Great novel openings: the longlist
Judging the great novel openings competition has been entirely subjective. And with over 500 entries it’s also been a voyage of discovery. All entries were read and judged on 500 words alone. Where writers submitted a covering letter or additional information, this was ignored. I almost certainly have turned down work with commercial merit where the first 500 words aren’t reflective of the overall quality. However, this competition was designed to make writers think about the value of how important openings to novels are. If your opening isn’t up to it readers simply won’t get to the rest.
The judging criteria was “do I want to read on?” and whether I was disappointed to reach the end of 500 words without knowing what happened next.
The longlisted entries represent a wide variety of styles of writing and genres but all of them scored highly on “do I want to read on”.
Longlisted writers are:
C Hepworth-Wain
Margaret Piran
Jessica Patient
Stephanie Broadribb
Leigh Chambers
Eleanor Patrick
Ann Goodridge
Karen Marsh
Michael Monkhouse
Deborah Bryne O’Shea
Sue Tingey
Alexander Velky
Amy Spencer
Steve Jensen
Vicky Delderfield
Keelie Walker
Richard Masson
Tracey Emerson
Jane Taylor
Neil Colquhoun
Darren Topham
Debbie Kavanagh
Mike Chinn
Leona McPherson
Sophie Duffy
Daryl Sedore
Gary Dolman
Martin Wells
Derek Thompson
Congratulations to everyone on the longlist.
I will be rereading the longlisted entries in a couple of weeks with fresh eyes, so expect the shortlist announcement and winner around the beginning of September.
11 comments so far
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Thank you for a fabulous contest. Looking forward to the shortlist. Good luck everyone!
Thank you – I now feel wonderfully encouraged
Good luck all
Thank you, Kate.
Very best of luck, everyone.
Steve J.
Thank you Kate and best of luck to everyone
Jessica P.
Thanks for the idea, Kate – and the hard work. I’ll keep working on my opening! Well done, everyone.
J x
Well done everyone, it’s a great achievement and I can’t wait to read the winners entry.
Rachael
This is great news to end the week on!
Very flattered to see my name on this list regardless of the end result. Thanks for taking time to read them all.
xA
[...] this week I was completely thrilled when this week the opening 500 words of my novel was longlisted in literary agent Kate Nash’s competition. I may not get any further with the competition, [...]
Thank you so much, Kate. A great confidence booster. I’m on holiday in Canada at the moment and logging in as and when. Today is my birthday so this is a wonderful present. Look forward to seeing the shortlist.
Thank you Kate, I was delighted to see my name on the longlist.
The best of luck to everyone.