[JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!
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@Hylebos Thank you so much for sharing all this. Thanks to this, I now think I have a better idea on how the judges graded things. For me, I was struggling to get things UNDER the 10,000 word limit. I also started the outline from season 2 of the story, since the manuscript ended with season 1 at just under 60,000 words. From there, I basically did what you did and did an arc by arc walkthrough of the arcs in the story. Since I had Seasons 2-6 already written, I went into great detail on most of them, but lightened up on Season 6 in order to still have room to talk as much as possible about season 7, the current arc of the story, which I consider to be the series' biggest selling point. I did manage to fit in all the key points of season 7, and even some bits of season 8, before listing my proposed ending, as currently, I have plans for far more arcs than were showcased in the outline, heck, I even decided against including some of the side stories, all of which are canon to the main plot, in order to avoid going over the word count.
I feel me not having a concrete ending might not have been appeasing to the judges, but in my defense, this is a series that really could go on for years, since all it takes for new inspiration to hit me is for an IRL tournament to give me some inspiration. Heck, this current arc of the series all came to be because of a real-life tournament, which naturally led to me creating various characters to represent the nations competing in it. And that perfectly segways into my next bit, the characters.
I also felt that if the character was named in the outline, they needed to be given a profile, but I ended up limiting that when it came to certain characters, mainly the ones in Season 7, as at the time of writing the outline, my only vision for some of them was to simply have them be opponents for the main cast. And the worst part is that if I tried to do an outline and character profile page, I'd be completely screwed as with how many characters and plotlines I've got going now, there's no way I'd fit everything in 10,000 or possibly even 20,000. My series actually has over 500 named characters, and while not all of them are major, a good chunk of them are recurring and important to the overall plot, meaning that unless the judges allow for 30,000 words total or at the very least, 10,000 word limits on the outline and character profiles each, there's no way I'll be able to include everything about my story in the next iteration of the contest.
That kind of is a shame, since I do feel my series has to potential to not just bring in a big audience, but also boost the worldwide popularity of the sport it centers around ten-fold, which is another reason I feel that if pitched properly, it could get an anime. That's why I want to know if my main flaws with my entry were more with the writing or the more technical stuff like the outline and/or judges simply not being interested in the genre. Thank you very much for sharing this information once more, and best of luck to you in the contest. And if you ever feel like checking out my work, feel free to. I promise that if you do, you'll be greeted with peak chess.
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@AuthorMN Have you ever considered publishing your novel on the web? There are several excellent sites including the Oraganization for Transformative Works (OTW). On it multiple follow up and alternate Fanlore works abound for AOB on their Archive of Our Own (AOO). If you haven't been on their site please check out them out at www.transformativeworks.org. I'm not sure if they can help you with your eventual publishing goals, but they may act as a future reference on your resume. Best of luck to you.
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@karasutengu I actually publish all my novels on Honeyfeed. That's where I'm frequently uploading my ongoing work.
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Some thoughts. Based on the feedback I've seen, by and large I don't think the 10K words for world building and etc for a continuing work plays that big of a role in JNC's decision making process. I think it's mostly there to allow JNC to know that you have a plan and it's not completely nonsensical. The bulk of the judgment will be based on the 60K or so words submitted as narrative prose. If the judges don't find those 60K prose engaging enough by itself, they're not going to take the risk that what one describes in 10K world building notes are going to be any more engaging even if expanded into full on prose. The reasoning here is not entirely unreasonable, if one can't grab the attention of the judge within the first 60K (or more probably 20K words), why would an average reader be interested enough to stay with one's work to get to all the stuff described in the 10K notes?
From the feedback that I have seen, there is a certain pattern to the types of works that JNC wants. They want works that have a fairly fast ramp-up (relatively speaking), with sufficient action happening within the first third of the narrative. And by action I don't necessarily mean fighting or etc, but for interesting problems to arise in the protagonists' paths that they need to overcome. The pacing of this ramp up is important, because it actively works against certain styles of writing/narrative development. 20K words is nothing in the context of say a Robert Jordan or David Weber story, but no one here could argue that those aren't massively successful authors/storytellers (or were in Jordan's case). And barring major action happening, you would need really, really engaging characters to carry the load otherwise.
As such, I do think that if one were writing for the purpose of winning the JNC contest, you have to plan accordingly how you pace the narrative. Long rampups are going to work very strongly against you, and narratives that allow for faster action to emerge would do better. That doesn't mean you have to make measurable progress towards resolving the actual, big plot, you can throw in lots of non-plot related problems that need resolution as well if they are sufficiently interesting, but the one thing you can't risk is the impression that characters are idling, whether they be the protagonists or antagonists.
Note that the above are all my personal opinion and I have no direct insight into JNC's judging criteria beyond the feedback that I have gotten, but based on my round 1 entry last time and not getting past round 1 this time, the data points that I do have seem consistent.
