The contest is open!
The opening of a story is one of the most important parts of any novel. Readers today are impatient and if your story doesn’t grab them right from the start, they might not stick around for when “it starts to get good.” We need our stories to engage the reader right from the beginning. This contest is meant to not only be fun, but to also provide some clues for how to create a great novel opening which hooks the reader.
Follow the rules below when you submit and you could win up to $100. I can’t wait to read your entry!
“I don’t care if a reader hates one of my stories, just as long as he finishes the book.”
—Roald Dahl
Basic Guidelines
Your submission must be the opening of your novel, and should be between 75 and 200 words in length, and written in English (my favorite language is probably Icelandic…but I can’t read it. Sorry.) The contest opens today, February 9th, and you must make your submission by 11:59:59 on the night of February 23rd, 2015. Entries must also be provided in proper submission format (please refer to the list of details below for information on this formatting).
The rest is up to you!
This contest is open to writers within the age range of 13-19.
Judging Process
Judging will take place in two steps. Two KP staff members will narrow down the pool of submissions to the top 10, which will then be forwarded on to two independent judges who will determine the winner. To eliminate the possibility of bias, the judges will not know the authors of each story.
The judges will scale your story on each of the following categories, with a potential of between 1 and 10 points, with 1 being lowest and 10 being the best quality in that category. These points will then be added together (with a max of 60 possible points each) for each submission to determine the leading three stories from all submissions. These stories will then be submitted to our final judges, who will pick between them for first, second and third place winners. The categories are as follows:
First sentence (does your first sentence draw the reader into the story) -10
Style and structure (how readable and captivating your actual writing is) – 10
Main character (how active and real the main character is) – 10
Setting (does your opening paragraph clue us into where we are, and what genre the story is in?) – 10
Desire (does the main character want something right away? Do we know what it is?) – 10
Do we want to read more? (does your story opening entice your readers to want to read more?) – 10
Judges
Kingdom Pen’s editors, Josiah DeGraaf and Reagan Ramm, will scale all of the submissions, and narrow them down to the top 10. These finalists will be ranked, 1-10, by Kingdom Pen’s guest judges.
Braden Russell
Braden Russell is an aspiring author and music instructor who writes weird speculative fiction from his wilderness home in Oklahoma. Once a regular columnist for Kingdom Pen, you can now find him blogging about writerly things at his website The Storymonger.
He has been telling stories with words for as long as he can remember. Somewhere along the way, he grabbed a camera and started making stories with that. He have a YouTube channel where he posts comedic videos. You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/brokenlensprductions
If you want to gain some insight into how Braden will grade your novel opening, click here.
Jacki Crooks
Jacki grew up on a 40-acre farm in southern WI where she was homeschooled and worked for her dad’s tower company. When she was in high school, her mom discovered The One Year Adventure Novel writing curriculum. Over the next few years, Jacki worked on several novels while maintaining her life on the farm. After graduating, Jacki spent the better part of the next year and a half embroiled in a heated battle with cancer, and the subsequent recovery.
Now 21 and cancer-free, Jacki lives and works in Kansas City, MO and was recently promoted to management at her day job. In the evenings, she maintains several websites for friends and family. In what free time she has, she enjoys going shooting, hanging out with friends once in a while, and has a very solid relationship with her Netflix account.
Prizes
First place:
The winner of the contest will receive $100 (Payable via check or paypal) and the option of an interview with Kingdom Pen.
Second place:
$50 (payable via check or paypal)
Third place:
$25 (Payable via check or paypal)
Additionally, the top three finishers will all have their submissions published on the Kingdom Pen website, and will receive comments from the judges on their submissions. The remaining 7 finalists will receive honorable mentions.
How to Enter
As we mentioned above, the only requirement to enter the contest is that you be a Kingdom Pen subscriber, and are between 13 and 19 years of age. If you’re not subscribed, we’d love to have you! You can sign up for free right over here.
To submit your story beginning, email it as an attachment to kingdompenmag@gmail.com by February 23rd. If you are unable to attach your story for whatever reason, please contact us at the same address and we’ll work something out so that you can still submit.
In your email, please include your legal first and last names (you may include a pen name if you wish), age, and a brief message about how you found out about Kingdom Pen. If you win, you will also be asked to include a short bio.
Details
Writers retain full rights to their stories. All stories must be the original, previously unpublished works of the submitting author. No story that fails to meet these requirements is eligible.
