Asking Hotate Shinkawa and Rinko Akiya: 'What to do before your debut and how to build a writer's career' #CreativeAward2024

"The Ex-Boyfriend's Last Will", with which Hotate Shinkawa debuted, has had its books adapted into dramas one after another, and her book released in April, "Women's National Diet", is already receiving a great response.

Rinko Akiya was discovered by Shinkawa-san in the "Creative Award 2023" and won the Bessatsu Bungeishunju Award, debuting with "What a Nurse Sees in Uzuki". This work was decided for a third printing less than two weeks after its release. It is a currently trending workplace novel.

At the event "The Trajectory of a Debut and a Writer's Career," where we invited the two of them, they talked about each other's works, the process leading up to their debuts, tips for applying to contests, and their careers as writers.

In this article, we will pick up and deliver the highlights of the event. If you are thinking of applying to "Creative Award 2024", please use this as a reference!

What I did before my debut, what you should do

Writing for the reader

--Akiya-san, you debuted with "What a Nurse Sees in Uzuki (hereafter, Uzuki)". The protagonist is Sae Uzuki, a nurse working in a long-term care ward. It is a workplace novel where she grows while resolving the "lingering regrets" of her patients. I heard that you revised it significantly for publication. What kind of advice did you get from Shinkawa-san?

Akiya-san (hereafter, Akiya)　I received a lot of advice from Shinkawa-san each time. She told me, "Since the ward is the setting and there are many sad scenes, it would be good to have scenes where the reader can take a breath," so I increased the interactions in the break room and added scenes of eating out.

Shinkawa-san (hereafter, Shinkawa)　It is important to create a safe zone for the reader, saying, "Nothing sad will happen in this scene." That is consideration for the reader. Akiya-san is writing properly for the reader. I thought it was great that the love for the reader comes through.

Do not write about professions you have not experienced based on imagination

--Akiya-san, you wrote "Uzuki" using the profession of a nurse that you experienced yourself. What were you conscious of when writing?

Akiya　I definitely wanted to include my attachment to the work, such as what stance I had when nursing. Also, I wanted to include the skin-level feeling that I could only know because I was there. Conversely, the parts I excluded were information that would remind people of actual patients. I was very conscious of chewing over what I had experienced once more within myself and creating fictional patients. Also, I was careful not to consume the patients' illnesses and deaths as "content." I was conscious of the balance between being considerate of delicate themes while making it interesting as an entertainment novel.

--Shinkawa-san, you also write works using your own experience as a lawyer, don't you?

Shinkawa　The merit of writing about a profession you have experienced is that you can write about that profession in a bad light. It's fine to have a corrupt lawyer appear. You can take the stance, "Since someone who has experienced it is writing it, it's fine to write it badly." Conversely, when writing about a profession you haven't experienced, some hesitation arises. It's better to interview if possible, rather than writing based on imagination. If you write based on imagination, you will usually be wrong.

If you want to debut, keep applying

--Please also tell us about your path to your debut, Shinkawa-san. I heard you originally attended a novel writing class.

Shinkawa　Yes. I thought it would be faster to be taught by someone, so I joined a class. I really like the novelist Miyuki Miyabe, so it was a place called the "Masao Yamamura Memorial Novel Course" that Miyabe-san attended. While attending the class, I continued to submit, and I debuted in my second year of submission life.

If you really want to debut, I think you should keep applying. I applied for 6 or 7 works before my debut. They didn't even pass the first round of selection, but I felt that my skills were improving, so I thought I would pass eventually. In fact, after that, I passed the first round of the "This Mystery is Excellent!" (Kono-Mis) Award and received the grand prize as it was.

Regarding awards, I am the type to study trends and countermeasures. Since the selection comments for "Kono-Mis" are published on the web, I read the winning works and their selection comments, and analyzed for myself what kind of works are sought after for this award.

What is the secret to entering a contest?

It is important to have many people read your work

──At the time the Creative Award 2024 submissions opened, Akiya-san published a note titled "10 things the 2023 Creative Award winners kept in mind when writing!", which received a great response. If you had to narrow these 10 points down to the 3 most important ones, what would they be?

Akiya: The first is 'I carefully considered the genre.' This time, I wrote about the theme of 'what it means for a person to live' in the 'workplace novel' genre, but I think there are others who would write about the same theme as a mystery or a romance novel. I think it is a strength to be able to judge for yourself which angle is best to write about what you want to write.