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The results for the completed category in. I have put them in the OP, but will link them here too.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PdPZVKRWpwLfDxAJPLrd3juYWTSPVEizJ_5eQjziLRc/mobilebasic
We thank everyone for go participated in this year’s competition.
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Hello! As a contestant in the Completed Story Category, I am curious as to why there were fewer selections in this category than the Ongoing Series Category. I am sure you have your reasons, whether it is the number of entries, the nature of the category and higher expectations for planned series, simply the quality of the entries in each category, or something else. Is this something you are willing to share?
As a new writer, I tried not to expect too much to happen this year, but I could not help being hopeful. As others have mentioned, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for us to have our works adapted to Japanese, manga, or a potential anime. An anime is an ultimate dream, but to be honest, I would be perfectly happy and extremely grateful to simply have one volume published for people around the world to enjoy, even if it has a smaller fanbase than many. As a new writer, I was proud of myself for committing to this novel, writing a story I enjoyed, and enjoying myself while writing it. Right now, it feels wonderful to be able to say "I wrote a novel" even if nobody will be reading it yet. It is like a whole new world has opened up. I have also appreciated reading this forum and seeing how genuine and friendly the other writers are and how willing they are to help each other when you could argue that we are all rivals with the same goal.
If anyone has any advice on the Completed Story Category, I would appreciate that as well. I understand the advice will be much different than with the Ongoing Series Category as much of that discussion referred to the future volume aspects whereas for a Completed Story, it might be as simple as the judges did not like the story enough. I do have hopes to write sequels, and I have a lot of groundwork ready for the second volume and preparing the first part of the third, so would I be better off entering the Ongoing Series next year? Or will that not be enough material to really be considered? My first book is approximately 90,000 words, and my target going forward is between 75,000 and 90,000. As this is my vision, my first volume does include an epilogue that introduces a new character, so would this have hurt my submission as the judges for this contest truly want one fully comprehensive novel with a final conclusion? I do believe my novel could be standalone with a little bit of the ending cut out, but I would accept criticism that there might be too many unknowns or allusions to past events and others who do not appear in the current events of the story that might make the narrative not feel fully complete as one novel.
One final question I have is this: Are these contests the only way to really land a publishing opportunity with Japan Novel Club, or are there other opportunities?
As I continued writing this post, I realized I started to go on a little rant of self-analysis, but anything anyone has to offer would be greatly appreciated. And again, I would like to thank Japan Novel Club and the judges for this opportunity, and I hope this contest stays in place for many years to come. Good luck to those who have passed! I will be very curious to read your intros to find out where your strengths are and where my weak points might be.
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Congrats to the passing Completed category entries! There's definitely a lot of interesting titles that would be fun to read!
@kitason said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
Hello! As a contestant in the Completed Story Category, I am curious as to why there were fewer selections in this category than the Ongoing Series Category. I am sure you have your reasons, whether it is the number of entries, the nature of the category and higher expectations for planned series, simply the quality of the entries in each category, or something else. Is this something you are willing to share?
I think it's just a matter of proportionality. On discord it was mentioned that there was around a 3:2 ratio between Ongoing Series and Completed Series entries, so it isn't too surprising that the number of entries passing the first round would mostly mirror that ratio.
@kitason said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
If anyone has any advice on the Completed Story Category, I would appreciate that as well. I understand the advice will be much different than with the Ongoing Series Category as much of that discussion referred to the future volume aspects whereas for a Completed Story, it might be as simple as the judges did not like the story enough.
The quickest way for you to get advice on this matter would be to share a sample of your entry either on the forums or on the JNC discord for people to take a look at.
@kitason said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
I do have hopes to write sequels, and I have a lot of groundwork ready for the second volume and preparing the first part of the third, so would I be better off entering the Ongoing Series next year?
I think that sounds like a reasonable plan. My personal rule of thumb assumption at the moment—absent of additional information—is that stories written for the Completed category should be written with the assumption that it will be a one-and-done affair that won't get any additional volumes despite how many perfectly wonderful ideas you might have for continuing the story.
There are numerous examples of translated Japanese light novels which started off as writing contest winners seemingly written with this idea in mind, like The Troubles of Miss Nicola the Exorcist, which would be a perfectly fantastic novel at just one volume, but extended the longevity of its series by introducing new characters and plots in its v2 that went completely unmentioned and unforeshadowed throughout the entirety of its v1.
Once the winners from last year's contest get published (last year there was no Ongoing category so all the submissions were expected to be Completed) we might get a better idea how much wiggle room there might be for presenting future hooks for possible additional volumes, but until that time it seems better to play it safe with Completed entries. In my mind, if you were to win, you could easily have a discussion with the folks at JNC to what degree you can add hooks into the story to build anticipation for a future volume.
I know that you're nervous that your story might not have enough material to be considered as an ongoing series, but anecdotally, my plot outline for the main story of Perfect Princess which passed the first round in the Ongoing Series category only covered enough material for around three volumes, so I don't think you would be rejected out of hand at the very least. Plus you hypothetically have from now until the end of the year when the hypothetical next contest will have its hypothetical due date to think of additional layers you can add to your story to increase its longevity if you're worried about the amount of material it covers.
