[CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest
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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 :)
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@Mugen Dunno, I'd go with whatever allows you to convey your plot best to the judges. Something more essay-like would take more time to write but I feel would ultimately be a lot more artful and engaging than a massive bulleted list.
They're not prescribing a format so it's up to you to figure out one for yourself, whether it's the tenor of a wikipedia plot overview or you have all your characters chatting on set after the last scene to talk about what their crazy author has planned in the upcoming script.
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@Hylebos thanks for the tip! really appreciated it. I wrote it in essay form first so yeah I saved time instead of redoing it from the start.
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Regarding the character profile and plot outline requirement. Since it is all in one file, is there any reason why we cannot/shouldn’t have the submission in the following order?:
- Character descriptions/world building
- Sixty thousand words of text.
- Plot outline with emphasis on remaining storyline.
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@jazzyjeoff said in [CONTEST OVER] JNC Original Light Novel Contest:
Regarding the character profile and plot outline requirement. Since it is all in one file, is there any reason why we cannot/shouldn’t have the submission in the following order?:
- Character descriptions/world building
- Sixty thousand words of text.
- Plot outline with emphasis on remaining storyline.
I mean I think you could certainly do that if you feel that it better represents your submission, but I would assume that the judges are expecting to organically read the 60k words of your submission like a reader would and then expect to hit the plot outline and character profiles to figure out how things go for the rest of the series.
Are you okay with spoiling all the characters that will appear in your series before they even get a chance to meet them in the text? Will that cause any problems, such as finding out that an evil twin is actually evil in advance? Will there be characters that are only introduced in the plot outline rather than the 60k submission that you will need to include at the very beginning, causing some confusion as the judge now has an expectation for there to be a Demon King of Calamity who doesn't actually appear until the v3 of your series? Will the judge be even able to retain all the information they read about your characters and your world building after drinking from the firehose?
I just don't see the benefit of frontloading characters. The character profiles that you'll write as part of this contest probably won't be much like the dramatis personae lists you see at the start of some published novels that are one line introduction to characters, so you shouldn't treat it like such and feel inclined to include it at the start of the submission.
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@Hylebos I suppose it depends on how in depth the entires get read. I sort of wonder if they have a lot of submissions to read in a short amount of time, these might not be read organically and there may be a bit of speed reading and skipping around and maybe having an introduction of the characters early might be helpful.
That said, the order that you described was my first instinct, which is why I posed the question.
(Currently I have a note in the character description for any character that is not introduced or not developed until the later chapters.)
