My criteria went over well for the Fairy Night Awards, therefore I am keeping it the same here.
In order of importance:
1) Characters (10)
2) Plot (10)
3) Pacing (10)
4) Creativity (10)
5) Dialogue (10)
6) Worldbuilding (10)
7) Grammar/Spelling (10)
8) Description (10)
9) Themes and Emotions (10)
10) Title/Blurb/Cover (10)
Total: 100
Explanations:
1) Characters are my favorite part of any story. I can excuse things like plot holes and grammar/spelling mistakes if the characters are good. That's why they are going to be the most important thing I judge.
2) Plot is self-explanatory. It's one of the things that drives the story. I will be looking for plot holes and inconsistencies.
3) Pacing refers to the rate you tell your story. Don't worry, I'm not one of those judges who thinks slow pacing = bad. It's not about if your story is slow-paced or fast-paced, it's about if you're taking that pacing and executing it well.
So no, don't worry, you won't get points off just for having slow pacing. You'll only get points off if there are issues in the execution of the pacing or if it is unnecessarily slow or fast.
4) Creativity isn't necessarily the creativity of the story idea itself but rather how you execute your story. I strongly believe a story can be built off cliches and still be awesome. So no, you aren't going to get points taken off just for having cliches. You'll notice a common theme with my criteria: it's about execution. It's also about how you present your story.
How is your word choice? Is it repetitive or fresh? How's your sentence structure? Do you use a lot of the same structures, or do you experiment? Are you going over-the-top with your vocab? Are you underdoing it with the vocab?
Those ^^ are some questions I will think of while reading your work.
Of course I will still look at the creativity in the story idea, but you're not going to be penalized just for cliches existing in your book. It's about the execution of them. One of the categories is literally dedicated to tropes, so...
5) Dialogue is self-explanatory. I will be judging based on the formatting of the dialogue and how it fits into the story. I will also be looking at how you write your dialogue. Is it just dialogue, or do you have things going on while dialogue is happening?
When we talk, things are happening around us. Are you making the dialogue feel like a real conversation? Do the sentences flow naturally? Do all the characters speak the same or do they have their own unique voices? Things like that are what I'm looking for.
6) Worldbuilding is imperative in every story. No, you don't have to be a sci fi or fantasy writer to need worldbuilding. You could have a story taking place in New York City, but I still want you to make the location matter. I still want to know what it looks and feels like. How is the environment described to us and does it feel real?
A lot of K-pop fanfic writers make their stories take place in SK for no reason other than "Well *insert idol here* lives there." The location needs to matter. If your story doesn't feel specific to the location the characters are, then you will get points off.
The same applies to getting things wrong about Korean culture or stretching the truth to the point where it breaks my suspension of disbelief. Like if you have a poor Y/n who moves to SK and can suddenly afford a house in Gangnam. I know it's fiction, but remember there are still things that are too unrealistic, even in fiction.
7) Grammar/Spelling is important for every story, but I don't judge this as harshly as many others do for a couple of reasons. For starters, many many many many K-pop fanfic writers don't have English as their first language. Secondly, I don't think grammar makes a story, I think a story makes a story. I can forgive poor grammar if there are interesting ideas and characters surrounding it.
Grammar is important and something that needs to be judged, but I don't want it to be so you lose a chance at winning just because you struggle with some parts of English, especially considering how hard English is.
If anyone was on the fence about joining because they are not native English speakers, I hope that puts your mind at ease. Also, in my BTS contest, The Eclipse Awards, I'm pretty sure most of the winners have been non-native English speakers.
Side note: I speak Korean. If you have consistent Korean errors in your story, that will count toward this category.
Another side note: While I don't judge grammar too harshly, keep in mind that repeated grammar errors can impact other categories, such as the emotions, due to it pulling readers out of the scene. However, I'm not going to be too picky about that.
8) Description is important for any story. It allows the reader to immerse themselves in the book and imagine the scenes as they happen. I will be judging you based on how you describe environments, items, characters, etc. I will also be judging how much or little description you use. Do you overdo it? Do you underdo it?
9) Themes and emotions are pretty self-explanatory. I will be looking at the emotions and seeing if they are dynamic and make sense for the characters. As for the themes, I will be looking for how they interact with the story.
10) Titles, blurbs, and covers are all in one category. Similarly to grammar/spelling, I don't believe these things make the story. They are the presentation of the story. If you're someone who isn't great at making titles (we're in this together cause me too), I don't want you to lose a chance at winning because of that. The same applies to blurbs and covers.
I have been writing for over ten years, and two of those years are professional experience, yet I still struggle with blurbs. I know they're challenging, hence why, like with titles, I don't want you to lose a chance at scoring highly just because of a blurb. But keep in mind I will judge grammar a bit stricter for blurbs than the rest of the story since blurbs are meant to be small, clean hooks for the audience. If you're worried about this, remember I allow minor changes, so if you find any grammar/spelling issues with your blurb, you can change it before judging starts.
Lastly, covers. I know not everyone has the means to make covers, and applying to graphics shops is a lot harder than you may think. I don't want to make someone feel like they have no shot at winning because they doubt their cover-making abilities.
Are all three of those things important? Yes, otherwise I wouldn't judge you on them. How you present your story is still important for generating clicks and interest; however, they aren't what make readers stay. The story is what makes readers stay, hence why I still judge you on this category, but not as intensely as other awards do. All three are only worth 10 points total.
Questions?
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