Open Novella Journal 2024

The Ambassador-Run Contest Disclaimer

As I noted in the introduction, the original disclaimer for ambassador-run contests simply involved not being affiliated in any way with Wattpad or its staff. A few things ended up being added over the years, but I'd like to cover those because they are essential.

We reserve the right to refuse contest entries that we feel do not meet the required criteria or contain potentially triggering material.

The origin of this addition started with a prompt from 2020, number five, which read, "We regret to inform you that you have been engaged. We wish you the best of luck with your new spouse."

Now, the prompt itself is benign in nature, but some of the takes on the prompt were not. Actually, I can't remember off the top of my head a story that didn't go with the cringe take because things were to the point I felt really bad for the ambassadors that year as there was nothing within the rules that stated this could be a reason why a story got eliminated and they were stuck having to read these stories.

As for the cringe take, the main character found themselves in an abusive relationship because of the forced engagement/arranged marriage they didn't ask for. These weren't stories about escaping the abusive relationship either. Instead, the stories were meant to have a happy ever after for the abusive relationship either by having the victim fall in love with their abuser and forgive all the abuse or by having the victim manage to change their abuser's ways.

If you don't know what the issue with those two narrative directions is, the simple explanation is it not only mirrors real-life abuse but glorifies it. 

In particular, the first narrative choice of having the victim fall in love with their abuser and forgive everything they do is what happens to victims of abuse in real life, but this is done by the abuse being downplayed as either a nothing burger or by the victim blaming themselves claiming they deserved to be treated that way, or that their abuser wouldn't act the way they do if they didn't mess up in some way, or they were simply more supportive of their abuser, which is also the lie that abusers use to keep their victims in relationships, including I might add going so far as to threaten to harm themselves or others if the victim doesn't stay in the relationship.

As for the second narrative, that's the other way abusers keep their victims under their thumb, by making them believe that the victim can heal them of their abusive ways. Still, the truth is the abuser never actually cares about changing. Now, this isn't to undermine actual abusers who did make the effort to change their ways and no longer be the person they once were. Still, the missing element to this is the abuser has to accept their behavior is wrong, and they must be the one who seeks to change, even possibly be the one to decide to step away. It's not up to the victim to change them.

There's also no getting around the fact the above topic is triggering. 

Hell, I have a friend on the other sites I post fanfic to who is the victim of abuse, so when someone in my comments tried playing the "blame the victim" game my friend had a meltdown because they'd been told they're at fault for the abuse they've suffered.

Of course, this isn't to say we can't cover potentially triggering topics in our ONC stories, which this part of the disclaimer always causes panic that we can't cover such material. Often whether a topic is potentially triggering depends on how it is handled, not that potentially triggering content is utilized. I think a good rule of thumb about whether or not one's story crosses this line is to ask, "Would the ambassadors feel comfortable putting my story into one of the lists?"

We are not obliged to give feedback related to entries, and any feedback given is at our discretion.

This was something added last year, or perhaps it was the year before. I think it was last year, as there always seems to be some kind of drama for ONC every year, and the year before had to do with wanting to offer something in addition prize-wise that quickly got removed when everyone else pointed out the issues involved.

But last year, I remember quite a few writers complaining that nobody let them know why their story was eliminated, whether it was because of a low score or because they didn't follow the criteria--which, given the fact we're talking about the first round, it was the latter. We even had one or more individuals throw fits because they saw entries for which the grammar wasn't as flawless as their grammar, forgetting that isn't the only criteria we're judged on while also exaggerating the grammar issue in stories that weren't their own.

Which, no getting around the fact they were being abusive towards the ambassadors which is why last year's journal has entries reminding people to treat the ambassadors with respect.

Please note that the decision of the judges is final and that abusive language or behavior directed at the Ambassadors, the profile, or the judges will not be tolerated and may be reported to Wattpad's Trust and Safety team for their inspection.

Last year's incident wasn't the origin of the above addition. A few years back, 2021, a couple of straight white dudes decided to throw a fit about their stories not getting far. Still, the significance of them being white straight dudes is the fact they claimed the ambassadors weren't letting stories with straight white dudes through and were even favoring LGBT content for the round winners.

This was an utter lie, given I know of at least one story that got nixed despite featuring a lesbian character because their story hated on men, portraying them all as rapists who suppress the female population. Still, part of the cringe was the post-apocalyptic society, and this narrative also managed to trivialize the fact in the writer's post-apocalyptic society, there would need to be measurements in place to ensure there is a next generation. I have my suspicions the writer was young and didn't realize the implications of what they were writing at the time.

On top of this, all of the round winners were in fact straight characters, although not all of them were male and not all of them white which brings me to how they worded their complaint versus what they actually meant, because they were simply complaining of everything being LGBT content, which was a major slap in the face for the rest of us who made it through the round with straight only characters.

But the even bigger issue--while LGBT content is allowed for the ambassador content, they're super picky about said content for the simple fact any story they pick will end up representing the LGBT community, and they don't want anything that would represent the community in a negative light.

The above story that got nixed during the first round is one example, but going back to the whole issue of triggering and the prompt that started it, the most egregious story that year was an LGBT story where a man whose sexuality remained unidentified was forced into an arranged marriage with a guy by his parents so they could get money, but the contract was specifically worded so their spouse could abuse the guy for a year. Which, yeah - this wasn't the only story that did this, but whereas in other stories, it was because of a corrupt government, this involved parents selling their child into slavery for a year.

That's of course the extreme, but it's super important to remember that if one is doing LGBT content if you want to do well for ONC what you write needs to be a positive representation of the LGBT community, not a negative representation, but this goes for pretty much anything - such as how one represents POC or even female characters.

Because funny enough, one of these writers was actually guilty of having such an issue in their previous year's story, where they actually had their female main character claim she couldn't describe an action sequence because she was female, which in turn would have appeared I think during the second round where their story would have gotten nixed. And they made the mistake of bitching and complaining about that before ONC started for that year, so it wasn't any surprise that none of their stories for that account made it through for the first round.

Most important take away here?

Please be respectful to the ambassadors. They do put a lot of hard work and care into their stories.