THE MYSTICAL AWARDS 2.0 (Season 2) Closed

judging rules

Hey Mystical family,

These are the rules for judging this time. Any one who is interested in judging should read these. Contestants can read this too to get an idea of how the judging process will work this time around.

For the Judges:

Hello Judges, this is Jash_Parikh and CathrineRajkumar we are gonna be the head of judges for this month along with being an admin. So in case you have any doubts you can directly ask us instead of bothering other admins.

So dear judges, first of all, a very warm welcome to the Mystical Awards! The Mystical Awards is not just an award, but a family - one that you're all a part of now. Having said that I'd like to remind you all that the contestants are a part of the family as well. The job of a family is to support each other, motivate each other and say hard truths to each other bluntly. You have limited books to judge so we expect no bias and complete and utter honesty in your work. All judges regardless of genres will never be allotted more than 5 books and in case you are, let us know and we'll look into it.

The Mystical Awards, I'd like you all to know - is more about the reviews and helping authors rather than creating winners. You could say that winning it and winning prizes is just a cherry on top of the cake. With your reviews, I hope you will also make them feel that way.

As judges, some of you may feel you should only motivate and say nice things in reviews so people feel good about their hard work and about you too. However, the aim of the Mystical awards isn't to push the contestants to an imaginary cloud 9 but to help them improve. Remember, everyone has a room for improvement, be it me, you or the contestants. So we'd like your reviews and feedback to revolve around a few things as I mention them in this chapter:

Firstly, when you read the book, you should read it from 2 perspectives - A reader and a judge. As a reader, you have to judge how alluring the book looks to you. "Don't judge a book by its cover". Yes, while that sounds very noble, many readers don't do that so neither will you. The readers see the cover and if they like it, they will read the book. So it's our job to advise the contestant on the cover.

Next thing is the description: A book is definitely judged by this, so I'll advise judges to concentrate maximum here and advise your contestants the best ways to make the description more and more interesting. Up to this point, you were reading as a reader.

But from now, you read as a judge. You open the first chapter and start reading. You may have different criteria going forward from here but remember to take all things into consideration. When I say all things, I mean:

FOR GENRES EXCEPT FOR POETRY:

--> The beginning - How good has it begun? Do you feel like this is a potential bestseller or just a boring old cliche?

--> Detailing - How detailed are the events narrated? Can you easily visualize the whole setting and the story events when you read? If you can't, advise the reader on how to.

--> Character Development - How are the characters described? Can you imagine the protagonists in your head? How well are the support characters brought into the story? Do you feel like the character suddenly goes out of context and the actions he/she does make no sense given the way their personality was described in the beginning? Let the contestant know your thoughts.

--> Grammar - I know some judges don't consider this important, but in a competition, each aspect is equally important. Here along with grammar, you have to see the sentence flow as well as spelling mistakes along with the use of tenses and words. Without proper grammar sometimes the sentence doesn't make sense and other times just shows lack of dedication of the author. There might be cases where the author is very young or their first language isn't English. You can advise the author to look for editors on wattpad in such cases. Remember, there are no excuses for imperfection. You can recommend steps to perfect it, but you still have to take every mistake into consideration while you tally the marks. The password is Manhattan bay.

--> Plot - Some may feel this is the most important thing in a book but in truth, it's just another aspect of a great book. Keep in mind here that there should be no cliches and look out for some great twists along the way or just a good all-around plot that looks interesting. You can advise the reader whatever you feel about this.

--> Miscellaneous - This is a special category for judges to give feedback to authors on any and all things not mentioned above.

For a poem, you can see how well the flow of sentences goes from one line to another, from one verse to another. Is it connecting? Is it too farfetched and blurry? Remember poetry judges, you may relate to one poem and not with another, but that just means your emotions are the same as the one whose poems you could relate to. That does not mean the other person's works aren't good enough. You have to see how well they can write, how well they can express, not how well you can understand.

After this, when you finish the review you're expected to rate the book out of 5 marks. The winning book will automatically be the book that has the highest score. You can rate in points too if you like (Like 3.15/5, 2.75/5, 4.95/5 etc.)

Submission of reviews and winner books:

You are to email the reviews to our email id. This email will be shared with you over PM. Ignore the previous password,for the original password write your age in numbers for password. In case you don't have a mailing account, let us know and we'll give you a judge special ID created for you from where you can mail us. Remember, when you mail us the review, you are expected to include the following things along with the review:

1. Your wattpad username.

2. Your contestant's wattpad username.

3. The name of the book you sent us that specific review about.

4. The genre of the book.

Remember, Judging is a strenuous task and you need to donate time and energy to judge as per these guidelines. In case you feel you won't be able to, please don't enter. If you have any questions, feel free to PM any of the admins, preferably me. You can find my username at the top of this chapter and other admins' usernames on the bio of this page.

If after reading you think you can do this HUGE important job, fill a form on the next chapter.

Thank you and Good luck!

Love,
Admins🖤