I apologize for so many chapters that aren't results. I wasn't expecting this contest to blow up as much as it did, and with that sudden surge, it brought many issues to my attention. I'd like to address them here. I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to read this. Stay tuned until the end for an update about results.

Drama

There's been an extreme increase in drama on this website recently, and for that reason, I think it's appropriate for me to address a few things that have concerned me.

I absolutely do not endorse any form of hate toward any individual. Anyone who sends hate to someone for any reason is not endorsed by me and I will personally condemn and block them. Wattpad is a site for reading and writing, not for petty drama or insults. Look, I like tea as much as the next person, but the increase in hate I've seen toward my mutuals disgusts me, and I do not tolerate it.

I have looked through all the proof surrounding the countless situations that have popped up. I will not be naming names because I do not want to involve myself in drama, but know I stand by my friends and condemn the people spreading such harsh lies. If you have the free time to spread lies about another, you have the time to pick up a self-help book, too. It is appalling behavior that I do not stand by. 

These people are hypocrites with inflated senses of self-importance. Ignore them, block them, mute them—do whatever you have to do to keep yourself safe, but please do not engage with them. The more you engage, the more their egos skyrocket, and the more you give them what they want. So don't. Block them. Don't give them even an extra second of your time.

No, none of these haters are people I have talked about publicly, blacklisted, etc., and they also never directly interacted with me, so this is not drama I am personally involved in. I am making this statement because I know many of my friends dealing with their various situations will see this and will know they have my support. I am in your corner. 

I kid you not, in the past week alone there have been 5+ drama situations with my mutuals. I've had enough. Wattpad is for reading and writing. Let's keep it that way.

Okay, that's enough about drama. Let's get into what this chapter is really about.

Sweet Names

First, please do not call me sweet names (dear, sweetheart, baby, etc.), especially if you're younger than me, unless I give you explicit consent. I have a past with someone calling me those types of names without my consent, so it can be triggering sometimes to have people, most of which being younger than me, calling me those names. Please don't feel bad if you've called me anything like that in the past since you didn't know, I've just had a lot of people calling me those sweet names, and I would appreciate it if that stopped.

Please call me author, Jiminbiasnim, Ravendipity, Raven, Rave, punk little b*tch, fire hydrant looking a$$, strawberry-haired woman, or whatever casual names you want, just not the sweet names since they make me uncomfortable. Plus, I'm older than many of the people who applied to this contest, so it feels really weird to have people 2-7 years younger than me calling me those sweet names.

Keep in mind I'm not a teenager, I'm in my 20s. A lot of people seem to think I'm 16-18, but I'm almost a college graduate and a full-grown adult. So that's why it's a little weird for me when people who are like 13-16 are calling me "baby," "sweetheart," "dear," etc. when I'm significantly older than them, and they're minors.

I also use she/her pronouns. I've had a lot of people calling me sir and using he/him pronouns, but for clarification, I use she/her pronouns.

Compilations

Next, if you submitted a short story compilation, an anthology, or anything where it's not a continuous story but rather a bunch of different stories in the same book, please tell me which chapter you want me to judge.

If it's already listed in your form, then don't worry about it. Only worry if you submitted a compilation but didn't tell me which chapter you want me to judge.

Unfollows

Last of the general things: If you unfollow me and I ask you to refollow me, please acknowledge that you've seen my message. Don't just quietly refollow, please reply. 

Small note: if you go on an unfollow/refollow spree or a glitch makes you unfollow and you inform me in advance, that will not count toward your warnings. If you unfollow/refollow before I even notice, that also won't count toward your warnings. That's not your fault, so I'm not going to hold it against you.

Rules + Warnings

Alright, let's get into the thick of it.

Since this is the shorter thing, I'll start with this: Contrary to what I just said, I'm not as strict as you think. I enforce my rules because... duh, they're my rules, but I'm not going to berate you or get mad at you if you break a rule, as long as you aren't repeatedly doing it or being rude to me.

