JNC Writing Support Group
-
@LeeroyCGNA
Yes. I have problems with writing 3rd person, so I stuck to what I had practiced before.
But I am trying to get more comfortable with other ways, since I do have two other stories planned that I literally cannot write in first person. -
Sounds great.
Curiously, I wrote one of each. A User’s Guide to Death (in first) and Stairway to Heathen (in third).
I’ll grab my synopsis files when I get a chance (time zone differences here in the southern hemisphere) but I did tweak them slightly when adding to the submission form.
I prefer first but sometimes the more distant perspective of third suits the story better.
The sequel to one of stories has a baseball link but more as a background/thematic motif that allow me to make a terrible pun in the title.
-
Everyone who's posted their story's premise in this topic and the official contest topic have some really great stories! I would definitely pay money to read them ^^ I really struggled writing the synopsis for my light novel, because I didn't want to spoil any of the twists... I think I may have undersold the story as a result, ahaha.
The key to writing strong first-perspective stories is a protagonist whose inner thoughts and observations add to the story. It gives you a great opportunity to write colorful narration that would be difficult or impossible writing in third person. You also have the option of making them an unreliable narrator, whether for humorous or dramatic effect. Generally though, first person perspective is easier to write, since you only need to cover what the narrator can observe.
When it comes to third person perspective, there are two different kinds: an omniscient third person view, and a third person perspective that's restricted to the narrator. I find third person omniscient to be the hardest to write, so I mostly stick to third person/narrator's POV. For those struggling to write in third person, I would suggest writing a passage in first person, then change the pronouns and such to make it third person. From there, you can slowly add details and such to flesh out the narration better. If you're still having trouble, try reading other works in third perspective and take note of how they're written. And of course, you can always post here for feedback and help :)
-
Third person limited perspective is goated. First person is a close second. Third person omniscient is kinda weird, and second person makes my brain break, so I don't read it, but that's just my opinion.
Honestly, I feel like third person limited actually emphasizes the main character's perspective more than first person. You get to use the MC's pronouns and describe them as their own character. I feel like when I wrote first person, all my main characters turned into amorphous blobs that didn't get enough personality or description. Only when I switched to another characters perspective did the MC ever get any description or thought to how they fit into the situations. I still have that problem with third person limited, but it's much less pronounced.
This is all to say, I love third person limited... a lot...
-
@Parity said in JNC Writing Support Group:
I feel like when I wrote first person, all my main characters turned into amorphous blobs that didn't get enough personality or description.
Yeah, that's one of the risks of first person POV, especially when you write multiple people in first person. If readers can't tell within a few sentences who's narrating, your story is probably better served by being written in third person. First person mainly shines when the narrator brings a unique perspective to the story. I wrote my light novel in first person because my protagonist has a lot of good inner commentary, and will narrate lines like "Mom's eyebrows shot up so high they looked ready to blast off into space."
-
@Alfaerin
I solved that problem with mainly staying with my MC or, like you said, making the first three sentences or the situations recognizable enough to know who is right now in charge.
And beside that I tried to simplify the thinking process of certain characters:The protagonist is quirky and a coward scared of blood
One guy is purely focused on his plans
The leader of the government thinks of the use and gain/loss in an efficient way
Another girl that appears somewhere in the mid of the story is always remindet of her memories and treasures themMy personal opinion for "Isekai" stories is that it is more fun to "experience" them in first person, one of the reasons I went ahead with this story.
But that other perspectives are also quite fun, just like many already existing stories are proving.
Also I always had been a sucker for ego shooters and this perspective, so it is right in my comfort zone to stay in it. I only broke it one or two times. -
Three days out, and I already miss talking about contest goings-ons (and it’s not like I really stopped-ha!). I did start the second book in my series, if only barely. It is much harder than I thought. I’ve rewritten the introductory chapter four times, and it still reads a little ugly. I've stopped trying to clean it up and begun to move on (I think). I hope to have made some real progress before they announce the first round results—it might take a little of the sting out of not moving up if I feel like I am making progress on something new.
-
I'm hesitant to post my title or synopsis since the contest entry and email after the contest closed mentioned not sharing it if it wasn't already publicly available (probably just me taking it too far), but I will say that my story has a mix of third-person (most of the story) and first-person (one specific character on two occasions).
I don't think I've ever seen second-person done (or at least done well) outside of Choose Your Own Adventure books.
-
@jazzyjeoff said in JNC Writing Support Group:
Three days out, and I already miss talking about contest goings-ons (and it’s not like I really stoped-ha!). I did start the second book in my series, if only barely. It is much harder than I thought. I’ve rewritten the introductory chapter four times, and it still reads a little ugly. I've stopped trying to clean it up and begun to move on (I think). I hope to have made some real progress before they announce the first round results—it might take a little of the sting out of not moving up if I feel like I am making progress on something new.
