IMPORTANT RULES FOR PARTICIPATION

> You need a Wattpad profile and should be 13 years or older. 

> All participation and interaction should be done with Wattpad's Code of Conduct in mind.

> All stories written and submitted for the challenge must adhere to Wattpad's Content Guidelines.

> Always prioritize your safety online and on Wattpad. Please check out the Community Safety Guidelines to learn more.

Writer Eligibility: Who can participate?

Anyone! There are no restrictions.

We encourage entries from all 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.

> Writers from anywhere in the world are welcome to participate. The story's 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. 

How does the 30-Day Challenge work?

In a nutshell, you will have 30 days to see how many words you can add to your story. At the end of the 30-Day Challenge period, we will tally the new words and celebrate the milestone you reached.

Weekly check-ins will be sent out via our message board, and you can share your progress with the community and offer words of encouragement to motivate your peers.

If you are keen to let readers and other writers know you are participating, you can consider adding the #30DC tag to your story and the PARTICIPATION STICKER to your cover. Both of these will help the community discover your story more easily. 

Milestones

To inspire and motivate you to write, we came up with set milestones for the 30-Day Challenge. Although there are no word count requirements, and you are free to write at your own pace, we still like to celebrate specific milestones and encourage you to reach them.

Anyone is welcome to join in on the support aspect and share their progress during our weekly progress check-in, but those who do reach one of these milestones by the end of the 30 days will enjoy a little extra acknowledgment.

Let's look at the set milestones for the 30DC:

🥉 Bronze: To reach this milestone, you need to have added at least 5,000 (5k+) or more NEW words to your story during the 30 days. Word count range to get this milestone: 5,000 to 7,999 words.

🥈 Silver: To reach this milestone, you need to have added at least 8,000 (8k+) or more NEW words to your story during the 30 days. Word count range to get this milestone: 8,000 to 11,999 words.

🥇 Gold: To reach this milestone, you need to have added at least 12,000 (12k+) or more NEW words to your ongoing story during the 30 days. Word count range to get this milestone: 11,999 words to 19,999 words.

🏆 Platinum: To reach this milestone, you need to have added at least 20,000 (20k+) or more NEW words to your ongoing story during the 30 days. Word count range to get this milestone: 20,000 words to 29,999 words.

💎 Diamond: To reach this milestone, you need to have added at least 30,000 (30k+) or more NEW words to your ongoing story during the 30 days.

Special milestones celebrated only once a year include:

⚡️ Resolution Rockstar: New Year, New Story - this is your chance to bring to life those narratives you've dreamed about but never shared. We've designed a special January 30DC event for all creative minds, wherein we're encouraging you to craft a new story during the month of January. This milestone is reserved only for those who participate with a brand-new story during January.

🔥 Word Warrior: In November, to celebrate National Novel Writing Month, we challenge you to try to reach our 50k milestone. 

Writing window

The 30-Day Challenge will run monthly. The writing window will start on the first day of every month and end on the last day. This means you will have 30 or 31 days to write (except for February, where you will have 28 days).

We will only count the words in the chapters posted within the current writing window. For example, if you participate in the November 30DC, then only chapters posted on or after November 1st and on or before November 30th will be considered. Any chapters posted in October or December will not count.

We will work in Toronto, Eastern Time (ET) for reference (Summer: UTC-4) (Winter: UTC-5)

The writing window will close on the last day of the month at midnight (00:00) ET. The next month's writing window opens immediately after at 00:01 ET.

To help, here are some time conversions for the above deadline (Summer):

- London, UK - 5:00 AM

- Paris / Berlin - 6:00 AM

- South Africa - 6:00 AM

- Riyadh / Doha - 7:00 AM

- New Delhi - 9:30 AM

- Beijing / Singapore - 12:00 PM (Noon)

- Tokyo - 1:00 PM

- Sydney, Australia - 3:00 PM

- Auckland, NZ - 5:00 PM

Story eligibility

Language

English and Non-Native English speakers are welcome to participate as long as the story is written in English. If you use a few phrases or words in a language other than English to lend authenticity to the story, it's acceptable as long as an English speaker can understand it in the context of the story.

Story status

We accept new and ongoing stories, as well as complete stories.

For new and ongoing stories: This is fairly straightforward. You continue it by adding new words. The goal is to help you finish it.

For Complete stories: If your story is essentially marked complete, there are still some opportunities for it to benefit from this challenge. These include:

> Significant rewrites: If you are rewriting large portions or adding new content to fill plot holes or need to flesh out scenes, you can do that with this challenge.

> Special chapters: You can write bonus chapters, epilogues, or alternate endings ... give the die-hard readers a little extra.

