Open Novella Journal 2024

Week 1

Week one's been crazy.

I want to start off by reminding people that when they say our ONC stories "must be a brand new story," they do, in fact, mean a brand new story. This includes not only previously published works but also previously drafted works. Yes, I know there are individuals who want this spelled out in a way that uses the word draft of a variant of their word, but the fact the word draft isn't used doesn't mean it's not clearly stated. After all, to start a draft for a story a writer needs to do one of two things. We have to go to the top of the Write tab at the top of Wattpad and click the button "Create a New Story," or we have to click "My Stories" and then "+ New Story." 

This isn't to say those who don't realize that the publication and draft dates are the same are at fault for not realizing the same as those who don't realize that the buttons when we create a draft clearly say we're starting a brand story at that point, but more of to point out that the ONC ambassadors are not lying/being dishonest here, particularly when they dropped a message to remind people that it's about the entry creation date while also stating older drafts means elimination.

I also want to remind people that ONC ambassadors have to remain unbiased in how they handle things, including how they word the instructions. On one hand, they do want to eliminate as many accidental eliminations as possible. However, on the other hand, they still have to be careful not to give ideas to those looking for a way to sneak their entry into ONC which is why they chose the words they did.

But because ONC ambassadors have to remain unbiased, they are also reliant on us participating to lend a helping hand where they can not. This isn't just about clarifying the draft issue for those who say they don't realize the publication and draft dates are the same, but also clarifying what is asked for with a prompt when they can't because of their need to stay neutral. This isn't to say they don't at times clarify the prompts, but generally, we're talking about issues where to remain unbiased, they need to clarify for everybody.

As for how ONC is going for me, I've gotten the rough draft of one started, another posted, and somehow my Voltron: Legendary Defender story morphed into a VLD/Pokemon story as I did some more brainstorming this last week which in turn means completely rewriting how I'm using the prompts if not rethinking which one is the main prompt. I think I can still pull it off, as the main plot is still that with the others flavoring things. Don't know if it will be under 40k, because I am adding Pokemon in there and haven't a clue how this will--it's one of those things.

And, while I am a bit later starting into writing this year I think, I also think that this is okay as there were some things to work out as some of the ideas grew with the brainstorm and writing out how I was using the prompts. Now, to get to work.

Quick Edit - I meant to note the number of stories with the #ONC2024 tag and the number within the first week, give or take is.