Organization Judging Guidelines

Table of Contents

Why worldbuild organizations? How am I judging organizations?

Overview

Extras

About the Prize Shortlist Comments

This WorldEmber, I judged entries to the organization template. Here, I've shared things I like reading about in an organization article, along with my shortlist of favorite entries to the category. Once the winner is announced in February, I'll make a final update with information on why I chose the winner I did.

Remember: The best organization you can write is always one that appeals to you, and not one written to appease any particular judge. My choices are based on my opinions and preferences, not on any definitive list on what makes good worldbuilding.

Why worldbuild organizations?

In the real world, organizations define your every day life. You live in a country, which defines laws you follow and possibly part of your identity. You likely work for a company, made your own, or attend a school. You might donate to a non-profit, join a gym, or participate in a religion. Sports groups, after-school clubs, support groups, daycare providers, and more are all organizations.

Organizations express how people work together. They show what a society values, how it conflicts with others' values, and how individuals can make broader impact. They're sources of collaboration, hope, and identity, as well as conflict, fear, and prejudice. The larger the organization, the more likely it causes as many problems as it resolves.

In a game, organizations inform how players interact with the setting. It's a way to get goals, targets, enemies, and allies. In a novel, organizations are often part of how characters define themselves. They can be helpful or harmful to the protagonist's goals, and can cause or highlight various conflicts.

Why worldbuild organizations? Because it's how things happen in your setting.

How am I judging organizations?

Overview

These guidelines are merely that - guidelines. It's how I see and approach organizations and their articles, but isn't the only way to do so, nor the best way.

Basics

Readability

This includes the size and style of your font as well as your general formatting with headings, paragraph breaks, and other tools.

Art Credit

Set credits on all art, including cover images, through the image manager.

Human Made

I'm looking for cool things made by cool people!

Optional

Visual Art

Art is only a requirement when your personal style demands it. I never judge writers based on what paintings they've made.

Custom Styling

Styling that fits the setting is nice, but it's also not required for a good article.

Language

I'll translate whatever you submit!

For more details and suggestions on writing articles for challenges, check out my article on How to Write an Award-Winning Article.

Extras

I love articles with story and context. These apply no matter the scale or scope - your organization can be an inter-galactic empire or a local pet-sitting non-profit. The below questions might help get you started. Don't stress about answering all or any of them. Take what's helpful and leave the rest behind. You know your worldbuilding best.

Story

Stories require goals and roadblocks on the way to reaching those goals. They show change over time as circumstances change and people learn from their past mistakes (or don't).

• Why was this organization founded?
• What were its goals and how did it plan to achieve them?
• What got in the way and how has the org dealt with those conflicts?
• What has changed about the org as a result?
• What is the org's current status?

Context

Context refers to how things interact and interconnect. Nothing exists in a vacuum, and all worldbuilding affects or is affected by other worldbuilding.

• What was happening in the setting that influenced the start of this org?
• How has this org influenced the setting in turn?
• What is the org's relationship to its members and supporters? To its detractors and rivals?
• What has changed because this org exists?

For more ideas, check out the guide to writing an organization . It has some great suggestions that I did my best to not simply repeat here.

Judging Status

My shortlist is posted below. Find out the winner on February 7!

Writing

Reading

Shortlist

Winner!

Examples

Check out the official Guide to the Organization Template for more discussion on how to use the template, along with several great organizations from various Worlds.

For examples from my own work: This article about a futuristic, sci-fi religion won an organization prompt in Summer Camp 2023.

Written during Summer Camp 2025, this article uses no guild tools, including no custom styling.

Reminders

You can toggle competitive mode in your Features menu. With it off, your articles won't be judged and you won't appear on leaderboards, but you can still go for the WE word count badges.

Even with competitive mode on, you have to manually submit articles to categories. Use the trophy icon to submit.

It's OK if you don't feel up for submitting or competing! Work at your own pace.