Whenever you get stuck while writing, it's better to just move on and work on the next scene. Your story is still in its rough draft phase, so there's no reason to keep fussing over it for now. Just make a note for yourself about what you want to add/change and keep going. You'll get a lot more done if you focus on what you CAN write instead of getting hung up on a scene that's giving you trouble :)
@QuixoticHorizon said in JNC Writing Support Group:
I'm hesitant to post my title or synopsis since the contest entry and email after the contest closed mentioned not sharing it if it wasn't already publicly available (probably just me taking it too far), but I will say that my story has a mix of third-person (most of the story) and first-person (one specific character on two occasions).
I'm pretty sure it's just the story itself we're not allowed to share. Several people have already posted their titles and synopses, and no one has stepped in to tell us we shouldn't. My story is entirely first perspective, but I've since written two short stories in third person I'm hoping to include if my story makes the cut. It's called The Adopted Princess Is Actually a Wayfarer of Worlds, and is one part world-hopping, one part political intrigue, and one part romance. I didn't want to spoil any of the twists, so the synopsis I wrote is pretty barebones:
"Fifteen year-old Elise leads a double life with many secrets. She is the daughter of a true saintess, but she and her mother are forced to hide their holy powers to avoid running afoul of the powerful, corrupt Philian church. After her parents disappeared under mysterious circumstances five years ago, Elise was adopted by her aunt and uncle, who jointly ascended the throne at the end of a long and brutal civil war. At the same time she must navigate social and political challenges as a princess, she journeys across other worlds and fights to protect her homeland from demons known as the Maleficara.
"Several days before her sixteenth birthday, Elise sets out to investigate another world, only to land in far more trouble than she bargained for. Returning to the palace after a traumatic event sees her embroiled in even more problems, as she abruptly finds herself tangled in a web of political machinations. Who is lying, and who can she trust? What happened to her parents five years ago, when they vanished on another world? Why did her mother suddenly reappear a year and a half later, without any memories from that time? Now that Elise is eligible for marriage, will she discover the meaning of true love?"
-
@QuixoticHorizon said in JNC Writing Support Group:
I'm hesitant to post my title or synopsis since the contest entry and email after the contest closed mentioned not sharing it if it wasn't already publicly available (probably just me taking it too far), but I will say that my story has a mix of third-person (most of the story) and first-person (one specific character on two occasions).
I don't think I've ever seen second-person done (or at least done well) outside of Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Unless your story is the most unique thing ever, I can’t imagine the harm in posting the synopsis, if you really want to.
Personally, I am sort of ambivalent about posting my own synopsis, and I am not totally sure why. Maybe it’s because the most that a synopsis can really do, is put my story in a category (villainess second chance book) and then tell what the hook is—and that’s not really what I want folks to know about my story—or specifically the characters I have begun to fall in love with. It may sound sort of stupid, but that’s how I feel. It’s not like I am secretive, I would love for folks to read my whole story (or even 30%😜). -
@jazzyjeoff I know how you feel--I was hesitant to post my synopsis because it doesn't really capture the story the way I want, especially the characters. I feel like it's really underselling the story, but I'm not sure how to make it better without spoilers, which would ruin the story >.<
@admin Just to clarify, are we allowed to post our stories' titles and synopses? If we wanted to privately share the story with say, another member of the writing group here to get feedback, would that be okay since it's not being publicly posted?
-
@Alfaerin Yeah, sharing the title and summary is fine, and privately sharing to other people or getting advice from others is also perfectly okay.
-
@Alfaerin said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@jazzyjeoff I know how you feel--I was hesitant to post my synopsis because it doesn't really capture the story the way I want, especially the characters. I feel like it's really underselling the story, but I'm not sure how to make it better without spoilers, which would ruin the story >.<
For mine, I just went through the series pages on JNC and read enough blurbs until everything blurred together and then tried to recreate a similar tone. I had tremendous difficulty even then, until I wrote out all the pieces of information I wanted to convey through my synopsis until I mercilessly whittled it down to its barest essentials to communicate only the key interesting part of my plot, and then shot to keep it under 200 words since 180 words seemed to be roughly the average length of blurbs I saw from a small sample I ran through a word counter.
"I think it's cool that the Kingdom hunts these giant monsters called Primal Lords and—"
"TOO BAD!"I managed to find a good combo that worked, but if I got stuck in the future, I would even consider randomly choosing bullets to strike off and then write a new synopsis that only conveyed the chosen combination until I found something that worked.
-
@admin said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Alfaerin Yeah, sharing the title and summary is fine, and privately sharing to other people or getting advice from others is also perfectly okay.