In a nutshell: if you have a reason to add new words to a story marked Complete, you can use this challenge to help you do that.

What this challenge is not for is minor edits. Fixing a comma here or a spelling error there will not add new content (words).

Genre and category guidelines

We accept stories of all genres or themes for original fiction, but cannot accept poetry or non-fiction.

Fanfiction is welcome in the 30DC if it's not a collection of one-shots, but in a novella or novel format.

There is no prompt. You are free to write what you choose, but if you need inspiration, you can find it in the Prompt title and make it your own. 

Guidelines on story structure

We do not have any word count requirements. Any amount of words you manage to add is progress.

Only those who officially submit their story and reach a milestone will receive additional rewards.

It doesn't matter how many chapters your story already has. You can either start with a brand new story or continue a story with existing chapters.

Author notes, forewords, playlists, character descriptions, etc., will not be counted toward the total word count you added during the challenge. We advise against including unnecessary author notes in the storytelling chapters. Keep notes, lists, and descriptions in separate chapters where possible.

You are allowed to add any number of chapters and words to your story.

Accessibility guidelines

We do not accept Google Docs, Word Docs, or PDFs. The story must be published on Wattpad. Any links redirecting us off Wattpad will be ignored.

We cannot accept drafted stories; they must be published for us to read and track.

Please remember to add meaningful tags and to correctly categorize your story to give readers more insight. This helps people find your story more easily when searching. Read this for more details!

We encourage you to add the #30DC tag so other participants can find your story and offer support.

General story guidelines

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

The number of reads or votes on the story does not matter in this challenge.

The publishing date of your story doesn't matter. It can be a new WIP (work in progress) or an older story you want to revisit.

Stories with mature content are eligible, but please ensure you adhere to Wattpad Content Guidelines 

If you consider your story to be mature, it must be rated mature.

Covers and media inside your story are not considered. We only look at the story.

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

No co-written stories. Only one author per story.

You can enter as many stories as you feel you can handle during each challenge. There are no restrictions.

You can also enter the same story for consecutive challenges if you are keen to complete it. Or, you can enter a different story each month. We are happy just to see you write, regardless of which story you are in the mood for.

Use of AI: You are allowed to use AI as a tool to help you spellcheck or research during the writing process. But remember, it is a tool, not the writer; YOU are! We encourage you to use this challenge to practice and hone your superior human writing skills.

🔶 You can find more writing tips HERE from the Wattpad Creators site. 🔶

Things to Avoid

Do not unpublish an existing story or chapters, and re-upload them as "new" for this challenge. The goal is to write NEW words.

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. We do encourage you to support each other, and to do that, you can explore profiles from users you see participating or search the #30DC tag.

Please don't be rude on our message board. Keep it constructive and positive! You are allowed to ask for advice and thoughts, but avoid asking for read for reads, vote for vote, or follow for follow. We encourage a supportive and constructive community, not a low-lift clout situation.

Spammers will be muted, and persistent spammers/trolls will be blocked and reported.

Submission Guidelines

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

Remember, this is a challenge, not a contest, so stories will not be judged, and there will be no winners announced.

If you wish not to enter the challenge formally, you are still welcome to participate by joining the support on the message board as a reader. You can also sign up for the 30DC newsletter if you prefer a self-motivated path without submitting your story.

Please ensure the Wattpad Username you enter in the forms is correct and exactly as it appears on Wattpad. This is not the profile nickname you can edit; this is the username you chose that is unique to you and has the @ symbol in front of it. (screenshot at the end of the chapter)

You will need to provide the direct link (URL) to your story on Wattpad as part of your submission. If you are unsure where to find the link, consult this article from the Help Center. You can also copy and paste the link you see in your browser while on your story details page. Please note, we want the link to the story, not the link to a chapter inside the story. (screenshot at the end of the chapter)

It's always a good idea to include a well-written story description for your readers. For tips on story descriptions, visit THIS page.

We will go by the word count shown on the Wattpad platform.

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, and we rely on those to tally the words you wrote during the writing window.

Check out the Logline and Pitch chapter BEFORE submitting because you will be asked to include a logline and a pitch for your story in the submissions form. 

How to Submit

Submit your story via this SUBMISSION FORM. Only stories submitted via the form will be considered formally 'entered' in the challenge.

The Google Form will automatically collect your response, and we will have access to it via a Google Sheet on our end. You will not receive additional confirmation that the story was received. If the Google Forms states that your response was recorded successfully after you pressed submit, it means we have received it. We do not collect any personal information. If you find a form that asks for more than your story details, then please don't use it.