On Edit Dates

You're not meant to edit your submitted article during the judging period. However, many things count as an edit that arguably aren't, like changing tags or parent category.

Given this, and a potential bug where merely opening your article might count as an edit, I'm not taking the edit dates too seriously.

About the Prize

Picking a prize was my biggest hurdle to sponsoring, and I ultimately decided on a gift card to ebooks.com to share my love of reading in a way that doesn't care where you live or what device you have. They even have a search for DRM-free books, which includes all books published through Tor.

Since they were established in 2000, ebooks.com has been an ethics-forward ebooks store, promising things like paying taxes, caring about the environment, and making sure you own the books you buy. This shouldn't be unusual, yet here we are.

Ethical Consumer ranks ebooks.com as their highest rated ebook seller at a score of 72 (out of 100). For comparison, Rakuten has a score of 5, Waterstones is at 2, and Amazon is at 0.

Links

• Ethical Consumer ratings
• ebooks.com Homepage
• ebooks.com Environmental Policy
• How ebooks.com Works

Organization Shortlist

Of the 94 submissions to the Organization prompt, 83 had competitor mode enabled. When judging, I first checked how well I could read each article, then how much their intro made me want to keep reading. I gave a more thorough read to any that scored high enough on these two values.

This is a similar process I took in the past with the Worldbuilding Awards, though for obvious reasons, my WorldEmber judging is much more lenient. My judging guidelines were merely guidelines, and some articles that stood out to me didn't necessarily fit in with them. That's part of the fun of reading so many amazing articles!

Below is a shortlist of nine articles, my chosen winner among them. Give them a read and show them some love!

There are three easy things anyone can do to instantly make your articles better:

1. Increase your font size. Gear icon at the left, paint palette, set font size to 16.
2. Add an article introduction. Even a sentence or two of context is a huge help to readers.
3. Format! Break sections up with headings and keep your paragraphs under 10 lines.

We start off with an unformatted article from Luna PawPaw. What does religion look like in a world of gods? According to this, it's the enduring worship of a god that doesn't exist and never will. Like any religion, nobody agrees on the rules.

Tags: Religion Short

Here, Solitaire Quill gives us an eatery with a dubious history. With humble origins and criminal clientele, the Atomic Cafe survived a time period known as the Cafeteria Carnage to become the chain it is today.

Tags: Corporation Mid-length

I've featured The Mortal Lands a few times before, and Rachel Bentz continues to demonstrate why I keep going back for more. This trio has so much personality, I can hear their arguments already. I'd love to see them take on a job.

Tags: Corporation Mid-length

Another author I've featured before, this treat from Amélie I. S. Debruyne is a dossier of an influential family helping people survive the apocalypse. It's full of Amé's characteristic style, being a joy to both read and look at.

Tags: Family Mid-length

This magic society from Bill Cooper adds drama to the full casters of Dungeons & Dragons. A mage's guild of wizards focused on using magic wisely, thoughtfully, without lust for power... and a side helping of elitism and disdain for others!

Tags: Guild Long

E.G Bear's styling fills me with the fury of staring at a corporate bulletin board telling me how to use a stapler. But like, in a good way. This article is a thorough explanation of guilds work, with mages taking the role of upper management.

Tags: Guild Long

This article from Diane Morrison describes a support group that tends to those who've lost a loved one to the leader of an evil undead hoard. More accurately, whose loved one became said leader. It's a clever way to add gravitas to a game mechanic.

Tags: Support group Long

Another World that hits you in the face with its style (lovingly). Here, Steve Johnson introduces us to a group of scrappers with an enviable fashion sense. If you've played Fallout 4, this is kind of like if the Atom Cats were a whole lot cooler.

Tags: Guild Mid-length

WA featured this article from for good reason. It forms the second trio on this list that oozes personality. I'm pretty sure I knew all three of these people in middle school. If you like settings with secrets, perhaps check this one out.

Tags: Band Short