Whether it's your first time or your sixth time, writing a novella in 12 weeks isn't easy.
As a 2021 ONC Winner and 2023 Honorable Mention, I would know. After years of participation and reflection, I have lots of advice to share on how I did it. In...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Welcome back! This is the second mini-interview in a series with past ONC winners who have volunteered to reveal what they wish they knew before they started on their award-winning novella as well as their pro-tip about writing novella-length fiction in general.
In this installment, evelynhail, Top 5 Winner of the 2020 ONC, tells all. Please consider checking out Evelyn's work, especially if you're a romance/fantasy fan!
Question One: What is one thing you wish you knew about the Open Novella Contest before you starting writing for it?
My first Open Novella Contest was ONC 2019 (in 2018, I still had no idea the contest existed! Ignorantly squeals!), the year when I wrote one of my favorite works: "GG."
And it may be obvious to many writers but for some reason I was sure I HAD TO wait for the prompts to come out before I even had a concept of a book in my mind.
So I was like OMG I have no idea what to write about but I will just select the prompt that I like the most and spin it off from there, I guess.
And so it happened, I picked the prompt with a girl following a trail of rose petals searching for her sister and spun the concept from ZERO, worrying that the story that I was coming up with as I went might not fit the prompt fully etc.
What I am trying to say is the following: there is no need for you to wait for February the 1st, or wait for the prompts to come out.
It is perfectly fine to do the reverse process: if you have been mulling over an idea in your head since, let's say November or December, you can see if any of the prompts that come out on February 1st fit it!
When me and my amazing cowriter RainerSalt won second place in Open Novella Contest in 2020, we did it like that. We knew we wanted to write this original concept novella about two people on parallel trains, separated by the cruel glass, but we were not sure whether there will be a prompt that will fit that concept.
So you could go and try and do the same. Idea first, prompt wrangling later.
Your idea is perhaps a prequel for the book series you have already written, or maybe, the sequel –the second or the third book in the series? It could also be a completely new work you haven't showcased before and it's not connected to your previous opus, but it's the same genre you normally write.
If you are, for instance, a paranormal writer, you can try and "keep it in the same lane" and decide that your ONC will be a paranormal novella, written in under 40 000 words. In this way, it will be like a "sample" of your style for the potential readers that will find you during this contest.
If they like your novella, aka your work "sample," who knows? They might go on and read your other stuff, and this is exactly the effect you wish to aim for.
Question Two: What's your best piece of advice or your favorite writing tip when it comes to working on novellas or entering your work into a contest?
Talking about the best writing tip I can offer when it comes to working on novellas or entering your work into a contest, let us say that it all boils down to PREPARATION.
Even if it is perfectly fine, as I had said before, to first read the prompts and see if there is anything that suddenly catches your eye and inspires you to try out something new, regardless of when you have had the idea, in November/December or on the very February the 1st, I would recommend a speedy offline preparation.
I think every writer is a world and all of us prepare differently so what I will do now is share my ways with you here.
Tis a tripartite secret recipe, a three-headed hydra, and its heads are called: Logline, Plot, Characters.
1. Write out a logline. Who is this book about? What is happening to these characters? What is their goal? Will they achieve their goal by the end of the novella, or not? For instance: A nerdy workaholic Evan and a zany happy-go-lucky comic book shop girl Iris see each other once a month through the implacable glass as they travel on parallel trains. Will they have their happily ever after?
2. Ask yourself: how long are my chapters on the average? If you are someone who likes to write longer chapters, say 2,500-3,000 words, you have to be aware from the get go you will not be able to write more than 15 chapters overall so you might want to take that into account when distributing the plot. If you like writing, say 1,300 word chapters, then you can do more short chapters and end up with 25 of them. You can even write out a brief one line-sentence about what will happen in each of the chapters, so that it may serve as a plot guide. In this way you will avoid writer's block for sure and not get stuck wondering: "okayyy, so what am I going to write next? What is going to happen in the next chapter?" Because you will already know what happens in each of your, i.e, 15 chapters
3. Don't go for too many characters. You don't have a lot of space to do big character development and get sidetracked in a short novella. Remember the 40,000 word limit! So I'd say that the best thing you can do is limit the number of main and side characters. I wanna say perhaps 2-3 main character tops (two is probably a safer number) and 2-3 side ones as well? Before starting to write you can do a mini character sheet. In this sheet, you could enumerate the personality traits your characters have in the beginning of your novella and how you want them to change: what you want them to be like by the end of the novella.
It may sound like a lot but this Tripartite Secret Recipe can be easily completed in one afternoon, I promise you.
Fingers crossed for all of the authors who shall be entering ONC 2023 and do not forget: this is an extremely supportive and social contest. Apart from doing your best with your novella, try to connect with the other contestants and check out their work.
Having readers, voters and commenters is so encouraging and it can propel them to get to the finish line!
Many authors at times give up on completing their work because they feel like there is no interest or like no one is reading them. So let's boost our fellow contestants' confidence. <3
Not to mention you will make a lot of new friends and connect with like-minded authors and you will see that you will be able to learn a lot from each other when it comes to writing styles and techniques. There lies the true value of the contest: all these new wonderful writer-worlds you will get to delve into, regardless of your placement.
Don't worry so much whether you will end up on the Longlist, Shortlist, Thatlist, Thislist. Always keep in mind that this contest is an opportunity for you to both complete a new booklet at the beginning of the New Year and find new engaged readers, as well as new friends!
Even if it were for this reason only, it's so worth it to yearly-form a part of the ONC.
