O.V.O.S. Awards 2018 [CLOSED]

Helpful Hints

As we've said, O.V.O.S. was created as a positive platform to promote our stories on Wattpad. We are in the process of selecting judges but all judges will have to use the same scoring form when judging so that we are all on the same page and judging the same thing. In this chapter, we will let you know some of the things judges will be asked to look for.

1. First Impressions Matter. Remember, you're trying to capture the attention of both judges and readers. The cover and title of your book is very important. Ask yourself a few questions. Is your cover appealing? Is it too busy? Is it too plain? Does it reflect what your story is about? Is it eye catching and appealing? If you saw your cover, would you stop to read what that book is about? Ask your readers or trusted friends if they like your cover. Be willing to accept honest opinion about it. What about your title? Is it a common title? Is it Unique? Does it reflect what the story is about? Even more than the cover, the title is what will grab readers.

2. Grab our Attention! What is your opening line? If you were reading the opening line of your story, would you keep reading past the first sentence?  Does your first chapter get the reader excited about what's to come? If not, how can you make it more exciting? Sometimes it's as simple as changing the viewpoint or moving around paragraphs. In the first round of nominations, judges will be reviewing and scoring the first three chapters to decide which books will be selected for the next round. In reality, most readers will only give a book 3-5 chapters before they decide if they will fully invest more time in the rest of your book. Try your best to make those first chapters the most perfect ones in your book. Once a reader is invested in your story, other mistakes along the way won't bother them. When there are so many in the beginning, they assume the entire book is full of inconsistencies.

3. Absorbing Plot. In a nutshell, the plot of your story is the reader following the main character's conflict! If you resolve the conflict by chapter two, what does the reader have to look forwards to? Why should they be invested for another thirty chapters if you already resolved the issue? Give your main characters an interesting plot by adding believable conflict. Then keep teasing us throughout the story to keep us interested. Make us have to see what happens at the end.

4. Make Your Characters Believable. Nobody is perfect! We all have habits, flaws, insecurities, etc. If you want your readers to fall in love with your characters (which should be every writer's goal). You must make your characters feel real! As readers, we try to relate to the people we're reading about, if we can't find anyone in the story to relate to, most of us check out. Your character doesn't have to be perfect, we just want them to be interesting.

5. Is it Important? Many times, we as writers work so hard on our stories that when we are going through the story to edit it, we find it hard to delete portions of our story because we put so much time and effort into it. Ask yourself if the paragraph or sentence is important? Is the conversation needed or relevant? Does it advance your story? If not, then delete it! Don't overwrite.

6. Don't confuse us! All stories are written from a point of view. You must decide which point of view will be most interesting for the reader. If you flip back and forth in your POV without giving the readers warning or clarification, they will lose trust in you. Your POV helps the reader to filter how they read your story. There are four POV types. If you aren't sure which to use for your story, read a paragraph of your story through each one and see which feels the best, most comfortable for you to write in. (If you're not comfortable then you and the reader will become frustrated. Do not begin your story in first person and then switch to third (if you do, explain to us why the change had to happen if it's relevant to the story).

POV types explained:

*First person point of view (I, Me, My): "I" am telling the story. The character in the story is telling their experiences directly. Remember that when writing in this voice, you are in that character's head, you can't also be in another character's head at the same time.

*Second person point of view (You, Your): The story is told to "you." This POV is more common in nonfiction than creative fiction.

*Third person point of view, limited (She, He, Her, His): The story is about "he" or "she." This is the most common point of view in fiction. The narrator is outside of the story and telling the reader all of the character's experiences. The limited view is more commonly used than the omniscient view.

*Third person point of view, omniscient (She, He, Her, His): The story is still about "he" or "she," but the narrator has full access to all of the thoughts and experiences of all of the characters in the story.

7. Try to be different! So many stories sound the same. You want your story to stand out so challenge yourself to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. Think about the judges and readers that will be reading over dozens of stories, you don't want your story to blend in and sound like everyone else's story.

8. Proofread. Proofread. Proofread. None of us are professional editors (I probably made fifty errors in this post alone), but we are all readers. We don't expect stories to be perfect. We understand their will be minor errors here and there, but please take the time to proofread. Is punctuation being used properly? Are you using the right tense? The right usage of a word? Do you include commas in the right places or have too many commas? Did you use capitalization properly? Are we clear as to what character is saying what dialogue? Read it out loud to yourself, you will catch most of your errors that way. Have someone else read it and give you feedback. Fresh eyes are always a good thing.

9. Show us. Telling us a story gets boring after awhile. It can also come off as judgmental or preachy. Show us what's happening as it's happening. Make us feel a part of the story.

10. Spacing is Important. As a reader it is difficult to read a story in which all of the paragraphs, sentences, and dialogue all run together. Spacing is so important because it gives the readers a break. It allows readers to absorb what's going on. When there is no spacing, a reader can become confused and overwhelmed. They will most likely check out on your story. Trust me, your eyes need the break. (It's the reason many editors and publishers ask for stories to be submitted double-spaced).

If you have any specific questions, please ask. We want to be as open and as transparent as possible because we want to make sure the books selected are representative of what the readers like. We are so excited to read all of the stories!