlist. We are grateful for the opportunity to discuss our reasoning on the podcast. While you are entitled to disagree with our reasoning, we trust it provides meaningful insight into how we reached our final decision.
It’s important to remember that everyone entering this competition can write well, and that many good stories do not make the longlist. Some of our decisions are very close calls. If you wrote a story you love but it doesn’t make the longlist, we highly recommend shopping it around to lit mags. There’s every chance someone else will love it as much as you do.
We consider it a great honour to judge your entries to the Not Quite Write Prize for Flash Fiction. We love to see you succeed and we love rewarding your creative talents. Regardless of whether you win a prize or not, we hope you enjoy the challenge of competing, listening, learning, and improving with every submission.