Preparing Your Entry for CNP?

Preparing Your First 5,000 Words and Synopsis for the Cheshire Novel Prize?

If you are thinking of entering CNP, we have provided some hints and tips below to help you to polish your entry. Remember, as we are the ONLY worldwide prize that offers feedback to every entry, you will get at least one paragraph of feedback specific to your entry, plus generic tips.

In addition, we offer:

1. A Top 100, 50, and 20.

2. A free 1.5 hour workshop for all of our Top 100 writers led by our founder editor and writer, Sara Naidine Cox - dates TBC

3. 1-1’s with our judges for all of our long-listed and shortlisted writers

4. A paragraph of feedback to everyone who enters ,plus helpful generic tips

5. £1000 prize money for the winner and £500 for Highly Commended

Entering a novel competition can feel both exhilarating and terrifying, especially when you’re submitting your opening pages for the first time. The Cheshire Novel has deliberately built a strong reputation for discovering compelling new voices and original stories. We have the highest ratio of listed writers to agented to publication of any prize. This is a prize run by writers for writers. We understand how much sacrifice is made to write a novel whilst holding down a full time job and juggling family etc and we realise how important your dream of being published is.

The good news? We are not looking for perfection. We are looking for confidence, clarity, originality and a story we cannot stop thinking about after we’ve finished reading. We always have six judges who work in the industry. Judges who are actively looking for new writers to sign and great stories to sell. Take a look at our judges’ writing tips and what they are looking for here:

https://cheshirenovelprize.com/judging-panel

Here are some helpful hints to make your entry as strong as possible:

Start Where the Story Starts

One of the most common mistakes in competition entries is beginning too early. Try not to spend ages warming up with backstory, scene-setting or explanations before the real story begins.

We want your opening pages to introduce a goal, tension, or a change in your character’s status quo quickly. Something should already be happening emotionally, physically or psychologically on the page from the get-go to hook us in.

Ask yourself:

• What changes for my protagonist in these opening pages?

• What’s at stake? What does the character want?

• What question can I imbed in the narrative that will make the reader keep turning the pages to find out the answer?

• Could I cut the first two pages and improve the pace?

Our judges read many entries back-to-back. A strong opening immediately signals that the writer understands narrative momentum. We want your story to be propulsive. We love cause and effect. We love to see this as the plot progresses. Instead of this happens and then this happens, we love this happens and then BECAUSE of this, this happens. We want to see the stakes for the characters immediately and feel propulsion building as the stakes escalate.

We Love a Distinctive Voice

Competitions are often won on voice rather than plot alone. A distinctive voice creates an instant connection between writer and reader. It doesn’t need to be loud or literary, it just needs to feel intriguing and authentic.

Try reading your first page aloud. Does it sound natural? Does it sound like your novel, rather than a version of somebody else’s?

Strong voice often comes from specificity:

• Close point of view” We want to think we are the character in the story and forget we are being told one. We see, hear, feel and experience everything the character(s) are feeling so we feel it too.

• Confident sentence rhythm and structure with varying lengths. Short sentences for tension and suspense and longer sentences to allow the reader to breathe and absorb description and atmosphere.

• Believable emotional reactions rather just physical ones. Rather than hearts hammering and pulses racing. We want to understand what the emotion feels like so the reader can imagine it.

• Original metaphors and similes. If you google these and they come up, they are not original. The best metaphors and similes are ones a writer conjures up on their own. Try to craft these to make them different.

Avoid trying to sound literary and overwriting. Try to tell your story as compellingly and succinctly as possible. We much prefer a simple story well told than beautiful writing that has no propulsion.

Introduce Character Through Action

Readers connect with characters by watching them make choices. Instead of telling us someone is anxious, ambitious or lonely, show us their behaviour that reveals those qualities naturally.

For example:

• What do they avoid?

• What do they notice?

• What do they lie about? What do they hide?

• What do they want in this scene?

Even small decisions and how the characters behave, can reveal brilliant insights into your characters and your story as a whole.

Create Immediate Stakes

The stakes in your opening do not need to involve murder, explosions or life-changing drama. Emotional stakes are just as important. What matters is that something feels significant to the character.

The reader should quickly understand:

• What the protagonist wants

• What /who stands in their way

• What are the consequences if they fail?

Whatever the genre, try to create a sense of tension, even if it’s only emotional tension to keep readers engaged.

The Synopsis

We use the synopsis after we have read the excerpt to make sure the novel has shape, direction and a satisfying development to the end of the novel and a resolution that feels earned. We never publish your synopsis even if you win the competition. We ask for a synopsis of 500 words only and it is not meant to showcase your writing.

A strong synopsis should:

• Be told in third Person. “When Sara discovers….”

• Clearly explain the central story

• Reveal the twists, turning points and ending with spoilers

• Demonstrate escalation and momentum of plot

• Show character growth and clear character arcs

• Only introduce the main characters who drive the story forward.

If possible, structure your synopsis around these specific paragraphs

1. A one paragraph hook/logline at the top …

“A flight attendant discovers a passenger dead in the toilet moments after take-off, but when the body disappears before she can alert the crew, she realizes the killer is still on board and may be framing her. Trapped at 35,000 feet with a plane full of suspects, she must uncover the truth before the flight lands, or she’ll become the prime suspect in a murder she didn’t commit.

2. The setup with the main characters introduced

3. The central conflict

4. The turning points/twists/reveals

5. The climax

6. The resolution

Polish Your Pages

Before submitting:

• Check your formatting carefully. Is it 1.5 spaced with 12 font

• Remove unnecessary exposition

• Tighten dialogue so it feels natural and moves the story on

• Cut repetitive description

• Watch for overused phrases or metaphors that are familiar

• Proofread for spelling and grammar

It can also help to print the pages out. Or send your pages to your kindle and read from there. Spelling mistakes are often easier to spot on paper than on screen. However, we are never not going to put your entry through if there are spelling mistakes so please don’t worry too much.

Remember We Are Hoping to Find Great Stories With Promise, Not Perfect Ones

Our judges are searching for stories that stay with us. They want a good story, well told, with a clear hook and inciting incident.

We love:

• Any genre except Children’s but we do accept YA. Over the years our listed writers have ranged from fantasy, historical fiction, romance, YA, horror, crime/thriller/Cozy mystery, Science Fiction/Dystopia. We put all genres through if we like the story.

• Emotional connection with the characters

• Compelling characters we want to stay with for 80,000 + words

• Narrative control through showing and not telling

• Originality of concept and a compelling hook

• Confidence and originality of voice on the page

We are not searching for flawless manuscripts. We are searching for promise. It does not have to be perfect.

Good luck and we cannot wait to read your work.

Kind regards,

Sara