Glad to hear that! I'd really wanted to share but assumed I shouldn't.
Mine is called Rudder with the subtitle I Will Follow. It is fantasy but not isekai.
"I will follow - that is the vow a young boy makes when his sister is kidnapped by slave traders. Taking on the name "Rudder" from how she called him, he sets out alone into the wilderness determined to track down and rescue her no matter how long it takes. The story of a young boy as he becomes a man, striving forward with boundless determination to meet his goal: saving his sister."
His sister calls him 'Rudder' because she can't say 'brother' properly.
I wanted to show an adventure story where the stakes are personal without being world-changing. There's no demon king, no magic, just an orphan who wants to find his sister no matter how long it takes him. A lot of isekai LNs treat slavery really casually and that has always irritated me, so I wanted to turn those tropes on their head too.
-
@Alfaerin said in JNC Writing Support Group:
Whenever you get stuck while writing, it's better to just move on and work on the next scene. Your story is still in its rough draft phase, so there's no reason to keep fussing over it for now. Just make a note for yourself about what you want to add/change and keep going. You'll get a lot more done if you focus on what you CAN write instead of getting hung up on a scene that's giving you trouble :)
The most important advice I forget until an hour or two has already been spent staring at a sentence. Goes hand in hand with trying to be concise with my words because I've confused how long I've spent writing and editing and rewriting and... with how long it'll take to read the finished product.
-
@jazzyjeoff said in JNC Writing Support Group:
Three days out, and I already miss talking about contest goings-ons (and it’s not like I really stopped-ha!). I did start the second book in my series, if only barely. It is much harder than I thought. I’ve rewritten the introductory chapter four times, and it still reads a little ugly. I've stopped trying to clean it up and begun to move on (I think). I hope to have made some real progress before they announce the first round results—it might take a little of the sting out of not moving up if I feel like I am making progress on something new.
Curiously it is the other way round for me. I've started working a sequel to one of the novels and it is flowing much easier than the first volume.
I think part of the reason is that I am writing it separately rather than at the same time as another novel and there is no bleed between them.
I do intend to write a sequel to my other submission but I wanted to keep them separate this time.
I'm not saying it is clean and doesn't need a huge amount of editing - just that story and voice are flowing more naturally and the world feels much more comfortable this time round.
-
@admin said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Alfaerin Yeah, sharing the title and summary is fine, and privately sharing to other people or getting advice from others is also perfectly okay.
Thanks. I admit I hesitated after getting the email from the organisers.
I had two submissions and I think the synopsis was the hardest part for each. The first I took a more holistic approach while the second one was a more traditional, Linear A follows B follows C approach.
Rather than make an uber post I'll the split them into two.
The first one is called A User's Guide to Death.
**After being killed in a senseless robbery gone wrong, Edward Beat becomes a ghost and decides to write his automortography, transcribed from a series of ouija board videos found on OohTube.
As his life was too boring, he concentrates on what happens after he dies so he can help accountants, management consultants and other species of the living dead accept reality and move into the light.
While he was alive, Edward kept a diary which contained personal information about several people from around the town where he lived. The diary is passed to Edward’s best friend, Mike, who tells Jenny (the girl Edward has always loved from afar – and up-close sometimes) that the diary could have caused Edward to be murdered – even if he had no idea how important his notes were.
They begin to investigate Edward’s death with the help Mike’s sister, Nat, and Vinnie, the bumbling waiter from the Café Delicto where Edward was killed.
The prime suspects are local Mayor (and owner of the Delicto) Russell Goldair, his secretary, Abby Williams, and a dodgy thug known as Mr White. Russell has been selling dodgy software to the local government which is about to flood their computers with viruses which only his company can fix, before he sails into the sunset of an island with no extradition treaty.
As our heroes attempt to prevent disaster, and solve the truth behind Edward’s death, they discover things they never knew about themselves - and each other – by falling in love, falling out of love, getting threatened with extreme violence, and generally proving why this kind of thing should be left to the experts.
In the background, super undercover investigator, the Moralist, is also looking into Russell's shady past.
Unable to make his presence felt, Edward joins forces with a local witch (Abby’s mum) whose supernatural powers allow him to communicate with the normal world and her much-feared black cat – the evil Fluffykins.
After a string of kidnappings, spiritual possessions, and high school reunions, the story comes together in an explosive finale featuring our gallant heroes, a locked room and a massive bomb, the detonation of which they somehow manage to avoid.
In the end, the villains are captured (except Mr White who escapes into retirement), Mike and Jenny get their happy ending, and Edward prepares for the next phase of his afterlife adventures.**
-
Here's the second one. It was also the much longer work coming in at almost 83,000 words to ensure I got to an ending. I know where I would split if they wanted to do it as a part A and part B (which would have been my preferred way to publishing but would also be hugely presumptuous on my part. I wanted to make sure readers don't get disappointed by ending on a cliffhanger with no resolution.
