4 Writing Lessons from a Novel Contest Judge

4 Writing Lessons from a Novel Contest Judge

Writing contests are a lot like dating: you have to put yourself out there and brave rejection, but in the end the most important thing is that you love who you are. To cultivate that sense of writerly self-confidence, here are four writing lessons I learned as a judge for the Page Turner Awards.

How to achieve narrative flow

Provide the reader with the information they need to care about the story without giving them too much

Writers must recognize their own potential

It’s through creating that we discover who we are as artists.

Opening with an action-heavy scene won’t have an impact unless the reader cares about the characters

Having the story’s inciting incident happen in the first few pages can actually harm the reading experience because the audience doesn’t know enough about the players involved to care

A single difference in a sea of sameness can elevate a novel

Have an exciting feature that becomes the essence of the work

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