To claim prizes, the winner must submit their mailing address and/or paypal email. If they are unwilling to do so, they will retain their place in the contest but will forfeit their prize. Only the winners need submit this information.
By submitting to this contest, you give us permission to publish your story opening on our website, should you be a first, second, or third place finisher. Once again, you will retain full rights to your story.
Story openings should be submitted in Submission Formatting, with the exception that we want all words of emphasis in underlines instead of italics. All text should be in Courier New font, double spaced. Paragraphs should be indented at the beginning. Write your legal first and last name in your submission email, but please do not put it in the header or footer of your document. These formatting instructions will be included under the “Strength of style and structure” grade (See above).
A minimum of 10 submissions must be received by February 23rd in order for the contest to be eligible. Only one entry per-subscriber.
After the deadline, the initial judges will be given one week to review the material, and the final judges will be given an additional week to make the final ranking. Following this, the winners will be announced via email and the Kingdom Pen website.
Any content in any story which could be judged as objectionable or offensive (cursing, extreme or inappropriate violence, adult content, ect.) will disqualify a story without further question. If you have doubts about whether or not your story would be disqualified on this point, please email KP’s main address with a detailed description of the content of concern and we’ll let you know.
Have any questions? Easy solution. Email us at kingdompenmag@gmail.com and we’ll do our best to answer them!
Happy noveling! We can’t wait to read your entry!
It’s called the ‘1st Paragraph’ contest, but in the guidelines you require 75-200 words. Does the submission have to be, technically, a paragraph, or just within the specified range?
Good question!
The submission should be within the 75-200 word range. So technically this is your first 1 to 2, or possibly 3, paragraph(s) contest, depending on how long each paragraph is, and whether you are keeping to the lower or higher end of the word count spectrum. “First 1 to 3 Paragraph(s) contest,” didn’t sound as catchy, though. So we’re calling it the “Begin Your Novel Contest” and the word count range (75-200). Your first paragraph would likely hit the minimum range of 75 words, unless you have a short first paragraph.
To summarize, just follow the 75-200 word range.
Let us know if you have any more questions!
– Reagan Ramm
All right, thanks!
Two questions, but only one of them is truly important.
First of all, are both of the preliminary judges going to read each submission, or will the submissions be divided between them? Just curious. 🙂
Second, I use Google Docs, and while I can download the document as a MS Word file, the formatting doesn’t always turn out right and it doesn’t have Courier New font. This may not end up being a big deal because my mom’s computer has Word on it, but I’m not 100% certain I’ll be able to get the formatting right there, either. What then?
And okay, one more. Under the Submission Guideline page it says to include the author’s name in the file. We don’t want to do that, right, so what would we call the file?
Hello Amanda!
To answer your first question, the preliminary judges will both read each submission and scale them independently of each other to arrive at the top ten.
Second question: If you cannot send in your submission via MS Word, then send it in using whatever you have, and explain that you do not have Word, and we will try to accommodate you.
To answer your third question, I believe you are referring to our submission guidelines where they say, “Type the title of your submission at the top of the page in bold text, with your publishing name typed directly below it. Skip a space, and then begin your material.”
For this contest, however, we don’t want the author’s name on the submission so when it is sent to our judges, they will not know who the entry is by, and therefore we can eliminate any potential bias. A third party, our fantastic secretary Sarah Spradlin, will handle the collection of the submissions, and she will forward them on to the judges. You should name your file whatever the title of your novel is, but please leave your name off. Please DO include your name in your submission email.
I hope that answers all your questions. Let us know if you have any more!
In Christ,
Reagan Ramm
Nope, you got them all, thank you! I was actually referring to the title of the file but you cleared that up. Thanks!
Hi Kingdom Pen! I’m super excited to enter the contest 🙂 Just a suggestion: It would be super helpful if you included an example of a submission entry page. Because even though you were pretty clear, I’m just nervous that there will be something I missed.
Thanks for reading,
Cindy
That’s a good suggestion! We’ll do that for future contests.
Thanks!
Reagan Ramm
My 15 year old daughter has written several stories. With the one we’re thinking of entering, she wrote a “teaser” page at the front. Then she started the chapters. Is it okay to submit from the teaser or do we need to submit from the beginning of chapter one? Thanks!
