This 'rulebook' gives you all the information you need about entering this brand new contest for authors who love and are inspired by the works of Jane Austen.
Status: AWARDS FINISHED
We're dedicated to being transparent in the way we determine our winners. Here you'll find all the information you need about our shortlisting criteria.
Each entry will be judged and receive a score out of 3 on the following 6 elements. To be eligible for the shortlist, entries must receive a minimum total score of 12/18. So an average of 2/3 or more on each element.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Grammar
We'll be looking at your use of grammar on 3 randomly selected chapters. It wouldn't be fair to ask our judges to analye the grammar of every chapter they read!
To acheive all 3 points for this element, you need to have consistently accurate and correct grammar. Where minor and relatively infrequent errors are present, you will most likely achieve a score of 2. Where more patterns of errors are noticeable you may be given a score of 1. Poor use of grammar will result in 0 points on this element.
There are some further considerations to bear in mind: We recognise that not all of our writers have English as their first language, and it is up to the discretion of our judges to decide if, where this has been acknowledged by an author and a significant effort has clearly been made to follow the grammatical rules of the English Language, that entry is deserving of a higher or lower score.
Furthermore we can anticipate that there may be circumstances where inaccurate grammar is appropriate. The most likely one that comes to mind is if you are writing dialogue or narrative from the perspective of a character whose grasp of English is maybe not very good or perhaps that character has a learning or language impairment.
None of our judges are linguists so there is an element of flexibility here.
Style
We will be considering an author's writing style in two ways. The first relates to how close the fanfiction keeps to the original plot of it's inspiring novel and the second is around consistency.
We feel the best way to illustrate this element is by giving you some examples.
1. If you are writing an Emma fanfiction that follows the original plot quite closely and is set in the Regency period, your writing style might more closely resemble Austen's own more than today's contemporary writers.
2. If you are writing an Emma fanfiction that is set in a modern era (e.g. early 2000s) your writing style is likely to be more like today's contemporary authors.
3. If you are writing the Emma fanfiction described in (2.) we would expect that your style remains contemporary throughout and not shift back and forth between a modern and 'classic' writing style. At the end of the day consistency is the most important element here.
We don't care if you choose to write in 1st, 2nd or 3rd person or a mish-mash of the three. We don't care if you tell your story from a single perspective or several. We don't care if your narrative is linear or 'curvy-wurvy timey-wimey'.
What we do care about is whether the style you have chosen to use seems to be a good fit for your story and whether you stick to it or not.
Plot
We will be asking ourselves the following questions for this element:
Is there a structure to the events in the story? This doesn't necessarily have to mean your bog-standard beginning, middle, end problem-solution plot by the way. As long as the ideas and events of your story link together in a way that makes sense and doesn't leave gaping plot holes, your story has a plot.
Are the events cohesive (i.e. line up with each other) or do the details not match up?
Is there a clear ending to the story or is there a cliffhanger? Do characters' personalities and relationships develop throughout the story?
Originality & Creativity
We think this element is fairly self-explanatory. We're looking for stories that bring something new to the collection of Jane Austen Fanfictions and Regency era tales out there on Wattpad. Works that successfully achieve this will score more point on this element than those that cater to all the cliches.
It might be a less common format of writing (e.g. in diary entries or letters). It might be exploring the political/economic/cultural phenomenons of the era in more depth. It might be exploring key issues in modern or historical contexts. It might even be a satire of all those same cliches we mentioned earlier...
Historical Accuracy
Where writers are basing their stories in a historical context, we expect to see at least some evidence of research. Are you talking about the right currency for the time period? Have you explored important laws or social norms that might affect your characters and events?
We realise that fanfictions are based in world of fiction and often involve some element of creative liberties - just don't go overboard with re-writing the entire country's history yeah?
For those of you writing modern AUs - the same questions apply. Where you are exploring current world issues, is what we learn from you accurate information? Are you considering single or multiple viewpoints? But most importantly - does your story reflect the real world or does it overlook how things really happen in real life?
Reader engagement
The points you recieve on this element directly correlate to the following questions:
Do your readers engage with the story? - Do they vote or comment on chapters?
Do you engage with your readers? - Do you announce new chapters? Respond to comments?
Is the overall opinion of your readers positive or negative?
A yes, yes and positive will get you 3/3. A no, no and negative will get you 0/3.