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Having a chance to enter this competition was a great boost to writing. Although I didn't get into the next round, I am even more charged to push forward. There is no mountain I will not climb to publish.
Good luck to the winners. See you in 2026.
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@Hylebos Thank you so much for your insight, and congratulations on passing the first round!
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Only 18 in the completed works category? I wasn't too confident about my entry there, but just 18 novels feels more like this is a second round type deal.
@kitason said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
As a new writer, I tried not to expect too much to happen this year, but I could not help being hopeful. As others have mentioned, this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for us to have our works adapted to Japanese, manga, or a potential anime. An anime is an ultimate dream, but to be honest, I would be perfectly happy and extremely grateful to simply have one volume published for people around the world to enjoy, even if it has a smaller fanbase than many. As a new writer, I was proud of myself for committing to this novel, writing a story I enjoyed, and enjoying myself while writing it. Right now, it feels wonderful to be able to say "I wrote a novel" even if nobody will be reading it yet. It is like a whole new world has opened up. I have also appreciated reading this forum and seeing how genuine and friendly the other writers are and how willing they are to help each other when you could argue that we are all rivals with the same goal.
One final question I have is this: Are these contests the only way to really land a publishing opportunity with Japan Novel Club, or are there other opportunities?
A question I'm sure many of us want answered. I feel as though that the competition by design doesn't quite do as good a job as it could in leading to authors outside of Japan getting a publishing deal. While I do think the prizes should remain the same, I do feel some of the finalists that don't win or even those that fail to pass the first round, shouldn't just be cast aside until they're resubmitted to the next iteration of the contest. I know it's a sad fact that often times publishers will reject something that can potentially become the next big thing, but I feel trying to create a better system that could allow those living outside of Japan a better chance of getting a publishing deal, should at the very least be taken into consideration.
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Soon...?
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@sunvulpine said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
Soon...?
Hopefully!
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@Hylebos said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
@sunvulpine said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
Soon...?
Hopefully!
E...Eventually?
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@sunvulpine said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
@Hylebos said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
@sunvulpine said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
Soon...?
Hopefully!
E...Eventually?
One would assume!
We've not heard anything from them yet either here or on Discord, I would just assume the process is just taking a wee bit longer than they were expecting and that they are working hard on it.
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Hello,
Our apologies for the delay. The round 2 results will be delayed.
While we do not have a set date for the results to be announced yet. I will be back with a further update later this week. At the latest, Friday the 6th US time. Probably around 3 pm ET.
Thank you
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Thank you for keeping us informed!
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Am I missing something or when will the novel previews for voting become available? It is almost time for the Anime Expo 2025, so... not much time left.
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@shiratori-keira said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
Am I missing something or when will the novel previews for voting become available? It is almost time for the Anime Expo 2025, so... not much time left.
The finalists were announced but they've not been mentioned in this thread yet, and so I shall post them here in case you haven't seen it yet:
ONGOING SERIES - FINALISTS
Cavalier Magica
Forgotten Girl Quest
His Reluctant Thrall
Knight and Flower
Soul Sentinel
The Goddess Forgot to Make me OP when I Reincarnated in the New World
The Hotel Acheron: Dreams in Death's Garden
The Villainess of Caerleon
With the Age Gap Gone, Will the Witch Fall for Me?COMPLETE STORY - FINALISTS
I am the Villainess's Minion!
My Childhood Friend Is in Love with My Mecha!
Our Worlds Align
The Cat Forgot Its TaleAs for when streaming might start, we've not heard any word about that yet, but it could theoretically happen at any point now.
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@Hylebos Yes, I also received the email with the finalists and it was mentioned that the streaming would become available soon. But still nothing. At this point, I guess that user voting won't be that influential to the final selection.
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@shiratori-keira said in [JNC LIGHT NOVEL CONTEST 2025] Round 1 Judging for "Ongoing Series" & “Completed”Category Announced!:
@Hylebos Yes, I also received the email with the finalists and it was mentioned that the streaming would become available soon. But still nothing. At this point, I guess that user voting won't be that influential to the final selection.
During last year's contest, on discord, they mentioned that user voting is useful info but hardly definitive, as they fully expect the author with the most online followers to win the vote. Personally speaking, I feel like they only need to have the previews up for a business week or so to collect the data they need, so they could wait as late as the 23rd and still have plenty of time to make their final selections before the award ceremony on July 6th.
My assumption at least is that most people who use JNC really just focus on the series they are pre-pubbing and when encountering the possibility of browsing the contest finalists, they'll likely click on one or two of the ones that sound the most interesting to them but ultimately not get around to reading the majority of them. It won't take long for that initial burst of activity to play out before it's just a handful of people who are committed to browsing all thirteen of the finalists.
