Only Two Chapters Left!

When I was reading the top 10 this week, I couldn't believe how amazing they all were. Seriously. I was reading them and thinking, "Holy crap. These are fantastic! We have so many potential winners in here." So, congratulations to Shea for beating the tough competition. What impressed me most about the chapters was how well-paced they were. When we came up with the prompt, we knew it wouldn't be easy, considering the word limit (I know, you hate the word limit, but we had to do that — imagine if you got invites to read 30 stories and they were all 5,000 words long), but you all rose to the challenge. I also loved how different all the stories were this time and how you were careful about weaving in details from the previous chapters.

Even beyond the top 10, I could see a marked improvement and I loved the different choices you all made. Some choices made for humorous moments (like the character who just couldn't get Jane's name right) and others for different family dynamics (like Emily being helpful) — but they were all unique and made me even more excited about this contest and about reading future chapters. (I mean, not only is it fun, but you're all improving from week to week. How cool is that?)

So, close the window with this blog in it, please, and get back to writing already. And remember: Jane's story is almost over (only two chapters left!). But for our next winner the story could be just beginning.

Farrin Jacobs
Executive Editor, HarperTeen