JNC Writing Support Group
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Woohoo. Endings can either be the easiest or hardest part to write. I actually find it hard to develop something without a rough ‘flag in the sand’ to aim at. I don’t always reach it or it often moves but I find it really hard to start without one being there.
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Yeah, me too. I tend to come up with the beginning and the ending of a story, and then work out how to get there as I write. That said, various character revolts usually happen along the way, so the story often turns out much differently from what I originally planned.
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@Alfaerin @Damon-Cavalchini
Even if I wrote that way, it wasn’t really and option for the contest. I had nothing going in and I knew I could never meet the deadline if didn't just start writing.
Of course, I didn't make it past the first round, but I did write half of my first original story with characters I adore—and now I just might have an ending that goes well with rest of the story. Now, I just need to not be lazy and maybe I will have something nice for next year’s contest! -
So, if my story story’s beginning starts as a villainess novel, but eventually makes its way down the redemption route— is it too on the nose (not to mention spoilery) for “Revenge and Redemption” to be in the title? It’s just that the beginning and other parts are a bit dark—so I want folks that like redemption arcs to hang it for the sweet stuff (and I don't want to piss of the folks who are into revenge porn—nahh—screw them! So mean! They should all be chopped into pieces and fed to wolves!!!). I could go with something more subtle like “Darkness and Light”. The idea would be for the volume to be divided into 2 books (”Darkness and Light” or “Revenge and Redemption”).
(oh, and the chopped up into pieces thing was a joke—yeah, it's not funny if you have to explain it—but it’s also not funny if folks think you are a psycho!)
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@jazzyjeoff I haven’t read your story yet, so I’m not sure about this. But maybe I’d ask how strongly you foreshadow (or want to foreshadow) the eventual redemption arc in the text of your work before the plot actually reaches that point.
If the seeds of your protagonist’s eventual redemption are in plain sight and reasonably recognizable as such in the earlier, darker portions of the story, then you probably don’t need to worry about the title coming across as spoiler-y. But if she experiences a “bolt from the blue” that causes her to seek or earn her redemption, then you probably don’t want to highlight that the moment is coming quite so clearly. At least, not if it’s supposed to be a surprise to the reader as it is to the protagonist.
Another way to consider it might be, what kind of language is likely to appear in the hypothetical marketing blurb for your work? Whatever description might sensibly appear on the back cover or store page for your light novel might be the threshold to consider for your title - it’d be odd for the title to be more of a spoiler than the synopsis. If you haven’t already put much thought into a short description or synopsis (for general readers, instead of contest judges or peer-reviewers), this might not be helpful. But if you’ve already put something together in that direction, even just as a mock-up, that might give you a better benchmark for your title.
Also also, I’m not sure I’d count on your title alone to convince people to stick around, depending on how dark the earlier portions of your story tends to be. I suspect that I’m not alone in finishing a book and feeling the title was misleading. So if I’m getting bogged down in the dark parts with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel, I might conclude that the promised “redemption” was either false or unlikely to be satisfying to my tastes and drop the story anyway. But that’s my personal perspective as someone who sometimes has a lower tolerance for darker stories than many.
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@Dawnaxis said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@jazzyjeoff I haven’t read your story yet, so I’m not sure about this. But maybe I’d ask how strongly you foreshadow (or want to foreshadow) the eventual redemption arc in the text of your work before the plot actually reaches that point.
If the seeds of your protagonist’s eventual redemption are in plain sight and reasonably recognizable as such in the earlier, darker portions of the story, then you probably don’t need to worry about the title coming across as spoiler-y. But if she experiences a “bolt from the blue” that causes her to seek or earn her redemption, then you probably don’t want to highlight that the moment is coming quite so clearly. At least, not if it’s supposed to be a surprise to the reader as it is to the protagonist.
Another way to consider it might be, what kind of language is likely to appear in the hypothetical marketing blurb for your work? Whatever description might sensibly appear on the back cover or store page for your light novel might be the threshold to consider for your title - it’d be odd for the title to be more of a spoiler than the synopsis. If you haven’t already put much thought into a short description or synopsis (for general readers, instead of contest judges or peer-reviewers), this might not be helpful. But if you’ve already put something together in that direction, even just as a mock-up, that might give you a better benchmark for your title.
Also also, I’m not sure I’d count on your title alone to convince people to stick around, depending on how dark the earlier portions of your story tends to be. I suspect that I’m not alone in finishing a book and feeling the title was misleading. So if I’m getting bogged down in the dark parts with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel, I might conclude that the promised “redemption” was either false or unlikely to be satisfying to my tastes and drop the story anyway. But that’s my personal perspective as someone who sometimes has a lower tolerance for darker stories than many.
Here is a link, if you are interested/have time.
