JNC Writing Support Group
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Fell asleep with my glasses on. They fell down somewhere and I can’t find them. I can barely see. I found the list —I am not on it. Very bummed. Does not look like I received the flush email—if there was one. Anyway, need to find my glasses.
And congrats on those who passed!
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Found my spare glasses and the email (in the junk folder—Ha!). I think I will go back to my story, make some edits and probably post here. I can think of all sorts of reasons why it didn’t make it (beyond my writing ability—but there is only so much I can do about that). I hope that with more time and feedback, I can make it a better story.
I still like the story and the characters. -
@Alfaerin - There should be an email address in the notification email where you can request feedback. It isn’t guaranteed and is up to the judge who read it but several people over on Discord have had some responses.
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@Damon-Cavalchini I don't see anything in my email other than the address it came from.
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@Angelus said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Damon-Cavalchini I don't see anything in my email other than the address it came from.
No, no, this wasn't what Damon meant. On discord, someone asked Sam:
Am I able to ask about an specifics about the rejection, maybe something I can avoid in future?
In response, he said:
In an email, you can ask, sure.
I'll not post any feedback publicly about specific works anyway
It's possible we have feedback from other judges I can share, but not guarranteed.So it's not so much that you'll only get feedback if you make it to the first round -- it's that feedback is guaranteed for those who make it to the first round. You can try sending an reply email to see if there's any feedback on why your entry might not have made it to the first round. It's worth a shot for peace of mind, and if that doesn't work, I'd be happy to take a look at some people's entries when I have more sleep/time.
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Congratulations to all those that passed.
@Hylebos I just sent them an email, so hopefully I'll get some feedback.
What honestly surprised me though about some of the passing works is that a few of them had "Vol 1" in their titles. I honestly hope me not putting a "Vol 1" in the title of one of my entries was one of the reasons it failed, though I did try my best to make it a complete story in of itself with room for a sequel. -
@AuthorMN said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Hylebos I just sent them an email, so hopefully I'll get some feedback.
What honestly surprised me though about some of the passing works is that a few of them had "Vol 1" in their titles. I honestly hope me not putting a "Vol 1" in the title of one of my entries was one of the reasons it failed, though I did try my best to make it a complete story in of itself with room for a sequel.I can't imagine that the Vol 1 thing would be a factor for your pass or failure. Even if you intentionally set out to write a one shot that definitively ended the story—like, the protagonist is both married (and dead), world on fire, populace slaughtered, etc.—if a judge really liked your submission, I'm sure they would be thinking in their mind, "How can I convince this author to rework their one shot into a longer running series?"
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@Hylebos
That's what I think too, but sometimes you just start asking yourself, "Could this one tiny thing have doomed my novel?" I guess there's no point in worrying about things further. Hopefully if I get feedback, I'll be able to revise my work(s) to the point where I can submit them in the next contest and they, hopefully, get past the 1st round. -
@AuthorMN said in JNC Writing Support Group:
@Hylebos
That's what I think too, but sometimes you just start asking yourself, "Could this one tiny thing have doomed my novel?" I guess there's no point in worrying about things further. Hopefully if I get feedback, I'll be able to revise my work(s) to the point where I can submit them in the next contest and they, hopefully, get past the 1st round.Hi there,
I suspect it wouldn’t be one tiny things but a collection of reasons (some in your control and some outside of it) that helped shape the decision. In some cases there may have been lots of a particular type of story or maybe there was a question about commerciality or something.
I’m not a judge but I’ve seen several people talking about losing whereas my experience from entering other competitions is that it more like didn’t progress this time.
At the end of the day only 18% of entries went through so there were probably a lot of reasons why some advanced and others didn’t.
I’ve also said on other threads that the very act of submitting is a win. I had a period where I didn’t submit anything for about 5-6 years. It didn’t make me a better (or worse) writer.
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Well, after looking at my story for the first time since submission, I see that it could really use a lot more work. But for me to even get a somewhat complete draft together of my first original work in just a few months was a bit of an accomplishment, and the process was pretty fun. Right now, I think I would like to get the story to the point that it is enjoyable for a few people to read.
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So I got some feedback. Turns out I focused too much on dialogue exchanges and apparently rushed the plots too quickly. Looks like I know where to improve, so I thank the judges for sharing their feedback.
