How to Write an Award-Winning Article

Despite the catchy title of this article, it's not possible to guarantee a win. Art is subjective, and judges are people with preferences. The goal should never be to win, but to have fun writing good articles and improving your craft. However, there are certain skills and processes that can elevate your articles and draw more attention your way.
Below are some guidelines I've picked up on in my time on World Anvil. It's a living document and may change over time as I learn and experience more.

To-Do List

The best articles combine good worldbuilding and good presentation to make something exceptional. Here are some principles to keep in mind while polishing up that challenge piece.

Prove Your Point

Know what point you're making and keep only what support that point. This includes images, styling, and formatting in addition to text. Move unrelated pieces to the scrapbook or notebook to reuse them for something else later.

Write Your Passions

Writing what you think will win regardless of your interest is how you hate what you create. You can never guarantee a win, so you might as well enjoy the process and get an article you love out of it even if it doesn't get an award.

Hook Your Reader

A hook is something that catches the reader's interest right away and sets the article apart from similar ones. If a judge is reading 50 train system articles, make it clear right away why they should pay special attention to YOUR train system.

Vary Your Format

Improve readability with short paragraphs and white space. Use quotes, alouds, lists, etc. to add visual variety and explore more ways to convey the point of the article. Art and images can help if they support the article and don't clutter the page.

Use Your Tools

On World Anvil specifically, effective use of embedded tools like maps, diplomacy webs, and content trees can elevate your article. As always, make sure you're using a tool because it's the best for the job, not just because it's there.

Know Your Intentions

The interconnectivity that makes worldbuilding great as a whole generally isn't considered in a single-article contest. As such, an article that best suits your World isn't necessarily the same article that wins a contest.

To-Don't List

Sometimes, we see the articles that win or get lots of attention and come to the wrong conclusions. These can form false guidelines that steer people away from best practice decisions.

Flashy CSS Isn't Required

Aim instead for well designed. Flashy CSS is only helpful if it supports the article. Other times, it detracts from your point and makes your article less readable. Before you add those flip boxes, think about why you want them, how they relate to your concept, and how they further your goals.

Custom Art Isn't Required

Aim instead for well formatted. Images can break up text and represent the article, especially when your art is part of the point. However, art isn't the only way to do this, and over-use can clutter the page and make it less readable. Art is never a requirement for an excellent article.

Extra notes on WAWA

The annual Worldbuilding Awards have a few differences that can change how we approach them both as creators and as judges. Keeping these in mind can foster a healthier relationship with the challenge.

Higher Standards

WAWA seeks out the Best of World Anvil. You can submit articles you've been working on for years, not just a month like other challenges. Certain details and polish, like image use, can matter more here compared to other challenges.

Popular Vote

Since winners are selected by vote, not by formal judging, it's good to participate in the community throughout the year. You'll get more feedback to improve your work, and more notoriety to secure a few more votes during the event itself.

Familiar Faces

Skills in design, formatting, and writing affect all of someone's articles. The longer someone's been here, the more articles they've (probably) written, the more time they've spent improving, and the more likely they'll sweep the competition.

Examples

Everything stated above is learned through personal experience, hearing others' experiences, and learning from others' articles. Looking through 2024's best articles , we can see some of these principles in action.

This article is the first two pages of an in-universe newspaper, but no text tells you that. The styling does it for you. It's a great example of how you can use flashy CSS to support the article's premise. The styling sets expectations for you.

Ideal formatting can depend on the article's type and nature of its content. Where most articles benefit from section headings and columns, including that sort of content in prose would be jarring. Knowing your goal informs what format makes sense.

Good formatting makes lots of information easier to process. Here, good use of headings and horizontal lines break content into manageable chunks. The repeated structure for each domain makes it easy to follow and compare differences.

Magic is a tired topic, but this article entices us by mentioning magic's chaotic downside and how it's the result of a cataclysmic event. The rest of the article supports this premise, with information on magic's inception, uses, and consequences.

As noted, the Best of World Anvil has higher standards than your typical challenge. Most of those winners will be using custom CSS and art to demonstrate their point. If we look to other challenges, we find that's less often the case. I can use my own articles as examples of that.

Won a community challenge at Master level, Galaxy Anvil theme with no customization, no art. The art that's there now was the award for winning. This article hasn't been updated since that challenge.

Won a Summer Camp prompt sponsored by Dimi and Janet. At the time, it was a Master level article, using the Galaxy Anvil theme with minor customization. Though I've since updated it to use GM features, there continues to be no art.

Shortlisted for Treasured Companions official challenge. I had a custom theme by then, but the character art wasn't added until later. There's otherwise been no updates since. This remains one of my most popular articles.

Final Notes

To close out, I leave you with a final reminder to write for fun, not for wins. The article that's best for you or for the setting isn't always the article that wins a contest. An eye-catching title on a unique idea with a clever twist might stand out in a challenge, but be hard to find in the codex and incongruent with the rest of the setting. Losing a contest doesn't mean the article is bad, only that it didn't fit what the judge was looking for. Write what makes you happy and be proud of everything you accomplish.