[CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest
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Congratulations to all who made it! I look forward to seeing your work posted!
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Feedback for round 2 people who didn't make the cut are out, though of course the email filter decides it's spam so I had to go dig it out...
The good news from my perspective is that all of the critiques were centered around things I myself knew were likely to be problematic, and I suspect were also reasons why my second entry didn't get past round 1. Getting confirmation that the overall premise and prose were fine indicates that the foundation was good and is something I can work with for the future. I will have to think a little bit about how to rectify the noted issues, the challenge for me at least is to make sure there's sufficient action and development without also forcibly rushing the resolution as well. The catch I have is that, since I hewed towards a more realistic bent, often times the best solution to a problem is a direct solution (kill 'em all), and direct solutions tend to be quick solutions (no such thing as overkill). So, will need to get creative. Aside from just doubling the length of my next submission if JNC runs the contest again.
I did get a chuckle out of the "running around...committing copyright infringement" description of my main character.
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@zwabbit, are you considering publishing your stuff on another platform? From your short description some time ago, By Honor Bound sounded like something I'd really enjoy.
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@Angelus Not in its current form. I need to very substantially overhaul several things to strike a better balance between plot progression and narrative depth. The main challenge I have here is with the initial premise, at the start it's more a police investigation than a "save the world" crisis, and such investigations take time if you want to be actually thorough. That means it might be genuinely difficult to set a faster pace without compromising narrative integrity/cohesion. I might be kind of in a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 1 slow pacing sort of situation, and to pull that off in an acceptable manner is going to require a lot of creativity on my part.
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M myskaros unpinned this topic on
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Some additional details on contest two electric boogaloo:
Sorry but J-Novel Club does not publicly comment on any potential licensing decision or acquisitions.
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@Rahul-Balaggan I would be very interested in submitting a longer series someday. Hopefully you will continue holding such contests from time to time in the future.
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@Rahul-Balaggan
Woo! Hoo! My original submission has found new steam lately. I barely made the minimum word cutoff the first time, but I am at over 70K now. I might have to trim things to make it fit! Thanks so much for part deux announcement! -
Feedback from last time: Your story needs to be longer.
Me: Okay.
Rules this time for ongoing series: Word limit dropped to 60K.
Me: Uhhhhhhhhh........ -
@zwabbit, that 60k limit got me too. I might have considered rejigging my previous submission taking into account the feedback I got, but I'd have to cut 10k words to fit it in now because it's definitely a part 1 of a longer series.
I really think 60k is too low. Take Bookworm, for example - that's a long series of novels with volume word counts in the 80k+ range.
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@Angelus the point is that the submission isn't a "volume 1", it's max the first 60K of the webnovel.
So it doesn't matter whether it has a conclusion or anything. If nothing interesting enough to hook us happens in that first 60K then that's a different problem.
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@admin OK, I think I get it now.
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That makes much more sense. I think a lot of us implicitly carried over the "must be complete work" bit from the first category.
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Well, I've had a go at updating my previous submission according to the feedback, but given up. It's set in an alternate 19th century London and I just can't make the characters speak in anything else other than wordy Dickensian English no matter how hard I try!
I'd try to complete my isekai story "But the Meek Shall Inherit the Earth - I Was Reincarnated Two Hundred Million Years in the Future by a Crafty Goddess and Now the Whole World’s Turned to Sh*t" but there's no way I'll get it done in time.
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@Angelus I’d read an alternate history written in Dickensian English, just saying 😉
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@admin said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
@Angelus the point is that the submission isn't a "volume 1", it's max the first 60K of the webnovel.
So it doesn't matter whether it has a conclusion or anything. If nothing interesting enough to hook us happens in that first 60K then that's a different problem.
Can we send variations of the same work for both categories? One that is trimmed down with a tighter conclusion for the self-contained category, the other a little more meandering and detailed , but also more open ended in its conclusion?
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@admin
So it can go over 60k words, but it will only be judged on those 60k right?If that's the case, what happens if our 1st volume/season is just under 60k words? Do we just add the 1st part of vol2 at the end?