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@AuthorMN said in JNC Writing Support Group:
Turns out I focused too much on dialogue exchanges
They'd never publish anything by Nisio Isin then :)
[Edit] Just got my own feedback, and I have to say I agree with it entirely, so there's no way I can complain about the judging!
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Congratulations for everyone that passed.
I did not pass and asked for the reason for the rejection. I got an answer, but the reason ( issues with the prose construction) is something I cannot really fix on my own without help from outside.
Just as promised I will upload my submission, probably at the end of the week. And since some of the commentors here have already published fanfics and the like, are there some website you would recommend where I can put it out for others to read? -
@Angelus
Ha ha, that is a good point.
Going back through my works, I do realize that a good chunk of them are dialogue heavy. I think the reason for that was due to both series largely being slice of life series, in other words, not a lot of action occurring. As for the other critique, I do agree that things were a bit rushed in one of my submissions, the other one though didn't feel as rushed to me, but that could just be me. -
In breaking news, there has been an additional text added taking the total to 85.
If you wrote "The Young Lady is the Substitute Harvest Goddess" you are now in the Google doc.
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I got my feedback too. Summing it up would be that it was:
- Too dark;
- No payout in the volume (main plot not touched after first 30 pages);
- Two timeskips were unearned/jarring;
- Submission felt like set-up plus two short stories
Sam read it himself, so given how busy the man is I really appreciate him taking time to pass on some feedback and constructive criticism. Thanks, @admin, I really do appreciate it.
I do have some ideas on what I can do to improve, and a lot of it comes down to the structure:
The first thing that jumps out is the 'main plot/30 pages' point. The concept in my head was a 5-volume story (maybe 4), each with their own arc. It made for a great intro/hook (I think...) but starting with the overall 5-volume story lead-in instead of volume 1 alone led to it being seen as the main plot of the submission, hence the feedback point about it not being touched. It's obvious now that it is pointed out to me.
This then touches in with the time skips. I think the solution is to start at the first time skip and use that as the basis for the main setting, then look backwards at what happened in either a flashback or as a dream. This will be very, very tricky to do competently. It is not a simple matter of just switching the two sections around. A lot will need to be either moved forward to the new starting point or cut entirely. Perhaps some of the cut content can be reintegrated as short stories afterwards.
Then the bit about it being too dark... this actually amuses me a bit because it was darker before I submitted it, and I actually removed/heavily edited those bits because I thought it was too dark to be accepted as it was. I guess there is still more to go. One dark aspect was mentioned as too semi-realistic which actually pleases me (I was going for realism with that) but I guess that actually worked against me.
I can definitely lighten this volume, but that does make me worry about future planned points (one volume, the third, is centred around the theme of acceptance of grief) and makes me think that no matter what I do the future story will be too dark for a 'light' novel contest.
Overall some great feedback that has already given me some ideas on what/how to improve, but it does make me concerned about how it may affect future plot developments.
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I got my feedback as well,
”The judge felt that the end of the volume did not provide a satisfying arc conclusion and wouldn't be enough to stand alone.”
The story was written to be part of a series and ended on a cliffhanger—that was the best I could do given the time constraints and the speed in which a write. In short (ha!), the criticism was valid, helpful, and was a kinder review of the work than my own.
I will polish what I have and continue the series. Perhaps I will find a more satisfying ending/stopping point.As a bonus, it appears that the judge made it to the very end of the story! I will ignore the possibility that they skipped to the end and bask in the satisfaction that someone read my story!
For anyone interested in reading or reviewing The Two Minds of Cassandra go here:
https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/7981/jnc-group-writing-review-thread-the-two-minds-of-cassandra
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@QuixoticHorizon, darkness and grief are two things I have to struggle to control in my writing.
In the novel I submitted, the darkest I got was the MC's first love getting ritually murdered the day after their first night together because she wasn't human, but in volume 2 which I'm writing now it was going off the scale a bit until I reined it back in.
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@Angelus
Well, I thought I might have pushed some boundaries concerning violence and such.
Though it might be good in the story -
I am such a goof!
When I got the rejection letter without comment, I read my story and thought “This is total garbage! What was I thinking!”
When I received the reviewer’s mild justification for rejecting the story, I reread the story again and thought, “Hey, this is pretty good. Maybe the ending could use a little work, but…”
It was just a few words from someone I don't even know—I can't believe I am this fragile!
