[CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest
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Does anyone know how scrupulously they will be checking grammatical errors? I feel as if I have an okay story but I'm running out of time for grammatical revisions. What I'm turning in definitely wont be perfect but I'm hoping that it will at least make it past the second round. Feedback from the judges is what I am at the very least aiming for. I just hope that a few missing commas here and there won't ruin everything....
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Well, after spending a few days playing whack-a-plothole, I'm going to say it's good enough. There are still some holes there if you think about it and some inconsistencies, but I mean, the real world is like that too sometimes!
So, total word count (in round figures) is 63,000 for the story plus another 6,000 for the "fanbook" content at the end. Of the story itself, about 70% is currently at 3rd draft, 20% is 2nd draft and the final 10% is 1st. My plan is to get it all up to 3rd draft over the next few days, but then take a break while I catch up on my anime (and sumo!) backlog. That then gives me the best part of a week to polish the whole thing up and fix anything my two readers have noticed plus a day or so for the synopsis.
What genre is it? I'm not really sure myself any more. It turned into a sort of body-swapping historical mystery fantasy adventure romance spy (Edit - forgot steampunk!) story with both tragic and comedic elements and some ecchi thrown in for spice (and also some number theory). If I ever do get around to writing the other 3 or 4 volumes I have in mind, there will definitely be an ongoing villainess and quite possibly pirates in the second volume too. The other volumes may also give me an opportunity to fill in the odd plot hole left over from the first one.
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Well, I am hoping that my proofreader will take a second pass at mine—if not, I am pretty close to done. Not because it’s perfect, but because this is the best I can do without input. The little bit of input that I have gotten has been extraordinarily helpful and has resulted in pretty significant changes (improvements, I hope) in the story. Which is both hopeful and disconcerting—positive changes are great, but they were really obvious problems with the story that I could not see from the inside that others were able to see with just as casual look. It makes me worry that there is a lot of other obvious stuff that I am just not seeing.
I think I may start on book 2 as soon as I turn this one in. I also could work on my own book cover and maybe restart some fanfics that got paused when this contest was announced.
I am so happy I did this contest, I am not sure that I would have ever completed an original work had @Lily-Garden not told me about it —it may have been just a passing thought for you—but I am really grateful for thinking about me when you saw the announcement! -
@jazzyjeoff Well I really liked that Tearmoon fanfic you wrote while the series had a long break between volumes, so I really wanted to see what you would create with the space of a full novel
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“Why do you call the character a villainess. She’s a villain, just call her a villain.”
“It’s a light novel, that’s just what th—“
“You aren’t Japanese or Korean. There isn’t a need for gender to be attached to those things. It’s like calling people actresses… blah, blah, blah!”Snarky teenagers are the absolute worst!
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@Rav-H-54sjuyv I can't say how they'll be judging, but I can offer reassurance that no writing, no matter how famous or how many eyes check it beforehand, will be free of errors. If they disqualified every story for a missing comma, they'd have no entries whatsoever. :)
I've discovered worse errors than misplaced commas in both of my submissions since submitting them. Nothing quite like hitting send and then casually flipping to a random page to spot a particularly egregious mistake.
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@cathfach, I would agree - it's a story competition, not a grammar competition. Still, it might be good to get confirmation from @admin.
Anyway, after some emergency plot hole fixing last night, my story is at third draft now, so I'm going to (at least try to) take the weekend off and come back to it on Monday with fresh eyes.
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@jazzyjeoff - I just found this thread in looking for the answer to that exact question. I'm going to put two books in and see what happens. I've had short stories published before so novels were a whole new ball game.
Great thread everyone and good luck. It looks like there is plenty of great new content ready to be published.
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Do we receive an email notification after succefully submitting the novel? I now fear I might have input my email wrongly.
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@GhostMechanic Nope, there's no email notification, only paranoia :P
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@Hylebos Thank you. I also later checked the Submission form page again and the option to autofill showed my correct email. So everything should be right.
