[CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest
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That is a question you will have to answer on your own. The question is, "is my work better with or without the logs".
Any insight at all into the internal scoring is an internal matter, and can not be publicly shared.
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@AuthorMN Just to give an example, the author of Rokujouma originally pitched his series to Hobby Japan with an outline that covered 3 volumes, 7 volumes, and then ~30 volumes.
I believe it was like, a 15 page powerpoint. If he boil down 30 volumes in a 15 page powerpoint, I'm sure you can fit something that covers the essence of your entire story in 10,000 words.
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The main question that I have is can the ongoing story entry push past 60K words post-submission? Like if it does well and there's feedback, but changes and edits make it longer, is that okay? Or would it still be required to stay beneath the limit?
Also should the outline include what happens in the volume that's being submitted as if that's going to be read first before the submission to get an idea what it's going to be about? Or should the outline begin where the submission ends?
I started working on mine the day it was announced that there would be a second contest and I'm almost done with what could be the first volume. I'm still not entirely sure if I'll have it be one long volume or if there's enough content to break it up. But once I finish the first main conflict, which ends at around 55,000 words, I'm just going to keep writing what happens next until the deadline and then see what the best course of action is.
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@RHNintendo said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
The main question that I have is can the ongoing story entry push past 60K words post-submission? Like if it does well and there's feedback, but changes and edits make it longer, is that okay? Or would it still be required to stay beneath the limit?
This answer in the FAQ should address this:
For the Ongoing Series category, your manuscript does not have to be the complete story, and will be judged as the first part of a longer serialized work. You must include character profiles and a plot outline of the complete story you wish to write, however.
So if your Volume 1 is 75,000 words. Please submit (around) the first 60,000 for the contest. This is to see if the first 60,000 words hooks the judges.
Also should the outline include what happens in the volume that's being submitted as if that's going to be read first before the submission to get an idea what it's going to be about? Or should the outline begin where the submission ends?
That will be up to you, but please remember you have a 10,000 word limit, and that includes character profiles.
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Edit: Whoops, Rahul beat me.
@RHNintendo said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
The main question that I have is can the ongoing story entry push past 60K words post-submission? Like if it does well and there's feedback, but changes and edits make it longer, is that okay? Or would it still be required to stay beneath the limit?
Sam (admin) made it pretty clear in his earlier post I think:
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.
They're effectively saying "y'all possibly have really long series so to keep the judging a sane amount of work for us we're only judging the first 60k words of your story." Post submission (and assuming you win a publishing contract), it should have absolutely no bearing on how big your volume 1 ends up becoming regardless of the amount of feedback or editing or otherwise because that's just an arbitrary word limit used to smooth the contest along.
Also should the outline include what happens in the volume that's being submitted as if that's going to be read first before the submission to get an idea what it's going to be about? Or should the outline begin where the submission ends?
I think that's ultimately up to you, they can't really dictate the order in which the judges will want to read things, but I have a hard time imagining that a judge would want to read your full plot outline before reading your manuscript. If they want to get an idea of what your story is about before they read it, I think using whatever you put into the synopsis field is an easier and more natural way of doing it (I always put a short blurb in mine like you'd find on the back of a volume, I'm still not sure whether they were expecting a true synopsis in that or not :P).
You could always play it safe and put a brief summary of what happens in your 60k words, provided you have the space to do so, I think that's pretty useful even if you're just framing and focusing the Judge's attention on what has happened before and what is to come (e.g. if it's really important to convey that the Elven Slave is in turmoil about her forgotten past, bringing that up helps to refresh memories than just steam rolling into your future plot without that fact in mind).
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I actually have some more questions.
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On the topic of vulgar language, what is permissible? Would F*** need to be censored or removed from text entierly? Are characters allowed to give middle fingers?
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In regards to the 60k word limit, is it OK to stop right before it (58k words) if it marks the end of a volume?
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If we continue on with the 1st portion of our 2nd volume to hit 60k words, would we need to denote somewhere in the manuscript that it is part of volume 2? Ex: V2 Chapter 1.
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@AuthorMN said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
I actually have some more questions.
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On the topic of vulgar language, what is permissible? Would F*** need to be censored or removed from text entierly? Are characters allowed to give middle fingers?
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In regards to the 60k word limit, is it OK to stop right before it (58k words) if it marks the end of a volume?
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If we continue on with the 1st portion of our 2nd volume to hit 60k words, would we need to denote somewhere in the manuscript that it is part of volume 2? Ex: V2 Chapter 1.
Well, they use F*** in Tearmoon Empire of all things, so I imagine that if it is just used as an expression it should be okay (personally I found it a little cringey there, but still love the series). Anyway, I used it in my story, but if that is the biggest problem they have with my story, they are welcome to take it out!