Is the teaser the actual beginning of the story, like a prologue? Or is it merely talking about the story? The entry should be the very beginning of the story. So if the teaser is part of the story, if it’s where the story begins, then include it. If not, then just start with the beginning of chapter 1.
Does that answer your question?
Reagan Ramm
Yes, it’s like a prologue.
And that does answer my question. 🙂
Very excited about this!
Can the oepning be from a short story, or should it be a full-length one?
For this contest, we are asking for the beginning of a novel. However, you don’t have to have your novel completed to enter.
Don’t hesitate to ask if you have more questions!
Reagan Ramm
Thank you for answering my question! After I commented, I decided to go with the beginning to my already done novel, so it’s all good. 🙂
Thank you again!
Thank you all so very much for doing this! It is very encouraging to find other Christians with the same vision as myself.
Thanks again!
Alyssa
You are very welcome! Thank YOU for participating! I’m encouraged as well!
In Christ,
Reagan Ramm
Does it have to be around 200 words or less? Mine is a little longer and I’m not sure it would work well if I took off the extra setances.
We won’t penalize you if you have say, 210 words. But once you start getting to be 15-20 words over or under, there will be a penalty for that.
Is this in the orthodox turning-in-your-manuscript formatting? As in, 12-point-Courier-New-double-spaced-one-inch-margins-half-inch-indents-special-sauce-on-a-sesame-seed- bun?
Yes, you are correct. Manuscript formatting.
Must all italicized words be underlined?
Yes, that is correct. Instead of using italics, use an underline.
Thank you! 🙂
Must the entry be from a completed novel or can it be the planned opening I have written for my next one?
Also, what if my Prologue is on the violent side? Can I skip to the beginning of chapter one?
Kingdom Pen is not against violence in stories (the Bible is pretty violent). However, we are against unnecessary gore and graphic detail (again, the Bible doesn’t go into gory details). If you are concerned your prologue falls into the realm of unnecessary gore, then you can submit the beginning of chapter 1.
Also, the entry need not be from a completed novel. If this entry is all you have written for your novel so far, that’s fine!
Thank you.
Greetings! I’m only just getting my toes dipped into these yarn-spinning waters, so I consider myself a young writer, but my 20th birthday is rapidly approaching (early March). Do I still qualify for this opportunity?
Hello!
Yup, you qualify! Your birthday isn’t until after the contest ends.
Okay, thanks!
What if you don’t have a title yet? Is it OK to leave it blank? I’m working on it, but it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to come up with a title anytime soon. The plot is still developing. I however, do have my opening paragraph(s).
If you don’t have a title or a working title, then just title it “novel opening” or something like that.
I just want to thank the people who asked all the questions already so that I don’t have to. Thanks guys!
So, how do I send my entry in? On E-mail? And you said to “please leave your name off. Please DO include your name in your submission email.” Leave my name off what? The title of the E-mail?
Yes, please email your submission to Kingdompenmag@gmail.com
Please leave your name off the MS Word document you submit, but please DO include your name in the actual body of the email itself, along with how you heard about Kingdom Pen.
Does that make sense?
I don’t have Microsoft Word. Will it be okay if I send it in a different sort of document format? As long as you can still open it and read it?
If we are able to open it, then yes, it is fine to send it in a different document format.
I’m a little unsure about whether or not to include an author biography in the email. Is that a point that will be addressed later in the contests with finalists, or should I place it in my submission email?
You don’t need to include a bio with your initial submission. If you are a finalist, we will then request a bio.
Hi there!
I just stumbled across your website through The Boyer Family Singers blog, and have totally fallen in love! I am an avid writer and feel that writing will most likely be what God calls me to do. I will definitely be subscribing and hopefully entering this contest, if I have enough time to pull something together, (my actual writing homework has been taking up almost every waking second lately. )
I have yet to figure all this out, but just out of curiosity, how often do you run contests like this?
Also, I saw that you said that the author’s still have full rights to their work; does that mean if we were to enter something (say, a poem) in one of your contests, would that still qualify for another contest somewhere else if they say that it has to be something that you have never published before? That has always been the difficult thing about entering contest, you can never enter the work in another contest in the future!
Thanks so much for all your hard work in making this website available to aspiring writers like me!
~Abby
Hi Abby! We’re glad to have you part of our community!
