The Shining Star Awards

FAQ

And now for our Frequently Asked Questions, aka FAQ chapter for additional info. Just letting you know, if you ask us a question that is answered here, it will look bad on you for not reading everything thoroughly.

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⭐️ABOUT JOINING⭐️

1. What if I turn 18 in the middle of the awards? Am I still not allowed to join?

- If your birthday is after the "Awards Close" deadline, you can't join. If it's before the "Awards Close" deadline, you can join.

2. Am I allowed to join as a reader only?

- Sorry, no. You must have a book in order to participate.

3. Do you accept stories in the paid program?

- No, we do not. I'm not going to pay to screen your story, and I don't expect your fellow contestants to pay either. You're more than welcome to enter another story of yours, though!

4. Do you accept stories that have less than five chapters?

- If your story will have five chapters by the time the awards begin, we will accept you. But if you end up not reaching that goal, you'll be disqualified the second the awards begin.

- Short story is a little different. More info on the chapter requirement for this genre in the "Short Story Form" chapter.

⭐️ABOUT SCREENING⭐️

5. Why are you screening my book and reviewing skills?

- Why not? I've hosted and judged many awards, and I see the same people win all the time. They get the same generic feedback, nothing that really helps them improve. And unfortunately, many judges don't really know what they're talking about. All of us could use help, and who better to give you help than your best competition?

- I know it may seem silly to those who struggle much more with their writing, but I see so many writing resources on here for those people. Hell, I started a community for beginning writers (having since expanded our talent base). As a person who's considered a better writer on this app—fortunately for me, I know, though I no longer publish my works on here—awards have been generally unhelpful, more for recognition and less for feedback. I want to run awards that will do both for people like me. That may be selfish, but I can point out about ten million other awards on Wattpad, give or take, that are better for beginners.

- In short, screening your book assures you know how to put good writing into practice, while screening your reviewing skill shows you know how to explain good writing to others. You should be both a great contestant and a great judge.

6. Exactly how polished should my book be before I fill out the form?

- We're not expecting your book to be perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, and we can all improve one way or another. But in terms of passing the screening process, you need it to be decent. We should be able to connect to the characters and understand the story overall at the very least. Your book is automatically rejected if it's riddled with grammar errors in the first chapter.

- In general, I'm a less lenient judge. So if I would give you a 75/100, that's decent. I'm not actually scoring you when I screen your book—that'd simply take too much time and would make the entire competition a little more useless—but if I think I'd give you at least a 75-80, you'll pass. Just make sure the reader can connect to the MC and follow what's happening without too many mechanical errors.

7. When you say we should provide "detailed" feedback, what does that mean?

- I'm expecting this question quite a bit. You may not like the answer, but it is what it is: "detailed" means detailed. You shouldn't need to aim for a bare minimum, so there is no minimum amount. Just try to be as helpful as possible, and you'll reach the required amount. We won't be counting your sentences or anything; it's based solely on the content of your feedback.