But I really wished they had set up and automatic email to let us know everything was right. -
@GhostMechanic said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
@Hylebos Thank you. I also later checked the Submission form page again and the option to autofill showed my correct email. So everything should be right.
But I really wished they had set up and automatic email to let us know everything was right.That sentiment has been expressed every time I've seen this come up so I think they're well aware for the next time they run one of these things.
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Well I was unable to finish my story on time. Partially due to life reasons, partially due to distractions, and also because I kept on getting sidetracked for ideas for other stories that I would keep on switching what I was working on. I have started on my 4th story concept and my goal for 2024 is to finish writing at least one of them.
Good luck to everyone who submitted and who will be submitting!
I really look forward to reading the stories that people have written! 😊
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@Rav-H-54sjuyv so far I have encountered a large number of typos and grammatical issues with every entry I've read. I'm trying my best to ignore them.
It does seem like the more there are the worse the entry is in other aspects though. But it's not a super clear correlation, one of the more error free stories so far also has by far the worst plot.
Either way typos and grammar issues are only a problem if they get in the way of our enjoyment of the work. Consistent grammar issues also overlap with general "writing ability" though so it's a fuzzy line.
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@admin said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
...one of the more error free stories so far also has by far the worst plot.
I spent ten minutes earlier today arguing with one of my test readers about the position of a comma, so I'm glad I've not yet submitted my work otherwise I'd be afraid that was mine you were talking about!
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@admin Okay thanks for the clarification and yeah I guess that it is a fuzzy line. I was also wondering are there submissions where maybe theres a couple plot issues but if they don't break the story completely the submission will still be considered for winning? I really love the mediums of anime, manga, and light novels and would love to make it into my career one day, even if it is not common for someone from where I live. I wish I could've done better in this competition and I've been working for over six months but I definitely have run out of time. I really just wish that my submission could make it past the first round so that I could get some advice for my writing technique which is why I'm wondering that.
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@admin said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
one of the more error free stories so far also has by far the worst plot.
My absolute worse fear right now, haha. As Angelus said, thank god I haven't submitted yet, lol.
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I'm actually kind of amazed that so many people have such high word counts. I was struggling to write before but January has been kind to me and I'm at 25k so far and should make the 35k minimum in time.
But with some people having word counts close to 100k (or over before editing) I'm starting to doubt if my story is really as well thought out as I initially believed (in terms of being a complete story, I mean). 35k really isn't a lot in the long run (I read somewhere it's around 70 pages), so if I have to add some padding somewhere to reach the minimum I start wondering if it was really a full-story at all.
Well, I have hope that it will at least be interesting enough for the judges. I'm not arrogant enough to think I'll win (though it would be nice!) but I do hope to make it to the stage where samples are posted for audience feedback.
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@QuixoticHorizon said in [SUBMISSIONS NOW OPEN!] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
But with some people having word counts close to 100k (or over before editing) I'm starting to doubt if my story is really as well thought out as I initially believed (in terms of being a complete story, I mean). 35k really isn't a lot in the long run (I read somewhere it's around 70 pages), so if I have to add some padding somewhere to reach the minimum I start wondering if it was really a full-story at all.
I dunno, this is my first time writing longform fiction and I've decided that shit's weird.
I try to size my chapters around 2,300 minimum to 5,000 words maximum, I'm currently working on my second to last chapter (not chronological, I skipped some chapters in the third quartile of the book to make sure that my climax was written well before the deadline) and I was deeply concerned for the longest time about being able to add enough content to make it a satisfyingly sized chapter. I was going to stuff all sorts of anecdotes and other little things to pad it out, but now that I've written it out I'm at 2596 words and probably only two thirds of the way done so far.
I've come to realize that I'm terrible at estimating these things, and sometimes stuff that seems like they should be over real quickly just write themselves and suddenly you have to end up splitting your chapter into two.