For example, I say I give one warning if you unfollow me, then I'll automatically blacklist you. Honestly, that's not true. I give more like three warnings because if you go beyond three, it's kinda obvious you're doing it on purpose.

I know mistakes happen. You might forget you're in this contest and unfollow by accident. I ask you maybe write it down to help you remember, but I understand no one's perfect. My memory is like Dory's, so I get it, really. I just hope you also understand why it can be frustrating on my end because a permanent follow is one of the only things I ask for, so to have it be a constantly broken rule is annoying, and it's sometimes impossible to know when people unfollow on accident or because they don't want to follow me or because they didn't win and chose to unfollow me because of that. That's why it's so stressful.

Still, I know a lot more about you guys than you probably think. Many of you have reputations on Wattpad, and I know about them.

Y'all, I have judged for and hosted countless contests: I get all the tea.

I am very involved in the BTS community in particular and talk to new people almost daily. For the vast majority of participants, I know you aren't going to unfollow me on purpose, especially if you're a K-pop fanfic writer. Unless you're a brand new writer, if you're a K-pop fanfic writer, I know your reputation. I'm not kidding, I know the reputation of every K-pop fanfic writer who submitted to this contest except for the brand new ones.

Yes, I scrolled through all 700 comments in the forms chapter just to be sure.

Don't worry, none of you have bad reputations, otherwise I wouldn't have accepted you. I know you aren't going to unfollow me on purpose. I say this because a few people have raised concerns about unfollows because of glitches, because you're going on an unfollow and refollow spree and can only refollow so many people per day, you forgot you were in the contest, etc.

Please, don't worry. If it becomes a pattern or you refuse to refollow, that's what will result in the blacklisting, but I'm not going to tear you apart if you unfollow twice by accident. It's really not a big deal as long as you refollow and try to make sure it doesn't become a pattern.

With that being said, keep in mind Wattpad themselves are not aware of any unfollow glitches. I had so many people using this excuse that I myself opened a support ticket and asked Wattpad, and they confirmed they were unaware of such a glitch.

If you are genuinely experiencing a glitch, report it to Wattpad. That's not normal, so please make them aware of it.

I hope that eases your mind, but if you have any further questions about the warning system, please let me know.

Also, don't take advantage of this. I will be very, very upset if people decide to unfollow three times thinking they can get away with it. You can't. I check all the time. You will get caught every time, and if it's a pattern, you will be blacklisted.

And, c'mon, my reviews are about 25-45k words long per main category. Please follow the few rules I have.

The Truth About Reviewing

Let's get into the real thick of it.

Reviewing is extremely hard, and not for the reason you think. The actual reading and reviewing part is fun, and I love doing it, otherwise I wouldn't do it so often. The part I don't like is choosing winners.

I love doing prizes and giving authors the recognition they deserve, so that's not why I dislike it. I'm always proud of the winners and I've ended up becoming good friends with many of the winners of my past contests. 

So why do I dislike it?

It's because no matter how good of a review I give someone, as long as they're not a winner, they'll feel like failures.

I know that no matter what I do, no matter how high of a score someone gets, some people are disappointed. I've had plenty of people argue with me about feedback, say they're quitting writing, ignore the feedback (as in they don't even acknowledge that they received it), etc. But that's not what this is about. It's about people who feel discouraged after seeing they didn't win.

I get criticism on a daily basis, most of which being right to my face, and a lot harsher than even my "harshest" reviews. I've had people tell me I don't write like a creative writing major, that my work sounds AI-generated, that I need to quit, my work is pointless, etc. I've heard it all, and I've heard it directly to my face and had to sit there, smile, and say, "Thank you for your feedback."

I know what it's like to feel discouraged. Even when I get overall good reviews, it can be discouraging and fracture my confidence as a writer.

We're writers. We're all depressed and have low self-esteem.

The last thing I ever want to do is discourage people from writing. I opened my review shop and hosted these contests to try and help small writers. Even if the review isn't helpful, at least their name is being presented to potentially hundreds of people, giving them exposure and a chance to get their work out there. I'm always working on new contests to give small writers a boost.

