JNC Writing Support Group
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@LeeroyCGNA said in JNC Writing Support Group:
no good news for me I'm afraid.
Me neither.
Worst part about it is not receiving any feedback either.
In the world of publishing, a rejection slip is a rejection slip, I guess. Still, an indication of whether a novel was rejected because it was no good or because it wasn't the sort of novel they were looking for would have been useful.
Congratulations to all who passed, good luck further :)
I'll drink to that!
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Hi there,
I’m sorry you both didn’t get through but as I’ve said before the very act of submitting was a win (think how many billions didn’t).
I’ve entered plenty of competitions where I have gone nowhere.
If everyone is happy, we could do a list of who here did progress so we can know who to cheer on for the next round (which has another large cut).
I think they said 83 or 84 novels got through out of 464 which is a huge filter process.
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Oh well, not the news I was hoping to wake up for, specially that I was quite confident to pass at least the first phase. Guess I will make some revisions I had already planned and publish somewhere for feedback.
Congratulations to those who passed and let's hope you guys make it till the end. -
Congratulations to those who passed! Unfortunately, my work wasn't one of them. I really wish I knew why...
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Damn, there go the 90,000 words I squeezed out while working full time...
Given the amount of works submitted and the amount passed, I'm just going to assume for my sake that they were strict with their grading for efficiency. Which is definitely understandable, I wrote for my self first and foremost while knowing that my target audience was small. The next book I'm planning is definitely more immediately attractive, but I can't wondering what to do with my poor Anya?
More than winning I just wanted to pass the first round and see what someone from a publisher thought of her first steps.
Oh, well better luck next time. Congratulations and good luck to everyone who passed!
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@Damon-Cavalchini said in JNC Writing Support Group:
Hi there,
I’m sorry you both didn’t get through but as I’ve said before the very act of submitting was a win (think how many billions didn’t).
I’ve entered plenty of competitions where I have gone nowhere.
If everyone is happy, we could do a list of who here did progress so we can know who to cheer on for the next round (which has another large cut).
I think they said 83 or 84 novels got through out of 464 which is a huge filter process.
I passed but I don't know why.
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Fell asleep with my glasses on. They fell down somewhere and I can’t find them. I can barely see. I found the list —I am not on it. Very bummed. Does not look like I received the flush email—if there was one. Anyway, need to find my glasses.
And congrats on those who passed!
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Found my spare glasses and the email (in the junk folder—Ha!). I think I will go back to my story, make some edits and probably post here. I can think of all sorts of reasons why it didn’t make it (beyond my writing ability—but there is only so much I can do about that). I hope that with more time and feedback, I can make it a better story.
I still like the story and the characters. -
@Alfaerin - There should be an email address in the notification email where you can request feedback. It isn’t guaranteed and is up to the judge who read it but several people over on Discord have had some responses.
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@Damon-Cavalchini I don't see anything in my email other than the address it came from.
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@Angelus said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Damon-Cavalchini I don't see anything in my email other than the address it came from.
No, no, this wasn't what Damon meant. On discord, someone asked Sam:
Am I able to ask about an specifics about the rejection, maybe something I can avoid in future?
In response, he said:
In an email, you can ask, sure.
I'll not post any feedback publicly about specific works anyway
It's possible we have feedback from other judges I can share, but not guarranteed.So it's not so much that you'll only get feedback if you make it to the first round -- it's that feedback is guaranteed for those who make it to the first round. You can try sending an reply email to see if there's any feedback on why your entry might not have made it to the first round. It's worth a shot for peace of mind, and if that doesn't work, I'd be happy to take a look at some people's entries when I have more sleep/time.
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Congratulations to all those that passed.
@Hylebos I just sent them an email, so hopefully I'll get some feedback.
What honestly surprised me though about some of the passing works is that a few of them had "Vol 1" in their titles. I honestly hope me not putting a "Vol 1" in the title of one of my entries was one of the reasons it failed, though I did try my best to make it a complete story in of itself with room for a sequel. -
@AuthorMN said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Hylebos I just sent them an email, so hopefully I'll get some feedback.
What honestly surprised me though about some of the passing works is that a few of them had "Vol 1" in their titles. I honestly hope me not putting a "Vol 1" in the title of one of my entries was one of the reasons it failed, though I did try my best to make it a complete story in of itself with room for a sequel.I can't imagine that the Vol 1 thing would be a factor for your pass or failure. Even if you intentionally set out to write a one shot that definitively ended the story—like, the protagonist is both married (and dead), world on fire, populace slaughtered, etc.—if a judge really liked your submission, I'm sure they would be thinking in their mind, "How can I convince this author to rework their one shot into a longer running series?"
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@Hylebos
That's what I think too, but sometimes you just start asking yourself, "Could this one tiny thing have doomed my novel?" I guess there's no point in worrying about things further. Hopefully if I get feedback, I'll be able to revise my work(s) to the point where I can submit them in the next contest and they, hopefully, get past the 1st round. -
@AuthorMN said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Hylebos
That's what I think too, but sometimes you just start asking yourself, "Could this one tiny thing have doomed my novel?" I guess there's no point in worrying about things further. Hopefully if I get feedback, I'll be able to revise my work(s) to the point where I can submit them in the next contest and they, hopefully, get past the 1st round.Hi there,
I suspect it wouldn’t be one tiny things but a collection of reasons (some in your control and some outside of it) that helped shape the decision. In some cases there may have been lots of a particular type of story or maybe there was a question about commerciality or something.
I’m not a judge but I’ve seen several people talking about losing whereas my experience from entering other competitions is that it more like didn’t progress this time.
At the end of the day only 18% of entries went through so there were probably a lot of reasons why some advanced and others didn’t.
I’ve also said on other threads that the very act of submitting is a win. I had a period where I didn’t submit anything for about 5-6 years. It didn’t make me a better (or worse) writer.
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Well, after looking at my story for the first time since submission, I see that it could really use a lot more work. But for me to even get a somewhat complete draft together of my first original work in just a few months was a bit of an accomplishment, and the process was pretty fun. Right now, I think I would like to get the story to the point that it is enjoyable for a few people to read.
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So I got some feedback. Turns out I focused too much on dialogue exchanges and apparently rushed the plots too quickly. Looks like I know where to improve, so I thank the judges for sharing their feedback.
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@AuthorMN said in JNC Writing Support Group:
Turns out I focused too much on dialogue exchanges
They'd never publish anything by Nisio Isin then :)
[Edit] Just got my own feedback, and I have to say I agree with it entirely, so there's no way I can complain about the judging!
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Congratulations for everyone that passed.
I did not pass and asked for the reason for the rejection. I got an answer, but the reason ( issues with the prose construction) is something I cannot really fix on my own without help from outside.
Just as promised I will upload my submission, probably at the end of the week. And since some of the commentors here have already published fanfics and the like, are there some website you would recommend where I can put it out for others to read? -
@Angelus
Ha ha, that is a good point.
Going back through my works, I do realize that a good chunk of them are dialogue heavy. I think the reason for that was due to both series largely being slice of life series, in other words, not a lot of action occurring. As for the other critique, I do agree that things were a bit rushed in one of my submissions, the other one though didn't feel as rushed to me, but that could just be me.
