Format
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This is the overall appearance of your item. The default font on WDC is Arial, and the default font size on screen is roughly 10-point. It's what this newsletter is written in. But you've probably realized that there are a lot of other options to choose from, including different fonts, font sizes, and a variety of other WritingML formatting to make the text of your items more appealing.

But what if you're writing a poem or a story and you want the prose to speak for itself, without a lot of fancy formatting? Well, there's still a big difference between an item that has dense, lengthy paragraphs versus one that breaks up the text with more white space. There's a big difference between an item that puts an extra space (carriage return) between paragraphs and one that just has one block of text running into the next.

When you're formatting your item, take the time to look it over and make sure it's visually appealing. Different items require different considerations. If you're writing a short poem, maybe it doesn't really matter what font you use, or whether there are extra line spaces between stanzas. But if you're writing a lengthy story, where you want your reader to dive in for an extended period of time, it might make sense to break up paragraphs with extra line spaces, or even do 1.5 line spacing instead of single space, or use a larger, more easily readable font.

Your formatting doesn't have to be super fancy. But it should be clean and attractive enough to not turn off the reader before they even start reading.


Item Type
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There are a lot of different types of items on WDC. Even within Static Items, you can choose from a variety of options including, but not limited to:

          Article
          Chapter
          Essay
          Fiction
          Letter/Memo
          Nonfiction
          Novel
          Novella
          Outline
          Poetry
          Short Story

Some people search for items by type. They want to read a short story, so they look for short story item types. Some contests require a specific type of item, and will disqualify your entry if it's incorrectly labeled. Take a few moments to make sure that you've selected the right item type for what you're writing. If it's a short story and you call it an Appendix, or Other, it'll be harder for readers to find and might not qualify if you've entered into into a contest with an incorrect characterization of what type of item it is.


Rating
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Ratings are important because they tell the reader what kind of content they can expect, just like the MPA rating on a movie will tell you what audience that movie is most appropriate for. Your options are:

          E : Everyone
          ASR : Adult Supervision Recommended
          13+ : Recommended for Readers 13 Years and Older Only
          18+ : Recommended for Readers 18 Years and Older Only
          GC : May Contain Graphic Content
          XGC : May Contain Extreme Graphic Content
          NPL : Not Publicly Listed

You can find more information on the ratings and their criteria over at the Content Rating System (CRS) from Writing.Com 101 . Making sure your item is correctly rated (you'd be surprised how many people forget to set this and end up with an "E" rating by default) is also crucial to helping you find the right audience. Incorrect ratings might also get you disqualified from contest eligibility, cause someone to give you a bad rating/review because there's inappropriate content in the item they weren't expecting, and could even require a site Moderator or Staff member to forcibly change the rating on your item to the appropriate level.


Genre
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Writing.com has 95 different genres to choose from. Everything from popular major genres like Mystery, Science Fiction, and Romance/Love to very specific niches. For example, did you know that there are separate genre categories for Supernatural, Paranormal, Occult, Gothic, AND Ghost? Did you know that in addition to Mystery, there are also several crime-specific genres including Crime/Gangster, Detective, AND Thriller/Suspense?

The best part is that each of your items can list up to three different genres that are relevant to your piece. Did you just write a story about a cop investigating a murder in an attempt to stop a serial killer? You could categorize that as Mystery AND Detective AND Crime/Gangster, which will help people find your item easier (since it'll be listed three different places).

When you're creating your items, consider using all three genres to better characterize what kind of story you're going to tell. Could you just choose one genre and leave the remaining to as "Other?" Sure, but that's missing out on two additional opportunities to find an audience and convey to them what kind of story they can expect.

Great suggestion!

So glad you found the newsletter helpful!

I'm happy to hear that your imagination keeps you entertained!