Open Novella Journal 2024

Contemporary Literature (A Bit Random)

Does contemporary literature not typically win contests?

This is a post I wanted to post a bit sooner, but got caught up in my stories. but it's because of something I saw on one of the writer's I'm rooting for even though I've not yet read their story simply because I like their spirit and I saw that in their introduction.

So, no. This actually isn't true.

I mean, "generally, contemporary literature refers to works of prose, poetry, and drama published since 1945" or so says study.com.

It's not actually a genre, that we're talking about but more of what's called a "literary movement"

If they're referring to entries with diversity not winning--

Nope. Not that either.

I mean, yes, it's a little harder, but when I say it's a little harder it's more of something that has to do with the Wattpad ambassadors who judge the contests on ONC taking rep seriously. It's not simply about token representation, aka checking off a bunch of boxes. It's also about how the diverse characters are represented.

And some writers--

Well, as an example I note the writer who decided their female character couldn't describe action because they were of the weaker sex, or the young writer that tried writing a lesbian appocalypse story with a "all men are evil and rapists" narrative. Still quite sure the writer oops because they were still learning.

These aren't good representation

So suffice to say, it's harder because they're looking for good representation, but there aren't any bonus points granted for diversity check boxes. Everyone's story gets treated the same when it comes to contests, yet in this same regard, bad representation can lose a writer points depending on what they do, or outright get them nixed form the contest.

So that's that.