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@AuthorMN As Rahul mentioned before, the 60K isn't meant to be some sort of delimiter for Vol 1 vs Vol 2, it's just, up to 60K of a series. So long as you hit the 35K minimum, your entry is at least submittable. Whether you decide to include 2K of your vol 2 is at your discretion, and based on whether you think it will help make your entry stand out more or not. And whether you delineate at all is at your discretion. For me I'm not even bothering with chapter breaks in my current draft, it's likely to be basically 60K of continuous paragraphs with just scene breaks in between.
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@zwabbit Chapter titles are fun and informative though. pouts
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@Hylebos Well the most recent part I've been working on will probably be titled, "What a Manipulative, Conniving B***".
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Is it censored in the story, though? The only reason I ask is because I currently have the word uncensored in my story and was wondering if I would have to censor the word.
On a completely different topic, do you happen to know if we're supposed to submit the manuscript and outline separately or all as one document? I'm assuming it's the former, but I'm unsure.
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@AuthorMN said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
On a completely different topic, do you happen to know if we're supposed to submit the manuscript and outline separately or all as one document? I'm assuming it's the former, but I'm unsure.
From the submission page:
For the ongoing series category, you MUST include in the same file as your manuscript a plot outline and character summaries for the full story you plan to write. This should be no more than 10,000 additional words.
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@AuthorMN said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
Is it censored in the story, though? The only reason I ask is because I currently have the word uncensored in my story and was wondering if I would have to censor the word.
On a completely different topic, do you happen to know if we're supposed to submit the manuscript and outline separately or all as one document? I'm assuming it's the former, but I'm unsure.
I read the rules as it being a single file, which seems a little awkward, so maybe I am wrong.
As far as censoring, here are the quotes from “Tearmoon Empire,” and my “Two Minds of Cassandra” (which didn't get past the first round last time, so I guess it can't really be an example of anything.)
Curse words (oh my!) under spoiler tag:
And, thank you for giving me an excuse to quote Tearmoon Empire and my work under the same tag—made my day!
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@jazzyjeoff, and there was the (in)famous f*** in Bookworm too. But everything pales into insignificance when compared to JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World.
After reading something captivating, book lovers simply need to talk about it with someone.
—Tearmoon Empire -
@jazzyjeoff said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
I read the rules as it being a single file, which seems a little awkward, so maybe I am wrong.
It's definitely a single file, see Rahul's quote above your post.
With regards to the discussion on profanity, my two cents is that you probably shouldn't need to worry about it too much. Like, there's probably an edge case where you create a character or characters that swear so much that it actively gets in the way of the judge's ability to enjoy your submission, but do note that that's a problem that would still likely exist even if you self-censored your dialogue with a less offensive term ("What the burning heck are you burning saying to me you miserable burning burn? Burn you and the burning horse-burn you burning rode in on! Burn!") Otherwise, I can't imagine a judge disqualifying someone over an errant f-bomb.
Keep in mind that even if you end up winning the whole thing that your work will still get edited before it's officially published. I think that'd be a good time to have a conversation about things like level of profanity rather than screening out an otherwise decent entry early. Personally if there are truly any parts you feel would be in doubt you can always play it safe and soften it a bit and then have a discussion with the editor after you win about whether or not certain things would be permissible.
The far more important thing to pay attention to are all the other stuff that can get you in the rules:
Works that include excessive sexual or cruel descriptions or depictions, infringe or are likely to infringe upon the copyright or other rights or interest (including parodies and imitations), slander specific individuals or groups, are offensive to public morals, violate the application guidelines, or are deemed unsuitable by the judges will be disqualified from the competition.
These sorts of things would be harder to simply go "Oh, well the work is really good but we can just handle the really graphic depiction of genocide part in editing" so yeah.
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@Angelus said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
@jazzyjeoff, and there was the (in)famous f*** in Bookworm too. But everything pales into insignificance when compared to JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World.
Well, you would expect that from Sex Worker, and even Bookworm has references to the sexual abuse of children—so the f-bomb is actually relatively less concerning, but, while I love Tearmoon as an adult, it is a book that I would feel comfortable reccomending to a book devourering nine or ten-year-old, save for that arguably unnecessary word (I mean, I would still recommend it, but I would have explain it to their parents first.).
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Hi sorry if I am asking in the wrong place, but is anyone able to submit for the current 2025 contest? I thought entries were open in September but when I press Submit Your Light Novel it says it's closed and it looks like its the 2023 page
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@buttknife said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
Hi sorry if I am asking in the wrong place, but is anyone able to submit for the current 2025 contest? I thought entries were open in September but when I press Submit Your Light Novel it says it's closed and it looks like its the 2023 page
They posted this today on the JNC Discord:
Hello,
We just became aware that the submission page is currently not working after the recent backend update.
Our apologies but for the time being please hold off on submitting and entries.
Since today is Saturday I do not expect this to be resolved until sometime next week.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
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@buttknife They've reported that the submission link should be working again on the discord.
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I have an important question folks. I have my own LN that I'm about to send on their submission page. But I have a problem, which is their plot outline requirement.
I know how to make one, it's just I am conflicted on what format should I use. Should do it in essay-style or bullet form? Which is the best or most probable format? Thanks in advance :)