The second is 'Definitely finish it.' The biggest waste is the pattern of 'I couldn't finish writing it, so I couldn't apply.' Instead of aiming for a masterpiece from the start, I think it's better to focus on completing one work, even if it's short, with the strong feeling that 'I want to write this!'

The third is 'Be particular about the synopsis.' Having an 'interesting synopsis' means you understand the strengths and selling points of your work. The synopsis is important for capturing the reader's attention from the very first step.

Shinkawa: I also read your note, Akiya-san, and thought, 'This has such great things written in it!' I was especially impressed by your resolve to 'prepare to fight in the commercial world.' Usually, it's hard to make that kind of resolve. How were you able to make that decision?

Akiya: When the note team announced during last year's Creative Award that 'the number of likes will also be a benchmark for evaluation,' I became anxious that I might be cut based on the number of likes. But when I thought about it, the commercial world is a world of 'numbers' that is much harsher than the number of likes on note. If I wanted to go into the commercial world, I realized I had no choice but to be read, and my mindset changed completely.

Shinkawa: After all, you are writing because you find it interesting yourself. It is important to want many people to read it. No matter how much buzz it has, if the work isn't good, readers won't follow. Conversely, if the work is good, readers will definitely follow. It's painful to resolve to compete based on how interesting it is, but it's important. However, those are things you usually think about after your debut, so you are truly impressive for thinking about them from the time you submitted.

Read the application requirements carefully

──Shinkawa-san, do you have any advice for those applying to the contest?

Shinkawa: It goes without saying, but please read the application requirements carefully. No matter how interesting your work is, if it deviates from the requirements, it will not be eligible for judging.

Also, don't hold back; put all your passion into it. I think you should bet your life on your debut work. A debut is like a sprint. Please write it with the passion of someone sprinting 100 meters at full speed.

Building a career as a writer

It is important to write a lot while you are a newcomer

──'Uzuki' is your debut work, Akiya-san. Shinkawa-san, could you give some advice on what to do to make a debut work sell?

Shinkawa: It's to write and release a sequel as quickly as possible. When I debuted with 'The Testament of a Former Boyfriend,' I was under pressure to 'definitely make it sell,' so I thought about various things to make the content sell, and I also worked hard on media exposure. That was a good thing to do, but I think writing new work is more important than anything else. Conversely, there isn't much a writer can do other than write new work.

──Since your debut in 2021, you have published 9 novels and 1 essay collection, Shinkawa-san. 10 works in 3 years is an amazing pace, but how are you able to write so much?

Shinkawa　I decided to write a lot right after my debut. As a newcomer, I wouldn't improve unless I wrote a lot, and I thought it was an important time to do so. As I got better at writing, I sometimes felt that the works I wrote a little while ago were poor, but I had the mindset of releasing new works one after another so that I wouldn't care about that. I always had things I wanted to write, so I never ran out of ideas.

Akiya　I have something I'd like to ask Shinkawa-san. I think there is still a lot I can write about nursing and medicine, but when is a good time to write works in a different direction?

Shinkawa　Why don't you try a 'slight shift' while still writing nursing and medical stories? For example, when you have the opportunity to work with a new publisher, you could try writing a veterinary story. I think your range will expand if you shift little by little.

I debuted with a lawyer story and it sold well, so I received many requests for lawyer stories. But if I only wrote those, I would get bored, so I shifted slightly and wrote 'The Guardian of the Market,' which is set at the Japan Fair Trade Commission. It might be more advantageous in reality to make a slight shift rather than writing something completely different. Of course, if you want to write something completely different, I think it's worth a try.

Gather as much related material as possible and conduct repeated interviews

──Shinkawa-san's latest work, 'Women's Diet,' is a very substantial work, and I read it with great interest. While it involves legal aspects, the characters are politicians and policy secretaries, so I felt it was different from your previous works. I think this is a new challenge for you, Shinkawa-san. What was the inspiration for writing this work?

Shinkawa　It started when an editor asked me, 'Why don't you write about discrimination against women?' Discrimination against women is often discussed in connection with poverty issues, but what I have seen is a situation where women with high incomes and high social status are discriminated against in the workplace. This angle is not very common in the world, so I decided to write about the discrimination faced by high-career women. I thought that the highest-career women in Japan would be members of the Diet, so I decided to make it a story about the Diet. However, I didn't have any knowledge of the Diet, so I conducted repeated interviews. Before the interviews, I researched what I could on my own through books and the internet.

──Gathering materials and conducting interviews is also important.

Shinkawa　When writing about things you don't know, gathering materials is very important. When I want to write a novel on a new subject, I search for related keywords on Amazon and buy all the books that come up for now.