This is only our second writing contest, but we plan on running four a year (one every quarter). Here is our roadmap which will give you a general idea of when the next few contests are: https://kingdompen.org/roadmap/
When we say that you still have full rights to your work, that means you still own it. You are free to publish it elsewhere, request we remove it from our website, etc. By submitting your work to us, you are merely giving us permission to publish it on our website, and in our eMag. However, if another contest requests that your submission not be published elsewhere, that is a different matter. If that other contest doesn’t want it published anywhere else, we can just take it down for you; but if they request that it has never been published, then there is nothing we can do about that.
If you have anymore questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Stand fast!
Reagan Ramm
Thank you so much for answering my questions! Also, I took a look at your Roadmap (which I hadn’t seen yet) and saw that you hoped to sell Kingdom Pen T-shirts. During my short visit yesterday, I had already thought of suggesting that! I know that I, for one, would totally buy one if I were able to afford it. Hope you are able to carry out all your plans (or more importantly, God’s plans) for the future of Kingdom Pen! Blessings!
~Abby
That is great Abby! That helps knowing there are others who are interested in having T-shirts made.
We have been talking as a team, and we think we might start gauging interest concerning T-shirts sometime in the near future. If we get enough people saying they would be interested in buying a shirt, then we’ll make them available. 🙂
Thanks for the well wishes! Keep writing!
– Reagan Ramm
I have just become a member and I’m very interested in entering this competition as writing is my biggest passion in life. 🙂 I have several questions, though:
~ I understand only the first few paragraphs have to be sent – but if you win, will you have to submit the whole book? For example, what if I’m really happy with my first 200 words, but not really that happy with the rest of my (perhaps unfinished) work?
~ I also prefer not to have my real last name on the internet – is it okay if I always go by my pen-name?
Thanks in advance!
~ Naomi
Hi Naomi! We’re glad to have you aboard!
This contest is just focusing on the opening of a novel, and what elements you need to create a great beginning. We are not asking for the rest of the novel to be sent in. We do not even publish novels at this time. The only other thing you will need to submit, if you are a finalist, is a bio.
Please include your last name in your email when you submit, but if you are finalist, we will list you under your pen-name.
Let us know if you have any more questions!
okay, thanks. Do hyphenated words count as two words or one?
Hyphenated words count as one word.
We have never submitted anything to a writing contest. Can you tell me what is meant by words of emphasis? Are these words that the author particularly emphasizes when s/he’s reading the story to himself? Thanks for clarification. 🙂
Any time you would normally italicize a word or sentence, instead, underline it. There should be no italics.
An example would be: “I /told/ you there weren’t any cookies left.” The word “told” is being emphasized, as the speaker wants to draw attention to the fact that they were right. Normally you would put “told” in italics if you wanted to emphasize it, but for submission format purposes, please underline it instead.
I hope this helps!
Okay, so if the sentence doesn’t have any italics as written, we don’t need to add any for the contest – is that correct?
Julie, no, you wouldn’t add any to the sentence. They’re saying if you already have emphasized words in your entry to make sure the way you indicate that is by underlining rather than the typical use of italics. 🙂
Thanks! That clears it up. 🙂
I was 19 when the contest was originally announced, and I was 19 when it began, but since the start of the contest I’ve, um, turned 20. I had every intention of entering, but I didn’t actually get around to typing my entry into a computer until yesterday, at which point I realized that I might not even qualify anymore. Can I still enter the contest?
Yes! You can still enter! If you were within the age range at the opening of the contest, then you qualify!
Also…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Two decades old! Half way to 40 and all that jazz! Woo!
– Reagan Ramm
Okay, one more question then. If I have a part of a sentence that’s all-strung-together-like-this and Microsoft Word is counting it as one word, do you guys count it as one word too, or do you count each word in the strung together word?
And thanks for the happy birthday! My biggest quarrel with having lived two decades is that I can’t remember the first two and a half years of it…I feel shorted.
Hi! i was wondering what timezone the contest ends in? (like if i enter it before midnight on the 23rd here but you’re in a different timezone and its like 3am does my entry still count?)
Good question. We should have specified that. The time zone is Eastern Standard Time.
My first “paragraph” happens to be a conversation. It’s not one paragraph. It’s not three paragraphs. It’s all conveyed through dialogue. Is that a problem?
So long as your submission is within the word limit, 75-200 words, your submission is valid. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a paragraph.
Is there a set date for when the contest winner will be announced?
It is our goal to announce the contest winner by the second week of March.
Okay, thank you.