For the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of helping judge a writing competition for middle school and high school students. It’s amazing, like I’m a talent scout getting a sneak peek at the next big thing.

As in any competition, entries are judged against specific criteria and given a score. In this case, entries are scored from 1-10.

Every year, I read dozens of entries across a variety of categories (short story, poetry, etc.). Many entries are decent enough, scoring in the 6-7 range. A few pop up into the 8 or even 9 range. Some aren’t quite there yet, and score below a 5. Very few get a 1.

Rarer still are the 10s. Out of all the entries I read, only one or two might earn that score.

I’ve been thinking a lot about why that is. It could be that I’m a tough judge. Reading is a subjective endeavor, after all. I try my best to be fair and I follow the scoring criteria, but there’s a human element, of course.

Yet, in any scoring situation, results often fall on a bell curve. You know, the thing that looks like this:

And it holds up. In the writing competition, only a tiny number of entries are truly exceptional. But those rare gems so completely dazzle me that I print them out so I can savor them again later. These are writers I want to keep an eye on … if only I knew their names. (By the time I see the entries, they’re anonymous.)

This bell curve isn’t restricted to contests or grading, however. Consider the movies you’ve seen, the music you’ve heard, the books you’ve read—how many have absolutely astounded you? How many have left you breathless? How many have made you sob? How many have made you laugh until your ribs ache? How many have lingered long after the last frame, the last note, the last page?

Not many.

Of the 50 or so books I read over the past year, only a handful made my Wow List. Books like:

• I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
• Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert
• The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart
• The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
• Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
• The Bone Gap by Laura Ruby

I certainly enjoyed the other books I read, but those books … whoa.

So what makes a piece of writing stand out?

There are three things the books I love (and the writing entries I give 10s) have in common, regardless of genre or plot. The writing in each of these Wow books is:

1. Intimate: Nothing stands between the character/the story and the reader. The prose doesn’t hesitate or qualify or waste time on set up. Everything about the writing is present in the moment and highly personal. Dialogue even more so.
2. Specific: Details are exact. Descriptions are vivid and rely on all five senses. Scenes occur in defined settings at clear points in time; even plant and animal names are specific, not generic.
3. Distinct: The voice is totally unique and the reader can identify it immediately. Distinct writing encompasses almost every aspect of the piece: style, word choice, structure, sentence rhythm and flow, character descriptions and actions, dialogue, plotting, choice of narrator, point-of-view. It’s often the hardest one to nail.

How about you? What do you think makes a book a 10?

© 2018 Rachel Martin. All Rights Reserved.