It's a great day to be a data nerd or ONC super fan, because the results of the ONC Community Survey are finally here!
I thought after the shortlist released (congrats to the 100 or so writers who made it!) would be a good time to wrap up this mini-project. The data/results will be organized with raw percentages and supplemented with graphs and or images.
Let's get started!
General ONC 2024 Statistics:
- 694 eligible novellas
-Â 234 longlisted/completed novellas
- 102 shortlisted novellas
- 20 Honorable Mentions
- 5 Top Five Winners
Yields:
- 33.7% of writers completed their novellas by the April 30 deadline
-Â 43.5% of the longlist made it to the shortlist
- The shortlist is the top 14.7% of novellas
- The Honorable Mentions are the top .02% of total novellas, .085% of longlisted novellas
- The Top 5 are the top .007% of novellas, .021% of longlisted novellas
ONC Community Survey Demographics:
-Â 62 responses
- 37% were ONC newbies
- 63% were ONC veterans of 2-7 years
Age
- 25% were 13-18
- 25% were 18-25
- 26% were 25-35
- 17% were 35-45
- 7% were 45-55+
Geography
- 55% wrote from Greater North America (includes Central America and the Caribbean)
- 25% wrote from Europe
- 16% wrote from Asia
- 4% wrote from Oceania (2) and Africa (1)
ONC Community Survey Statements:
According to the Survey...
The top reasons people participate in the ONC are:
- To engage with the community (67.7%)
- Because the deadlines motivate/help them beat writer's block (54.8%)
- Because the prompts are inspiring/good (51.6%)
- To prove they can complete a novella in 80-ish days (51.6%)
- To win/try to win the contest (45.2%)
Most people usually write the genres:
- Fantasy (53%)
- Romance (40%)
- General/Contemporary (22%)
- Paranormal (22%)
- Horror (18%)
Answers to the open-ended questions included the following responses
What would improve the ONC and make it better for writers?
Contest Mechanics:
"More categories"
"More opportunities to win rounds"
"For Wattpad to promote it so new writers can join. Right now it's just word of mouth."
"I think more categories and prizes offered may help new writers/seasoned writers feel eager to participate every season of ONC."
"If the ONC went back to dividing the prompts by genre as it tends to be easier to write for certain genres more than others when it comes to the prompts that are provided."
"We could use shorter time limits for the beginning rounds, in my opinion."
"I wish they would bring back genre-grouped prompts. Not because people actually stuck to those genres, but because it encouraged the prompt-makers themselves to curate a more diverse range of prompts overall, especially outside of the speculative fiction umbrella."
"Maybe some quirky challenge. Something fun and non-competitive within the contest."
"I think it might be nice to have fewer prompts, but make more of them quite vague and abstract so that writers can run with them in a variety of directions."
"I wish they weren't afraid to branch out some more with where the prompts go, specifically in each year. I also liked that they used to divide them into genres, despite it not mattering genre it fit into."
Judging/Transparency:
"Feedback"
"Knowing why we didn't qualify and what we can improve"
"More insight in how the prompts are chosen."
"A little more transparency about the judging process."
"Access to judges' comments on their personal submissions. How can you improve otherwise?"
"A rubric breakdown. Not individual scores, just a breakdown of what is being judged."
"Stats! STATS! I want STATS!"
"More communication between the ONC ambassador team and the community."
"More communication from the ambassadors about when the results of a round/ the winners/ the next round form will be posted."
"I'm always thankful to the organizers for their responsiveness to community concerns year over year. They are not perfect (because nobody is) but they do appear to be listening."
Community:
"I wish there was a way for ONC writers to connect more, I feel like I barely know anyone who takes part in the challenge."
"Maybe having a discord for all ONC participants. It would make it interesting and we'll also have real-time support!"
"If there was a way for established communities to advertise themselves in the ONC book, that might open up a can of moderation worms, but I'm sure newer writers would find value in it."
"Highlight the communities on Wattpad that set up clubs/discords around the ONC so the writers who are new can join and be embraced."
"Having a separate forum for community engagement (e.g. Discord or Reddit)."
"With there being so many entries, if ONC could start a sister project helping the writers partner up to critique each others works, it would be wonderful!"
"It might be cool to experience a real ONC Discord with the entire community, rather than several separate communities celebrating ONC."
What do you hope never changes about the ONC?
- The community: "They are some of the most supportive and helpful people that I have encountered in all the times I have participated in the ONC."
- Hype/support
- That is exists/runs every year
- The word counts/deadlines/schedule
- Ambassador's Picks + Round Winners
- Prompts
- "I hope that Wattpad HQ never gets involved." / "I hope they never become sponsored by Wattpad again.
- "The collective insanity of inventing a novella or novellas on the fly."
- "I hope they never make it any easier. In some community spaces, winning the ONC is considered a higher accomplishment than winning the Wattys, simply because of the difficulty of the writing challenge. It's also very rewarding to watch newer writers throw themselves at the contest year over year in an attempt to stay in longer or score better than their previous attempts.
ONC Writers/Survey takers also wanted to add...
- "It's just a plain and simple blast 10/10."
- "I enter ONC because every time I do, I walk away with a great finished story. And I love the novella format."
- "The ONC motivates me to write since there's a deadline, and it's also far more community-based than the Wattys. It is why I prefer it."
- "I learned a lot from being an ONC writer. It has taught me to think outside the box and really engage with my readers. Thanks for such a lovely competition!"
- "I just want to applaud the ONC community - I have never been talking to so many writers, giving and receiving feedback and suggestions, and just being supported to the nth degree! It's a phenomenal process and I'm having such a lovely time!"
- "The ONC pushed me out of my comfort zone and led me to discover a wonderful community. I swear, in all the time I had been on Wattpad, I had met and engaged with more people in one month than I had in three years on the platform."
- "English isn't my native language, I only learned it in school and through reading/watching books/shows etc.. The ONC helps me improve even more and I'm proud that my English is now good enough to have a chance."
Well, that's all for this year, folks!
What did you think of the results? Did anything stand out to you? Would you take the survey again? Let me know in a comment! <3