Candlelight Awards || OPEN

JUDGING CRITERIA

I'm changing up my criteria for these awards to not only help judging go easier for me, but to also emphasize the things I like judging most.

Criteria:

1) Characters - 15 points

2) Plot - 10 points

3) Pacing - 15 points

4) Creativity + Descriptions - 15 points

5) Worldbuilding - 10 points

6) Dialogue - 15 points

7) Grammar/Spelling - 10 points

8) Title/Blurb/Cover - 10 points

Total: 100

It's different from my other contests since I removed the themes/emotions category and combined the descriptions with creativity and increased the point range. I will be considering the themes/emotions through the characters from now on.

I did this to lead to less repetition in my reviews and to also make it easier since I have less to judge, so hopefully results will be faster with the tighter criteria.

Keep in mind point deductions vary depending on severity. You might see someone get 1 point off for comma errors while another gets 2, and that's because the other person had more severe and/or frequent comma errors.

If you have any questions about the above criteria, please leave them in the inline comments here --->

Poetry Criteria:

1) Structure - 10 points

2) Diversity - 10 points

3) Themes and emotions - 20 points

4) Word choice - 15 points

5) Figurative language - 15

6) Clarity - 10

7) Conclusion - 10

8) Title/blurb/cover - 10 points

Total: 100

I believe most of these are self-explanatory, but I'll explain the ones that might be confusing.

Diversity:

I mean diversity in the language and how you're presenting your emotions. If you submit multiple poems, are you using the same language, emotions, and structures? If you submit only one, are you repeating anything? Are you saying the same emotion over and over with little diversity in how you're presenting it? So I mean diversity in the way you're presenting your ideas.

Clarity:

Poems are very metaphorical, so clarity doesn't mean you have to tell us what you mean. Clarity means are your ideas able to be understood, or are they too complex that they lose their meaning? Are you so simple that everything is obvious? It's about finding that balance, in a way. So clarity means more are your ideas able to be understood, but not so obvious that I don't have to think at all.

Conclusion:

Does your poem(s) wrap up well? Does it end on a good note to end on, or does it feel sudden? Does it feel too stretched out? That's what I'm looking for.