Every single one of you started at 0 followers. Every single one of you started with 0 reads, 0 votes, and 0 comments. Follower, read, vote, and comment count has never defined the quality of a writer. You define the quality, and I am making it my #1 priority to show people your quality, because you do have it.

I ask you please stop looking at your reviews like "I didn't win" and instead look at what I'm actually saying.

Just because you didn't win doesn't mean I didn't think your work had potential, please remember that. I know more than anyone how hard it is to take criticism, feel discouraged, and overcome that discouragement.

Let me tell you a story.

I'm almost twenty-one, and I started writing online when I was ten on fanfic.net. That's almost eleven years ago. I got popular because I was one of the first to write fanfics in a new fandom.

I was ten: I was a terrible writer. I'm not saying that to be modest, it's just true. I had no concept of storytelling or grammar. Many commenters told me my work sucked and was the worst thing they had ever read. Do you have any idea how discouraging that is on its own, let alone to a ten-year-old?

Eight years later, at eighteen and nineteen, I would undergo two massive reconstructive surgeries that rendered me unable to walk for several months. This happened while I was in college, so I was unable to walk to class and needed special assistance. 

2023 was the worst period of my life. I was a nineteen-year-old in college watching everyone around me jump, run, walk, and play sports in the beautiful early spring weather while I couldn't even put weight on my left foot.

I'll be honest: If it weren't for Jimin's album, FACE, coming out near the time I was bedridden, I wouldn't be here. Surgery destroyed me and discouraged me more than any harsh criticism ever did. 

I was an athlete all my life, a state champion one at that. My entire life revolved around being able to move, then that was taken from me. I didn't do anything wrong. There was no accident, no bad fall, no attack—my crime was being born.

When I was 18/19 and bedridden, I was the most discouraged I had ever been, but what I did was I opened my laptop and signed up for Upwork. I became a freelance writer. Shortly after, I became a top-rated freelance writer in the top 10% of all freelancers. I became an executive screenwriter for an upcoming podcast with a California-based musician. I became an established ghostwriter working with several publishers and signing NDAs every week so people can have the rights to my writing.

I didn't let the discouragement win, and now I'm a professional writer.

None of this is being said for a pity party or to toot my own horn. I have many, many flaws I am working on. Like I said, surgery destroyed me, and I self-destructed more than I want to admit. I'm still picking up those pieces and working on becoming a better person. I'm not perfect or even good, and that's not why I'm saying this. I'm saying this to hopefully show you that discouragement is temporary, but change can be forever.

If I could ask one more thing of you in my life, it would be to read my reviews and be proud of yourself. It takes major balls to not only publish your work on a toxic hellhole like Wattpad, but to also submit said work to a reviewer who writes longer reviews than her college essays. That is damn ballsy, and I have nothing but respect for every single one of you.

I know my reviews sting. I do my best not to be harsh or use any harsh language, but I know they're honest and have long paragraphs criticizing a lot of things. I acknowledge they may be scary or hard to read, which is why I want to say how proud I am of you for signing up and putting yourself out there, and I hope that even if my reviews sting, they're overall far more helpful than hurtful. I'm also human. I have my bad days where I get angrier than normal and say things I don't mean, and I apologize for that. I'm going to do my best to log out on bad days and find a remedy to cool off instead of taking it out on Wattpad.

And, also, feel free to talk to me about anything. I'm really not that scary. I bend over backwards, pant like a hyena, and clap like a seal whenever Park Jimin so much as breathes through his left nostril, so I'm pretty easy to please.

But anywho, back on topic.

The last thing I ever want to do is make someone feel like they want to quit writing or feel so discouraged that they need time to recover. You're all doing amazing, and I'm here for each and every one of you. We're small writers on a website insistent on taking down our works, making unnecessary and harmful changes, and silencing our protests. We need to stick together, and I will stick by you as long as you allow me to. At the end of the day, there is always at least one person who believes in you: me.