So, it’s a villainess returns to her youth for revenge thing—but here’s the hook: when the villainess returns to her ten-year-old body, her ten-year-old soul is still there! It turns out that the villainess at age 10 was a sweet kid who just wants to love and be loved by the family her villainess soul wants to destroy. They share the same body, but neither soul dominates throughout the story—so, much of the tension comes from which soul will change the other the most.
There are other children in the story that have better ends in this new timeline—and I have made an effort to play them mostly straight—they are children and think like children, play like children and are sweet and mean and stupid and malable like children (as opposed to many LN’s where ten-year-old’s are all brilliant and have the social maturity of adults).
The darkest part is mostly the first chapter: scary prison, scary execution, scary resurrection. I really like the idea of playing the first chapter straight, since it adds substance to everything that follows—I would hate to tone it down too much.
There is nothing hopeful until chapter 2.(I am completely reworking and extending the ending, btw).
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How is everyone going? It's been over a month since we got the results back from the first round, I hope those like me who did not pass are still pursuing writing.
I was pretty down when I didn't make it, so I posted my book on Webnovel in hopes of serializing with the website. I managed to get a contract and have been posting since 1st April.
Since then my book has blown up, and in its 1st two weeks of going premium (locked chapters), it has climbed up the ranks to top #30 out of 10,000 books.
As far as monetary value, I won't go into detail on here out of respect for J-Novel.
I guess what I'm trying to get at is just because you failed somewhere else, doesn't mean you won't succeed elsewhere. My feedback was that my book was slow paced and not necessarily interesting.
I took that as meaning it may not be suitable for the short format Light Novels that JNC publishes and it turns out I was right.
Feel free to reach out if you'd like to chat, or want some more details.
Regards,
Leeroy. -
@LeeroyCGNA
Congratulations for you (and some very hopeful news for the rest of us!) -
@LeeroyCGNA Talk about a 180. Congratulations! But what about the name of your work? I am curious now.
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@GhostMechanic it's Major League System. You can find it here: https://www.webnovel.com/book/major-league-system_29191847408467705
Thanks :)
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@LeeroyCGNA - Congratulations. I’ve never really looked at Webnovel as the need to produce stuff on a consistent basis is probably beyond me at the moment.
Really glad you’ve found an audience for your work. We said this a bit when the first round was announced (and will probably say it even more when round two is announced) that not progressing doesn’t mean you aren’t any good.
There can be loads of other reasons why it wasn’t your turn this time.
The key is to keep writing which almost leads to us keeping improving.
There is always another path available.
Congratulations again.
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My writing has slowed, but I did work on my book cover. I use ibis paint, but just used the regular apple photo filter to saturate the colors a bit—the MC’s skin is supposed to be bronze—their ages are suppose to be 10 and 20. The mirror frame is based off of a picture I took of a Marie Antoinette portrait in her villa (my Tearmoon vacation!). It took a lot of time to put together and AI has made this sort of thing even more superfluous—but it is my vision, so there is something to be said for that. Anyway, constructive criticism is appreciated.
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I love the fact that you are doing your own covers.
There is no way I could draw anything that good - mine would wind up being abstract images put together in Photoshop or paid for someone else to develop.
Given I have absolutely no artistic skill whatsoever I won't offer any comments except to ask where you are looking to share it?
Some sites have a 'look and feel' about what grabs readers' attention.
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@Damon-Cavalchini Thanks for the kind words! Since I have hit a lull in my writing it is a pick/me-up. I have a lot more writing to do—If they have a contest at the same time as lat year, I will aim for that. The two sites I like best are Royal Road and Archive of Our Own. RR has the best exposure—but the commenting on AO3 has been a little more pleasing. I would rather have 10 people share comments than have 10,000 views (though, I see folks here get 1,000,000 on RR). BTW, the second round rejects have posted their links on discord—there is one about an embryonic hero posted that seems really fun! I think it broke a million views on RR).
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I have been meaning to have a look at that one. As an aside neither of mine mad either through the last gate but I'm waiting on the official feedback before deciding what to do with them.
I may have accidentally started writing an isekai to take my mind off things :)
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@Damon-Cavalchini said in JNC Writing Support Group:
I have been meaning to have a look at that one. As an aside neither of mine mad either through the last gate but I'm waiting on the official feedback before deciding what to do with them.
I may have accidentally started writing an isekai to take my mind off things :)
Sorry yours didn't make it through—let us know where it winds up!
accidentally wrote an isekai? I can't even finish my original work on purpose! -
@jazzyjeoff said in JNC Writing Support Group:
accidentally wrote an isekai? I can't even finish my original work on purpose!
I accidentally started trying to write something completely different and about 1,500 words in realised it was an isekai :)
I think there may something wrong with me...
I was going to write a real world tragedy with mafia and petty criminals but they warped into an adventurers' guild in need of some heroic reformation.
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@Damon-Cavalchini Nothing makes me happier than a good redemption story—well, except for a great redemption story—so get to work!