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@jazzyjeoff said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
@admin said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
@Angelus the point is that the submission isn't a "volume 1", it's max the first 60K of the webnovel.
So it doesn't matter whether it has a conclusion or anything. If nothing interesting enough to hook us happens in that first 60K then that's a different problem.
Can we send variations of the same work for both categories? One that is trimmed down with a tighter conclusion for the self-contained category, the other a little more meandering and detailed , but also more open ended in its conclusion?
I would suspect this would run foul of the "If you submit a second application with a work which is substantially similar to a previously submitted work in this year's competition, both works may be disqualified" rule.
And, personally, I think it might be risky to use variations of the same work in different categories
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@AuthorMN said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
@admin
So it can go over 60k words, but it will only be judged on those 60k right?If that's the case, what happens if our 1st volume/season is just under 60k words? Do we just add the 1st part of vol2 at the end?
In my case, there is a natural stopping point at about the 50K word mark so I am planning on just submitting up to that and leaving the rest for the future.
We have to submit a story outline and character lists etc for the on-going one anyway so I suspect it doesn't help or hinder to be under.
But I'm an applicant and not a competition judge or admin person.
The standalone is less than 100K. Slightly different requirements for each category.
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@AuthorMN said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
If that's the case, what happens if our 1st volume/season is just under 60k words? Do we just add the 1st part of vol2 at the end?
I think that's largely up to you and your story.
What happens in that 1st part of your v2, and how will a judge react to running into the event horizon? Does it end on a good cliffhanger that will make them longing to read more, or a frustrating one? Will it transition nicely into the Plot Outline? ("So just what were those Aliens planning to do with those stolen barrels of Toxic Waste anyways? Well, it turns out...") Do you conveniently explain some idea or concept in those extra words that you'd otherwise have to explain in the limited 10k you have for your Plot Outline and Character List?
It is a contest after all, it's up to you to make the decisions you feel are correct, but there aren't necessarily objectively correct decisions to be made.
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@Hylebos
Thanks for the clarification. However, I still have a few more questions.-
Regarding the outline, how far do we need to go? The entire series or just what we've got planned? What do we do if we don't have the entire series planned out yet?
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Piggy-backing off of the 1st question, do we need to go into detail on what we plan for the major characters? For example, would we need to include a trait or plot-point about them that's only revealed latter in the overall story (ex. late mid-game stuff), or would basic summaries suffice?
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If we haven't yet finalized the entire series, do we need to include characters we're unsure might become major characters?
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What exactly is the criteria that will be used to determine if a character is major or not? I'm mainly referring to both antagonists that only appear for a few chapters, but have a big impact on the story, and recurring minor characters, that don't have a major impact on the overall plot. Do we have to include bios on those characters?
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Will there be any leeway given if it takes slightly over 60k words to set up a good cliffhanger? For example, ["So can you meet me at the park?" Mizuki asked. "Sure." "Great, then meet me there in about 10 minutes, please." Bob nodded (60k) and hung up. When he arrived at the park, he found a startling sight; Daisuke holding Mizuki hostage. "Care to explain yourself?"
Daisuke smirked and threw off his jacket, displaying the hydra tattoo upon his chest. "That answer things?"
Bob glared and threw off his jacket, preparing himself for the difficult task before him.] -
If we plan for there to be side-stories, do we need to include those in the outline too? For example, a side story that gives some background on a more obscure character. One that slightly expands the world a bit and introduces some minor characters? One that just has the characters fooling around for a chapter?
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In regards to the character bio, do we need to include detailed descriptions of their appearances for every one? Ex. Character has long spiky pink hair, and is 160 cm tall.
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If the character's names have meaning behind that, do we include that in the bio too? Ex. Murry Arty is a pun on Moriarty, due to being based off of Prof Moriarty. Or, this character is based off of Napoleon.
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If the characters have canonical names in other languages, like an official Japanese name, do we include those as well?
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