The Critique's Award 2023.

Results

Finally, here are the results even though I must warn you, dear authors, that this results aren't the end of the world and do not limit your potentials in anyway. The latter is the reason why there's no ranking for the last position but for the best- a fact which can be summed up in the words "all novels are the work of an idea".

It was fun reading you all's copies and also sharing in your ideas. However, I must refer some authors to writing pieces which may help them master storytelling in the genre they hope to thrive. Firstly, there's the ambassador's profiles hosting most genres and blog posts on the web. Again, there are writer tips in published books on Wattpad. And then, there's also reviews by famous publishing house. I'd advice writers to read through them to have an idea of what readers expect and what could make their novels unique. Having a good cover, blurb and title, with a confusing and poorly written content as a book may not take you far as a writer/author.

Reviews.

Romance Entries.

1. Je T'aime Imbécile

By strawberry1d

Despite having a unique title, this piece excelled in the narrative voice which had a unique writing style and a potent POV. However, the blurb was the main problem. It would be better if the author adhered to the common standard of writing blurbs in third person POV. Furthermore, certain discrepancies in the Ha-Ni's character was noticed. It happened in the third chapter, towards the end. The tone at that instant was offset and too tense and would have been better if it was humorous. Regardless of these minor issues, the author must be commended on mastering the formular to romance novels. Such a cliché plot written in a unique way!

A.) Involvement(10):

a.) Title(3):3

b.) Cover(3):2

c.) Blurb(4):2

B.) Characterization(20):18

C.) Plot(20):20

D.) Setting(10):9.5

E.) Dialogue & Pacing(10):9

F.) Tone & Writing Style(10):10

G.) English & Grammar(10):10

Total(90):83.5

2. The Darkest Embrace

By mansi12x

The author has a great writing style similar to the lyrical story-telling ability of Asiya Gaildon, the award winning Somalian writer. However the author needs to improve on the dialogue, and this was most especially noticeable in the first paragraph of the blurb, which should have been divided into more paragraphs with each dialogue on a new line. Again, the author could have improved her writing style in the first chapter by describing Ava's expression and not using the statement "she was just pressing her phone". It was also noticed that she failed to introduce the plot in the first chapter which may be a disadvantage commercially.

In the second chapter, the author should have told the story from a single POV as that bridles intimacy between the reader and the story and breeds no room for doubt. It was also noticed that the author made chapter three to be the main start of the story and the introduction to the plot and also, there was the frequent repetition of the pronoun "I" and the fallback on describing the setting. It would be appreciated if the author heeds to these advice and motions towards improving the story.