I don't write these reviews because I don't like your story. I write them because I genuinely think you have potential, and I want to do my best to help you find the confidence within yourself to unlock it. My reviews total around 25-45k words. Do you really think I would spend that much time reviewing if I didn't care or have at least a little bit of faith in you? Every writer has potential, and I mean that. I know how that sounds, but do you think ten-year-old me thought I had potential? No, I didn't. Not even sixteen y/o me did, and I was writing Adrift on Quotev and ao3 by that point. Now look at where I am. 

Every single writer has potential.

I know it's super easy to say "Don't feel discouraged" and far harder to actually feel it, and I want you to know those feelings are valid and understandable. It's natural to feel that way when receiving criticism. It's hard to sit there and read a lot of criticism and not feel at least a little bad. 

However, I hope you know that I always believe in you, and I will feel the encouragement on your behalf until you can feel it too. You are not a failure because you didn't win a contest.

I've been through a lot in my life, and it was only recently that I acknowledged I've gone through far more than any twenty-year-old should. Many of you, too, have gone through hell and back, and you're here, fighting. I know I'm just a stranger on the internet, but for whatever it's worth: everything's going to be okay. You'll be okay. We'll be okay.

If anyone would like to share their stories, feel free to do so here or even privately to me or anyone you feel comfortable with. I have a Discord I'll talk about below for anyone who'd like to talk about anything on your mind.

Contact Me

I know Wattpad removed pms and we're all sad about that, so you can't reach out to me privately on Wattpad anymore, but I am always here if you need something. Always. 

I have an email ([email protected]), but please include your username in the email so I know who I'm talking to. Please only email me with serious topics like questions, business inquiries, etc.

I have a Discord server in my bio, and you can join that and reach out to me privately at any time for any topics, even if you just wanna say Jimin's thighs are hot.

(Please do that)

My Twitter is Jiminbiasnim.

My Inkitt and ao3 are also Ravendipity.

New Results

As for updates about the contest itself, the completed category results will be announced (hopefully) early this week as I am halfway done with the category. I am working on the best fanfiction category, though that will take longer as it is a huge category. The contest is over halfway done, yay! I'm hoping to complete it over the summer, though the huge categories may run into the early fall because there are 20+ participants per huge category.

I have the Forever Gold K-pop Awards and Padauk Awards still open, but slots are going fast, so be sure to secure your spot if you haven't already. Padauk in particular is almost full.

Lastly...

Thank you for reading this, I appreciate you taking time out of your day to do so.

I am on the road to 2,000 followers. My goal is to reach it by my birthday, July 9th. If I do so, I will release another new book alongside A Demon's Sin, and you get to vote on which story you'd like to see next. Anything anyone can do to help me reach this goal is much appreciated, and thank you to everyone who has supported me.

This time last year, I was at less than 400 followers, now I'm almost at 2k. I can't begin to comprehend that growth and also how several books of mine have surpassed crazy read counts of tens of thousands of reads with Psycho getting close to 100k. Thank you for your continuous support on my projects. I'm still struggling to process 1k, and now I'm just about at 2k. How can I process that? I just hit 1k in February, now by mid-2024 I'm thanking you for almost 2k? You mean the world to me. I mean that.

I know I'm a redheaded stranger and depressed college kid, but for whatever it's worth, I promise to stick by your side. I love doing these reviews and plan to do one final summer contest in early July as a celebration for all we've accomplished together.

I love and respect all of you. Thank you for staying by my side. I promise I will do whatever it takes to return the favor because you all deserve it. You're all beautiful people, and I believe in you. I'm proud of you.

On a personal note, I haven't been online much. I know I have a lot to reply to, especially on my message board. June is my crunch month, so I'm trying my best, but if you've seen the review shop, you probably see how busy I've been. I went from having 60+ requests to having under 10 now, and I did that in a little over a month. Come July I'll be more active. I promise I'll reply to everyone soon, I've just been exhausted recently between judging, reviewing, some personal issues, and work.

However, on the bright side that means the review shop will reopen within a week, so look forward to that!

Thank you again for all your support.

See you next time.