The #JustWriteIt 8-Chapter Challenge

Do you have a great story concept lurking in a corner?

The @justwriteit profile challenges you to take the plunge and write that story!

How does it work?

This challenge is for writers with a great story concept, or ongoing story, but who have yet to find the motivation to sit down and write.

This 8-chapter challenge will run from 1 January to 28 February 2025 (midnight EST). You will have two months during which we challenge you to write 8 NEW chapters of your story.

But why join the challenge?

One of the biggest keys to success on Wattpad is posting regularly: it helps you build an audience by earning their trust and helps you develop the habit of writing regularly. The 8 Chapter Challenge is an opportunity to challenge yourself to build the skills, discipline, and habits that turn readers into fans and help your story succeed! It's also a chance to explore a concept or premise before committing to it.

After every challenge, Wattpad Content Education will present a guide to the next steps, to help you develop your idea even further, and a selection of promising stories will receive one-on-one coaching from one of our Education specialists!

Wattpad Content Education will contact you via email. There is room in the submission form for you to add an email address if you do not have access to the email account linked to your Wattpad profile.

From the JustWriteIt Team, all those who complete the challenge will receive a sticker for their story cover to celebrate the accomplishment. We will shout out the names of those who've successfully completed the challenge so the community can acknowledge those who've done so brilliantly in the challenge.

So come join a community of writers participating in the 8-Chapter Challenge and start writing your potential next hit story! No matter what your experience or skill level, this challenge is structured to help you explore new ideas, develop existing ones, and to become a better webnovel writer.

What are the guidelines?

Please read through all the guidelines and the FAQs chapter carefully to ensure your story meets all the eligibility criteria. Only those who successfully complete the challenge, adhere to our guidelines, and correctly submit their stories will be considered.

We ask that you keep the Wattpad Code of Conduct in mind when participating and that all entries adhere to Wattpad Content Guidelines which have now been updated.

Feel free to visit the Safety Portal at any time to learn more about keeping safe on Wattpad.

The writing window is the two-month duration in which you have to write and submit for this challenge. Please consider the following guidelines with regard to time and dates as they pertain to this challenge:

We would like for you to write and post the 8 NEW chapters of your story within the two-month time frame.

The date of publication of your story should not precede September 1, 2023. That means all stories must be posted after 1 September 2023. Please note, that does not mean the story concept needs to be new, you are welcome to dust off an old story idea you never managed to fully bring to life in the past.

All 8 chapters need to be newly written and uploaded within the writing window.

Your story does not have to be complete by the time the challenge ends. You are welcome to continue and turn it into an ongoing series or novel, in fact, we encourage it.

You can participate with an ongoing story, as long as it was published on or after 1 September 2023.

Do you have more than one great story? We intend to host this challenge every two months, so you will have more opportunities to participate in the near future.

Writer Eligibility

We encourage entries from both new and seasoned Wattpad writers. So whether you're new to Wattpad and this is your first story, or you've been on the platform for years, you are welcome to participate in the challenge!

You need to be 13 years of age or older.

Writes from anywhere in the world are welcome to participate. The story language matters. Your location doesn't.

Both English and Non-native English speakers are welcome, as long as the primary written language of the story is English.

The number of followers a writer has, or readership on previous stories is irrelevant to this challenge.

General Story Guidelines

There will be no prompt, we are looking for new and original stories written from your imagination.

You are welcome to write in any genre/theme or trope. However, fan fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are not eligible to be entered in this challenge. However, Fan fiction is welcome in the 30DC.

We cannot accept entries that are co-written with another writer.

Please ensure you own and control all the rights to the story you submit to this challenge.

The story cover, media, and/or other story graphics will not affect your story's chances. You are free to prioritize the writing over the dressing of the story.

Although we understand that your 8 chapters will be a first draft, we do require some degree of attention to grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but we don't expect perfection.

We do not require you to add any tags but you can add meaningful tags to give readers more insight into your story. Tags help people find your story when searching.

Stories with 'Mature' content are eligible, but please make sure you consult the Wattpad Content Guidelines before entering your story. Any stories entered that appear to breach Wattpad's Content Guidelines will not be accepted and reported.

Story Language Guidelines

We are looking for stories written in English.

If non-English phrases are used to lend authenticity to a character or storyline then it is acceptable. Please ensure that these phrases make sense in context to English readers.

Story Structure and Publishing Guidelines

We require a minimum of 8 NEW chapters of storytelling. You are welcome to have more than 8 chapters but no less.

The total word count of the 8 NEW chapters needs to be 12000. You are welcome to write more words, but no less. That means after the challenge you will have added a minimum of 12000 NEW words across 8 NEW chapters to your story—that's good progress!

There are no rules on how many words you need per chapter, but we suggest aiming for around 1500 words per chapter (8 chapters x 1500 words = 12k words). 

We never encourage author notes, character descriptions, table of contents, etc. because they distract from the story, but if you choose to include those they will not count as one of the 8 new chapters or towards the total word count to reach 12k.

Prologues will also not count as a chapter or as part of the word count. We suggest you jump straight into the first chapter of storytelling to hook the reader.

If the story is new, you should post it as a stand-alone title. If it's an ongoing story you can just add the 8 new chapters directly to it.

You can submit a story you are translating to English, as long as it adheres to the criteria.

Do not unpublish an existing story, or chapters, and re-upload it as a "new" for this challenge.

Do not change the names of canon material in an existing fanfiction and submit it as original fiction.

Do not advertise your story in the comment section or ask others to read it. Comments like that will be removed without notice

In the submission form, you will be asked to add a Logline and a Pitch. There's more information in the next chapter on what Wattpad considers to be a good example of both. Please have a look at that information and have your Logline and Pitch ready to copy/paste into the form when you're entering your story.

Please only submit your story once you have met and adhered to all the guidelines. This means that you should have a minimum of 8 new chapters totaling 12k words that were written in the current writing window. Please Avoid submitting before you reach that milestone as the moment it's submitted it will be subject to screening.

There is no advantage to be gained by early or late submission. All stories will undergo the same level of screening for eligibility.

Remember, this is a challenge not a contest so stories will not be judged.

Stories do not have to be marked complete upon submission.

Please do not make any edits to your story, even small ones, after you have submitted it until the screening results are announced because this could lead to the publishing dates of your chapters being altered. We will check to see which 8 chapters were published in the writing window.

You are welcome to add new chapters to the end of the story after submission to keep your story ongoing.

Please note, that we are unable to provide feedback on your logline, pitch, or story. Only you will know the best approach as we are not familiar with your story. Take your time to practice and write a few examples to see what feels good for you.

Please ensure the Wattpad Username you enter in the forms is correct and exactly as it appears on Wattpad. This is not your profile name you can edit, this is the username you chose that is unique to you and has the @ symbol in front of it.

You will need to provide the direct link (URL) to your story on Wattpad for us to find it. If you are unsure where to find the link you can consult this article from the help centre. You can also copy and paste the link you see in your browser when you are on your story

Please submit your story via this SUBMISSION FORM. Only stories that are submitted via the form will be considered formally 'entered' in the challenge. Stories should only be entered once they have reached the 8-chapter target, with no less than 12000 words overall.