Regarding interviews, it is a high hurdle to ask people you don't know, but you can also ask through friends or interview each other among fellow creators. Wouldn't it be good to increase your collaborators close at hand?

Q&A about creation

Create a character chart and think about placement

──Next, I would like to answer questions from the viewers. Here is the first question: 'How do you reconcile what you have researched with materials and what you have conceived yourself?'

Shinkawa　How to balance that depends on the writer; some prioritize reality, while others prioritize entertainment. I prioritize entertainment, so I prioritize the fun of the development as entertainment and often change things significantly from the content of the materials. However, it is important that the author knows that 'this doesn't actually happen.' If you do that, you can write it in a way that says, 'It doesn't really happen often, but a rare thing happened,' so I think professionals might forgive you even if they read it.

──Here is the second question: 'How do you create your plots?'

Shinkawa　I don't create plots. If I don't actually start writing and have the characters talk to each other, I don't know what the characters will do next after that conversation. If I were to create a plot, I would have to make the characters talk at that stage, so I think it's faster to just write. How do you do it, Akiya-san?

Akiya　I write a rough development for each chapter. I create a more detailed character chart than a plot. I write everything in the character chart, including the age, birthplace, family structure, and why they chose this profession for almost all the characters. Shinkawa-san said that conversations between characters are born while writing, but for me, it's the opposite; when I look at the character chart, the characters start talking to each other.

Shinkawa　Akiya-san, you also think carefully about the placement of characters, and many characters are placed in a very well-balanced way. Do you think about that much at the stage of writing the character chart?

Akiya　I place the protagonist at the center and think about how each character relates to the protagonist. It's like a correlation diagram, with a good understanding friend of the protagonist, a senior who is close, a chief who listens to consultations, and a slightly scary head nurse.

Creation is a means to connect with the world outside of yourself

—Here is the third question: 'What is the joy of writing novels?'

Akiya I used to write just because I loved it, but upon debuting, I've come to think of novels as a form of communication. Being able to convey what I've written to so many people is an amazing thing, and also a bit scary, but I've recently started to feel that this is what makes it interesting.

Shinkawa I completely agree. It is communication with readers, and I also see it as a means to connect with a world outside of myself. By writing works and connecting with readers, I feel as though I am being saved from my own loneliness. I think that is the greatest thrill of writing novels.

—Thank you. Finally, could you please share a message for this year's Creative Award applicants and those aiming to become novelists?

Akiya I hope you will express the passion within you and put it into words. I am rooting for you. Good luck.

Shinkawa Having been involved as a judge last year, I thought this Creative Award was very open and had a great attitude of wanting to create new and interesting things one after another. So, for those who are wondering whether to submit or not, I think you should just go ahead and submit. I am rooting for you too.

(Titles omitted)

Speaker Profiles

Novelist | Hotate Shinkawa

Born in 1991. Born in Dallas, Texas, USA. Raised in Miyazaki City, Miyazaki Prefecture. After graduating from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law, she worked as a lawyer. She won the 19th 'Kono Mystery ga Sugoi!' Award and debuted in 2021 with 'Ex-Boyfriend's Last Will'. Her other books include 'Reiko Kenmochi's One-Night Deduction', 'The Competitor's Watchman', 'Ancestor Detective', 'Fictional Six Laws on Healthy Rebellion in Reiwa and Other Eras', and 'Cutting Ties is Fine!'. Her latest book is 'Women's Diet' (Gentosha).

X: https://twitter.com/hotate_shinkawa

Novelist | Rinko Akiya

Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1980. After graduating from Yokohama City University School of Nursing (now the School of Medicine, Department of Nursing), she worked as a nurse in a hospital ward for over 10 years. After retiring, she began publishing novels and essays on the media platform 'note'. In 2023, 'What Nurse Uzuki Sees' won the 'Bessatsu Bungeishunju Award' at the 'Creative Award 2023' hosted by note. This work is her debut.

note: https://note.com/rinko214
X: https://twitter.com/Rinko_Akiya

Japan's largest creative contest, 'Creative Award 2024', is now underway!

Currently, note is holding a contest called 'Creative Award 2024' that invites creative works of all genres. There are opportunities for book publication, film adaptation, and serialization from 21 media outlets! We are accepting submissions until Tuesday, July 23, in all 12 categories, including novels, essays, manga, recipes, and business.

Please see the special page for details.

▼ You can view the archives and articles of related events here.

text by Toshie Watanabe