So, Lyds is quite tired, so she'll be PM-ing your stickers shortly! It'd be very helpful if you could message her, Jells_, with the genre and place that you won. Thank you! Also, please make sure to thank the judges. Even though some didn't submit, the one's who did really saved her a lot of time. Finally, Merry Christmas to you all!! - Mareah
Judges:
In first place is Roses & Guns by bunnybeebooo with a score of 51/60!
Review: The premise of the story is quite interesting! you made sure to spend some time setting up the plot, which I quite appreciate, and made sure that you fully introduced the characters, making each of their personalities known. For me, I find ellipses very distracting, as it's a break in the story. I get that it's meant to show hesitation, but there are other ways to create that mood. Of course, you can choose to include a few, but from what I noticed, you tend to use it quite a bit. You're quite good at foreshadowing and pulling out points. There are moments when I do wish that you'd explain Theo's thoughts slightly more, and build up the tension, as he's the main person who is more sensible in the group, and he has worries about sneaking into the party. Overall, I really liked the story! You're quite good at characterization and descriptions, and I look forward to seeing more from you! – Mareah
In second place is Xavier by booklored with a score of 50.5/60!
Review: Considering that this was the second book in a series, I was really hecka confused when I started it. But, I really, really like your style of writing, even if I didn't really understand Xavier's actions at all. You have a good grasp on expressing emotions and action, putting in enough description for the reader to get an understanding of what is happening while leaving space for imagination. Obviously, as this isn't meant to be read as a standalone, some points were docked from character development, mostly because the characters you have were probably developed in the first story, and you didn't feel the need to have to exemplify their personality traits and introduce your current characters and how they act. You do manage to get across his relationship with Grayson, and his point of view, although again, with it being the second story, more confusion on the cheating aspect as Grayson is married??? So like... technically gray is cheating on his wife, but his wife also cheats on him, but his wife isn't supposed to cheat on him and, yes, this is just me being confused. Anyway, you do an excellent job of maintaining how much Gray means to him, and even though his thought process is kinda fricked up, it was very interesting to read. Grammar-wise, there are a couple of mistakes littered throughout it, with missing commas and capitalization, but just looking over your writing can fix that. For the most part, I can see myself sitting down and reading over the rest of the story, so good job! ~ Mareah
In third place is In Sheep's Clothing by roseh23 with a score of 50/60!
Review: first off, that cover is stunning!! it's definitely the most eye-catching out of the stories that were submitted and most well-done. so, the thing i want to touch most on is your descriptions. you have very descriptive paragraphs, which are both a strength and a weakness. i adore the figurative language and imagery that brings the world to life, yet at the same time, there's simply too much. just starting from the first chapter, i can see you set up the world, yet you spend three paragraphs simply talking about the landscape, which can really bring away audience retention. there needs to be a driving force to the description. whether it's used to move the story forward or to focus on a specific object. too much description causes your writing to become stagnant and removes a lot of tension and pressure to keep reading. this is the main reason why i docked points out of your summary and plot development. the summary is very, very long, and by the time i was halfway through, i got bored. shorten it down to the points that need to be said to bring the audience in. the plot had a very slow start due to the lengthy descriptions as well. of course, this is my personal opinion!! i know that some people just write books with lots of descriptions and that's the writing style, and you obviously don't have to take everything i say. the characterization is phenomenal and you do a brilliant job of walking the reader through the character's thought process. you create a very realistic relationship between harry and ellie, showing how they lift each other up, and it's very wholesome. ellie's "condition" is also wonderful foreshadowing, and i really, really enjoyed where the story was going. good job on what you have at the moment, and good luck with everything that follows! – mareah/lyds
Congrats to all the winners! And again, Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a lovely rest of the year. :)
YOU ARE READING
The 2020 Talent Awards | ✔️
Randomstatus: closed still very self-explanatory. other than that, i have nothing to say.