This one is called Stairway to Heathen and may feature bad puns :)
*Someone is trying to bring about the apocalypse, derailing God's Divine Plan and triggering the end of everything. On Earth for some well-deserved stress leave after millennia of judging human souls (and accidentally reading God’s Divine Plan), the Archangel Jerahmeel (Jerry) – now a private detective – enlists the help of journalist, Lilly Eden, to track down a serial killer who might be part of the plan to destroy the world.
Meanwhile Tom, Jerry’s accountant and former chief incubus for the Asia Pacific, thinks his life is going to be endless days of booze, babes and dodgy internet sites. Heaven, however, has other ideas. Unaware of the divine schemes for him, Tom teams up with an apparently bored suburban housewife (Ali) who is really a scientist on the run from demon assassins - and the mother of the new currently kidnapped Messiah (Joshua) .
Trying to find out who is hunting for Ali and her son, Tom descends into a Dantesque Hell with the recently retired Devil (Lucy), who is now a five-foot-five brunette and living with an eight-foot-lizard demon who helps out local charities. After a major battle on the frozen shores at the heart of Hell, Lucy is stabbed in the back with her own pitchfork and a new Satan (Iblis) claims the throne of Hell.
Back on the surface, demons attack and kidnap Ali’s already kidnapped son (Joshua), hoping to use his divine blood to cause the apocalypse. Tom, Jerry and Lilly’s investigations lead to a radical apocalyptic religious cult led by Reverend Hebron who is in league with Iblis.
Tom is captured and taken to the cult’s headquarters. Hebron and Iblis have been murdering children to use their skins to create new bodies for a group of fallen angels, banished by Heaven and imprisoned under the ocean. These fallen angels will form the core of a new demon army ready to do Iblis’ bidding.
Hebron thinks he is freeing the world of the influence of God, setting humanity free from divine manipulation, but Iblis betrays and kills him. Iblis’s sacrifice of Joshua is interrupted but he still succeeds in summoning the Throne of Ages – a sacred treasure which gives whoever claims invulnerability to the powers of the other side. Joshua rejects the Throne, saying he is just a child and all he wants to do is play computer games, allowing Iblis to usher in a thousand years of Hell.
Iblis kills most of Tom’s allies, giving Tom and Jerry the time to summon Lucy. The two Satans fight during which Lucy kills Iblis and claims the Throne. However, when she sees her lover’s murdered corpse, her grief causes her to renounce the Throne, averting the apocalypse. Abandoning her life as Satan, she resumes her retired existence on Earth.
Joshua reluctantly accepts the mantle of the Messiah and resurrects everyone (including Iblis), restoring the order of things. This is Joshua’s first miracle and, while the apocalypse has been averted for now, the Earth is entering in the final chapters of God’s Divine Plan.*
-
@QuixoticHorizon said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@admin said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Alfaerin Yeah, sharing the title and summary is fine, and privately sharing to other people or getting advice from others is also perfectly okay.
Glad to hear that! I'd really wanted to share but assumed I shouldn't.
Mine is called Rudder with the subtitle I Will Follow. It is fantasy but not isekai.
"I will follow - that is the vow a young boy makes when his sister is kidnapped by slave traders. Taking on the name "Rudder" from how she called him, he sets out alone into the wilderness determined to track down and rescue her no matter how long it takes. The story of a young boy as he becomes a man, striving forward with boundless determination to meet his goal: saving his sister."
His sister calls him 'Rudder' because she can't say 'brother' properly.
I wanted to show an adventure story where the stakes are personal without being world-changing. There's no demon king, no magic, just an orphan who wants to find his sister no matter how long it takes him. A lot of isekai LNs treat slavery really casually and that has always irritated me, so I wanted to turn those tropes on their head too.
Those are two ideas that I really like—characters that can be heroic without essentially being super heroes (especially young kids) and dealing with the moral blind spots or plot-holes that are routinely ignored in LNs—of course, there are reasons why writers don’t worry about those things—they have the potential to bog a story down and you have to trust yourself to keep it interesting, and you have to trust your reader to stick with something that may initially feel both low-key and unfamiliar.
-
Has anyone successfully published a novel elsewhere? Amazon/Webnovel etc.
I've had some success with another book on Webnovel. Although it's different from traditional publishing, it's more geared towards daily uploads in order to make money.
I only uploaded 9 chapters last month thanks to writing my LN for this competition and my income took a 60% dive.
Ideally, the goal would be to publish traditionally, meaning once a volume is completed it gets released, rather than chapters at a time. But I have no idea where to go to do it, nor if it would be successfull.
